Y’all Read This?

Translation by Emily Wilson The Odyssey is a chaotic road trip full of Gods, grief, weeping men, and extremely bad travel companions. Osysseus is out here crying on a beach for seven years while cheating on his wife , getting magically roofied by Circe, and yelling his real name at monsters like an idiot. Telemachus just wants some dad closure, but keeps getting roped into cow sacrifices and weird baths. And Athena? The only one with a plan. QUEEN behavior. Homer said: "Let's explore the emotional fallout of war, divine meddling, and fragile masculinity... but make it epic." Also: Why is everyone always crying?? Is this a Greek tragedy or a Nicholas Sparks novel? Bonus: Surprisingly feminist moments from Calypso and Helen. Less bonus: The suitors, who are actual human garbage. It's drama. It's vibes. It's ancient trauma. And yeah, I did read it while also reading Ulysses, so my brain is soup now. Same soup, different spoons. Overall Rating:  ★★★★☆ Enjoyment:  ...

I read this book as part of a Buddy Read, which turned into a tandem read with The Odyssey . It was indeed "an odyssey"... Book Vibe:  Feral raccoon in a trash can Characters:  Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom, Marion "Molly" Bloom, Malachi "Buck" Mulligan, Mr. Garret Deasy Reading Ulysses felt like being dropped in the middle of someone else’s brain and told, “good luck, kid.” It’s messy, brilliant, frustrating, funny, and gross. Sometimes all in the same paragraph. Stephen Dedalus broods. Leopold Bloom buys kidneys, carries soap forever, and quietly aches his way through Dublin. Molly Bloom gets the last word, and it’s glorious. In between, there are pints, puns, death, lust, racism, nationalism, boogers, birth, absurdity, and about a million narrative experiments that either left me in awe or completely lost. Joyce can make you laugh at the bleakest things, cringe at how human his characters are, and then, in one unexpected line, punch you straight in the...

This started as a Buddy Read of Ulysses with friends, and devolved into mania. Here are the notes and ramblings... Ulysses Episode 18 – Penelope I made it! I crawled through maternity wards, interrogations, and every soap-related trauma Joyce could throw at me, and now here I am, closing the book with Molly Bloom. And wow. This was such a shift in energy. After all those structured, stylized episodes, we get Molly: unfiltered. It was funny, bitter, sensual, sharp, contradictory, and deeply human. I can’t decide exactly how I feel about Molly now, but I think I like her a lot. She’s flawed, magnetic, unapologetically herself, and I loved finally hearing her without Bloom’s filter. And that ending: "yes I said yes I will Yes" After more than 800 pages, it feels like a heartbeat. Like life itself. I wasn’t expecting it, but I’m feeling SUPER emotional right now. Like I just crossed a finish line I didn't know I was reaching for. YES. I FINISHED. YES! Would I do it again? …As...

  This started as a Buddy Read of Ulysses with friends, and devolved into mania. Here are the notes and ramblings... Ulysses Episode 15 – Circe (Did we just mainline absinthe and fear?) I don’t know why, but this line got me: Paddy Leonard:  "What am I to do about my rates and taxes?" Bloom:  "Pay them, my friend." I laughed WAY too hard, for WAY too long. Beyond that? WHAT is going on!? Are we in an acid trip? Did someone spike the Guinness? Is this a weird, masochistic Bloom kink-spiral or just a psychological freefall? And wow… this chapter is SO long. Long enough that I started wondering if I was hallucinating along with Bloom and Stephen. This might be the most bizarre episode so far. It’s chaotic, exhausting, disturbing, and funny all at once, and I kind of respect Joyce for going full subconscious meltdown here. But also: Joyce, my guy, what are you even on!? The Odyssey: Book 13 Well… it’s kind of rude to punish people for helping travelers, but I guess I’m...

This started as a Buddy Read of Ulysses with friends, and devolved into mania. Here are the notes and ramblings... Ulysses Episode 14 – Oxen of the Sun Alright, so I had to go and look this up, because while I could feel something wild was happening stylistically, I didn’t quite have the words for it... Turns out, this chapter doesn’t just take place in the maternity hospital, it is a kind of birth. Joyce is mimicking the gestation and development of the English language itself. From what I found:  "Joyce mimics the evolution of prose from ancient Latin-style sentences through medieval, Renaissance, 18th-century, Romantic, and Victorian styles—ending in chaotic slang, pub talk, and crude parody." This is just… brilliant , honestly. The way the form mirrors the content? It might actually be my favorite chapter so far. The Odyssey: Books 7–8 | “Welcome to the Weird Olympics” I know these books don’t sync directly with Ulysses in the Tandem Read, but honestly, they are totally w...

