For Irish Literature, Spring 2026

I read as part of my Irish Literature course back in February/March but have not until now set aside the time to write a proper review here! I loved this, of course. Working my way through even just a little bit of the Joyce oeuvre (Portrait, