Dubliners

Mar 28, 2018
3 min read

How I came across this book: In search of my childhood memories of Ireland

Favorite Line from the book:

If you wanted to succeed you had to go away. You could do nothing in Dublin.

His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.

Some of my best childhood memories are from Ireland. I was trying to relive some of my memories of 1980’s when I picked up Dubliners. In stark contrast to my experience, Ireland was not such a happy place some hundred years ago. ‘Dubliners’ is set in the late nineteenth century, only a few decades after the potato famine in Ireland. You can feel the tone and background of oppressive colonial culture, poverty, struggles of middle class, mundane day to day life, and the grievances in the Irish culture against the English in the book.

James Joyce is revered in Ireland and considered one of the most notable writers of the twentieth century. I was quite excited when I picked up his book. However, the book left me depressed. It was a real struggle to finish the book - not because it was any average or boring book. On the contrary, it is probably one of the finest pieces of literature I have read. The depth of the Irish culture is so deeply ingrained in this book that I had to refer to google on multiple occasions to understand what Joyce meant. It was hard to escape from the gloomy reality of the 19th century Ireland under the rule of Britain. In the 21st century, we are often told that we can achieve anything we want; we make our own destiny; the harder we work, the luckier we get…. We forget what the world really was hundred years ago. James Joyce reflects the harsh truth of an Irish life because of the poverty and lack of resources. Unlike the current era, most Irish could not do anything about it.

The book is divided into fifteen chapters. At first, it appears that these are unconnected fifteen stories with no real message, but the genius of Joyce’s writing can only be appreciated when you explore deeper. Each chapter represents a different life stage of a person, from an adolescent till old age. Each chapter reflects Irish culture from a different perspective – the poor, the middle class, and the rich. Each chapter has a different story and yet connected somehow. No matter what the age or the social class, fulfillment, and happiness was always foreign to Dubliners in the nineteenth century. Marriage was based on social class and public perception, than feelings. Maddening routine and daily repetition was an expected part of a mundane Irish life. Many characters in Dubliners experienced epiphanies on multiple occasions, but never had the courage or will to do anything about it.

Joyce was indeed a genius, and he never stopped believing in himself. ‘Dubliners’ was rejected 18 times by the publishers after they finally accepted to publish it. Unlike the characters in his story, Joyce never gave up. IRA led the Irish war of independence in 1919 against the British. The situation changed dramatically after Ireland became the Republic of Ireland in 1949. I loved feeding the hungry swans at the Lough in Cork every Sunday evening. I loved riding the kiddie trains outside the supermarket. While I did not find any of the joys of my childhood memories in ‘Dubliners,’ I loved learning so much about the history and culture of this beautiful country with great folks.