This started as a Buddy Read of Ulysses with friends, and devolved into mania. Here are the notes and ramblings... Episode 13: Nausicaa 🫣  I came for the literary ... no, I don't really know what I came for. I do know I expected difficult syntax, symbolic layers, and internal monologues. What I did not expect… was Bloom… behind a rock… at the beach… while fireworks exploded… 👀 and a woman named Gerty showing him her ankle like it was some sacred rite of flirtation. This episode is... well... it’s funny. It’s icky. It’s bold. It’s disorienting. It’s... Joyce? 🔥 And then, buried in the voyeuristic mess, this fantastic line: "Think you’re escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home." I feel like I'm in a fever dream. I really felt like I related to the last lines... "...and she noticed at once that that foreign gentleman that was sitting on the rocks looking was Cuckoo Cuckoo Cuckoo" This chapter was harder to read than I expec...

This started as a Buddy Read of Ulysses with friends, and devolved into mania. Here are the notes and ramblings... Ulysses Episode 12 – Cyclops Pub. Pints. Propaganda. Whew... Welcome to Barney Kiernan’s, where the stout is strong, the opinions stronger, and the patience very, very thin. This chapter felt like sitting in the back of a bar while someone shouts half-remembered history at you, throws out every Irish reference possible, and occasionally veers into full-on hate speech. Bloom remains... Bloom. Thoughtful, weird, human. The Citizen? 👹 Unhinged nationalist energy. Loud, aggressive, and not above lobbing anti-Semitic nonsense mid-Guinness. And good grief, there are so many lists. Names, saints, animals, titles, whatever Joyce felt like tossing in. Some of it was genuinely funny. Some of it was exhausting. I may have... skimmed the rather longer, blustery ones. 🧼 Shoutout to Bloom, still somehow soft-spoken and holding his ground while surrounded by loudmouths and literal thre...

This started as a Buddy Read of Ulysses with friends, and devolved into mania. Here are the notes and ramblings... Ulysses, Episode 11 – Sirens Mood : Musical innuendo, brass farts, and Bloom’s repressed libido Quick Vibe Check: This episode is basically “Leopold Bloom, This Is Your Brain on Lust,” set to a pub piano and filtered through a fever dream of puns, echoes, and rhythm. I actually listened to this episode while working, and felt... kind of icky. Everything is suggestive and nothing is confirmed, except that Bloom absolutely hears sex in the air and just keeps... ordering food. Odyssey Book 12 Honestly? I’m done with the double standards. This entire book is a masterclass in emotional overreaction... from the men. Odysseus is out here trying to keep the crew alive, but Eurylochus? Sir Whines-a-Lot. "It’s too hard! We’re hungry! Wahhh!" My guy, you were literally told not to touch the sacred cows, and what do you do the second Dad takes a nap? Throw a barbecue. Un...

  This started as a Buddy Read of Ulysses with friends, and devolved into mania. Here are the notes and ramblings... Ulysses Episode 9 – Scylla and Charybdis Thoughts, in the spirit of this episode's progression: Good → Better → Best Good : Stephen delivers a whirlwind Shakespeare theory.... he’s all in, trying to define genius through suffering and art. Better : Nobody in the room actually buys it. Including Stephen himself. BEST : Buck Mulligan rolls in just in time to roast him, proving once again that even a twat can land a punchline. Ulysses  Episode 10 - Wandering Rocks 🧠 So, basically, everyone, is... doing something. Got it. Sort of.  Father Conmee, walking and judging everything ... but.... mildly. Blazes Boylan, gearing up for his booty call with Molly Bloom. Molly Bloom’s daughter Milly, via a letter. Simon Dedalus, Stephen’s dad, scrounging around Dublin. Tom Kernan, drunk and coughing. Buck Mulligan, still being a smarmy prick. Bloom himself, briefly. Even t...

This started as a Buddy Read of Ulysses with friends, and devolved into mania. Here are the notes and ramblings... Ulysses Episode 8 - Lestrygonians: The Lunch Episode Men are Gross (Confirmed): This whole chapter is a sensory assault tied closely to men, consumption, and physicality. Bloom finds it revolting. Honestly, same. The Soap Returns (Yes, Still!): Yep. He still has the lemon soap in his pocket. Racism & Social Observations: Unfortunately, there’s casual antisemitism and other racist language in this chapter, often voiced by others but sometimes woven into Bloom’s own internalized fears. It’s ugly, and it’s clearly meant to be, no matter the rhyme scheme. Joyce clearly doesn’t sanitize the thoughts of his characters. Odyssey Book 10: Cannibal Giants and Circe Shenanigans Men? Still Gross. Seriously, between the cannibal giants and the endless poor decision-making, I’m once again left asking: how did humanity survive this long? I accidentally read ahead into the Circe bit...

