Shabbat Reading: James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

#whatireadovershabbat James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916; Modern Library, 1996)

There’s no Künstlerroman more famous than this—no story of an artist’s coming of age more widely regarded. It’s a hypnotic, dazzling read. Still, if you ask me, Stephen Dedalus is far more exasperating than famously hated Holden Caulfield. What redeems Stephen from mere annoyance is his anguish over Ireland, the terrorized country that birthed him, which he can’t forsake but has to leave. Sometimes to love where you come from, you need to get away.