Dubliners by James Joyce: book review

Dubliners (1914) is a collection of 15 short stories, commenced in 1904, finished by 1907, and published in 1914.

In this short story collection, James Joyce (1882-1941) starts with death in The Sisters and ends with death in The Dead. Father Flynn dies at the age of 65, experienced through the eyes of a young boy hearing two sisters describe his passing. The concluding story, The Dead, is considered to be one of Joyce’s masterpieces.

All stories, started when Joyce was 22 years old, are from his home town, his ‘dear dirty Dublin’, observant of the real lives of people in the city. It includes tales of the priesthood, schoolboy truancy, the bazaar, an international car race, Mrs Mooney’s boarding house, thoughts of places abroad, fatherhood, turbulence at home, a railway accident, the consequences of too much alcohol, motherhood, the annual dance, and a young man’s death.

Joyce masters the use of dialogue and attention to detail as he portrays everyday life, for all of its ills and hardships and all of its epiphanies and self-understandings. The juxtaposition of youth and age, and coming to terms with the advent of the next generation, depict different points of view and the changing times in Dublin, which makes this collection an interesting read.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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