This started as a Buddy Read of Ulysses with friends, and devolved into mania. Here are the notes and ramblings... Ulysses Episode 6 – Hades (aka: Four Men in a Carriage, Processing Mortality... Kinda) 🧃 Standout Quote: "Rattle his bones. Over the stones. Only a pauper. Nobody owns." It’s bleak. It’s bitter. It’s exactly the kind of thing someone thinks when they’re trying not to feel grief too deeply. ✨ My Take: Honestly? This chapter made more sense than the previous ones. Either I’m acclimating to Joyce’s crazy-talk, or funerals just hit different. The men gossip like judgmental aunties, Bloom broods quietly in the corner, and everyone pretends they aren’t terrified of dying. 🧼 Wait… Why is Bloom still carrying that soap? Odyssey Book 11 – Underworld Vibes Well. That was... a weird, moody, borderline incestuous parade of the dead. Honestly, it felt like Homer handed Odysseus a VIP pass to the Ancient Greek Trauma Con. Also: shout-out to Agamemnon, who’s still salty from ...

This started as a Buddy Read of Ulysses with friends, and devolved into mania. Here are the notes and ramblings... Ulysses: Episode 5 – “Lotus Eaters” (aka: Sex Letters, Soap, and the Stream-of-Consciousness Slip n’ Slide) We follow Bloom as he: ➡️ Picks up a letter from his not-wife, Martha that's kind of flirty. Kind of sad. Kind of ew . --- seriously, who is Martha? ➡️ Goes to the chemist for Molly’s ladies ' items + some suspiciously sensual soap ➡️ Sits in a church (but not for church) ➡️ Daydreams about sex → religion → bodily functions → death → advertisements → back to sex. All while… not really doing anything. (More) Characters to Remember: ✨ Martha Clifford – the mysterious letter writer. (side note: In Episode 4, I thought she was maybe a sweet young pen pal. Now? That letter is very not-rated-for-daytime.) At one point during a particularly gruesome inner thought, I had to stop and ask: Wait… is that necromancy? Necrophilia?? The answer: neither. It's just Blo...

This started as a Buddy Read of Ulysses with friends, and devolved into mania. Here are the notes and ramblings... Ulysses:  Episode 3 Musings... because if Broody McBroodington can space out, so can I... 🧠 "He laid the dry snot picked from his nostril on a ledge of rock, carefully. For the rest let look who will." 😯 Stephen, who just spent pages slogging through ancient philosophy, metaphysical pondering, poetic musing, and memories of loss, carefully placing a booger on a rock is sending me. I mean, sure. I was just dragged through a metaphysical brain-melt, why not end with something revolting.... "For the rest let look who will." Am I right? I'll be honest, I really don't know what happened. But, whatever, I guess?" The Odyssey, Book 4: The Soap Opera Continues (aka “Dinner’s not over until someone drugs the wine”) Um, we’re just casually doing drugs after dinner now? Way to not feel your feelings, Helen. Wait… did they even drink it? Stephen vs. ...

This started as a Buddy Read of Ulysses with friends, and devolved into mania. Here are the notes and ramblings... Ulysses: Episode 2 "History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake chef's kiss. easily one of the more powerful lines so far. Broody McBroodington's vibe in this chapter seems more cerebral than broody, but still haunted. 🧠 Mr. Pompous Deasy = The Worst What a condescending blowhard. His smugness is insufferable even before he starts ranting about the Jews, and then it’s just flat-out disgusting. There’s always someone, isn’t there? Joyce doesn’t seem to be endorsing it (thankfully), but he is holding up a mirror to this kind of everyday bigotry. It’s gross. 🔁 Echoes of Book 2 of The Odyssey I think Stephen mirrors Telemachus here - both trying (and mostly failing) to be taken seriously. Tele can't catch a break from the elders (or the icky suitors) and Broody teaches disinterested kids and is patronized by Greasy Deasy. Same energy, different ni...

This started as a Buddy Read of Ulysses with friends, and devolved into mania. Here are the notes and ramblings... Ulysses: Episode 1 (Telemachus) Characters to Remember: ✨ Stephen Dedalus (moody, intellectual protagonist) - young writer / philosopher / teacher burdened by guilt, grief (loss of his mother), and artistic ambition. ✨ Buck Mulligan (loud, witty?, flamboyant) - med student, Stephen's roomie (ahem freeloader) ✨ Haines (staying with these 2) - annoying imperialist friend who wants to ""understand your culture""; had a gun-related hallucination the night before and freaked out S.D. (is this important??) ✨ The ... Milk Woman? - I guess she's supposed to be representative of... tradition and the working poor, but I don't have a good grasp on that interaction. Maybe I'm not smart enough for that one. What's Going On: Honestly, I have no idea - we've got a mock mass... a brooding, resentful protagonist... and a walk to the sea, endin...