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Finally finished today. I have to say, I'm pretty much in agreement with comments I've read here. I actually like prosaic writing which is probably why I've liked most of the Scottish authors I've read. Stark is not usually a problem for me.
However, these stories lacked a little something. Maybe it was because I was also disconnected from the time they were written in. But I think it was mainly because there was not much to chew on in the end. Most of the stories just passed me by with nice writing - but not much else to keep them in my mind.
I did like Evaline though as I think that one more successfully grabbed my attention. The last story just seemed to waffle far too much for me to tie it together in my head. It seemed like a jumble of points that started to materialise but were then superceded by others. It almost felt like the author couldn't work out what point he was trying to make. Obviously, I'm wrong about that, but that's how it read to me.
There were a couple of stories which really fell completely flat for me. One of them was Grace. That was just a gasp of nothingness to me. I think Ivy Day in the Committee Room might have meant more to me if I understood the political history to which it refers. It's obviously a bitch about the state of affairs, but unfortunately, because of my ignorance, it just ended up being words.
Mother was OK I guess, but I just ended up agreeing with the mother even though the outcome was a poor one. I have a feeling I was supposed to find against her - but I just didn't.
I'm glad I read this - mainly because I've never read any Joyce. However, I didn't see anything that made me want to try his more challenging works.
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