Stuarts Pick Of The Month...July.

Stuart’s pick this month is….James Joyce’s ‘Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’.

Never heard of it? Not surprised, those who have read it have either never bothered to relive the horrendous experience or have literally died of boredom whilst reading it.

Put simply it is a novel about a young man growing up in 19th century Ireland, in a highly religious Catholic family that sends him off to boarding school, which he hates (surprise ,surprise!) and his journey of self discovery after his family goes broke and he moves to Dublin to become a writer….blah, blah.

It is your typical poor bugger me 19th Century Irish hardship novel, which I might add worked fantastically well for Frank Mc Court, but not for dear old James Joyce. The difference between the two? Mc Court makes his story not only heart breakingly real but interesting and relatable. Joyce on the other hand, despite being a highly celebrated author, does no such thing.

It is true suffering to have to read this book beyond page 1, let alone endure the entire thing, (which I had to do in Year 11)

Read it or Not? Unless you are a complete masochist or you need to enter into a coma, don't bother. Stuart gives this one a well earned 5 skulls out of 5 for being possibly the most incredibly boring book in history...