Joyce, James. The Portable James Joyce: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Viking Press, 1981.
Reason read: James Joyce was born on February 2nd. He and I share the same birth date. I also needed a book for the 2024 Portland Public Library Reading Challenge in the category of a book someone you know did not like. Portrait was an easy choice. Not many people like Joyce.
Stephen Dedalus, being James Joyce’s alter ego, is a study in personal and spiritual growth. The subtext is one of sexual awakening; a coming of age, if you will. Stephen navigates life with contradictory moments of trepidation and vigor. He believes that in order to be a great artist one needs to suffer for the art. A self imposed exile and abandonment of family is critical for success. Not unlike Joyce’s own journey to becoming an accomplished author.
The trick to reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is to not take every sentence as gospel. Every detail is not going to be on some final exam. Read Joyce like you are on an acid trip. Tiptoe across the run-on sentences and uber microscopic details and you will be just fine. If it helps, Joyce was experimenting with different ways to write literature. They didn’t always make sense.
Lines I liked, “He wanted to meet in the real world the unsubstantial image which his soul so constantly beheld” (p 77), “Pride and hope and desire like crushed herbs in his heart sent up vapours of maddening incense before the eyes of his mind” (p 335).
Author fact: Joyce’s full name was James Augustine Aloysius Joyce.
Book trivia: The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was adapted into a film in 1977.
Playlist: “Lily of Kilarney”, “O, Twine Me a Bower”, “Bluest Eyes and Golden Hair”, and “The Groves of Blarney”.
Nancy said: Pearl called Joyce an influence on all other Irish writers.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapters called “Irish Fiction” (p 125) and “100 Good Reads, Decade By Decade: 1910s (p 175).
~*LunaSea*~ 
Not many people take the time to understand Joyce’s art. I invite you to my website to read my essays about the stories collected in Dubliners. I think you might particularly like the story “Eveline” and “Araby.” One section of the book is dedicated to coming of age stories. After you do contact me at my website and tell why you did or didn’t like the story and why. I’ll answer any questions you need answered while you are reading too. enJoyce! Don Ward https://JamesJoyceReadingCircle.com and Finishing Ulysses.