“Real adventures do not happen to people who remain at home. They must be sought abroad.”

A collection of short stories about the lives of middle & working class Irish citizens centered in and around Dublin. Joyce’s bits begin with tales of children and progress nonlinearly through adult circumstances to a final tale titled “The Dead.”

Each vignette is loosely formatted around some form of realization, though most of the realizations are subtle. There isn’t necessarily an ending to every piece, and that’s okay. The Joyce Universe, much like our universe, is short on epiphanies and long on social paralysis. Many of the conundrums of 1914 Dubliners are still familiar and relatable.

I find Joyce to be more palatable if I read him out loud with an Irish accent. Not crazy Irish like Colin Farrell or the Lucky Charms leprechaun, but articulate and controlled like Cillian Murphy or maybe Chris O’Dowd.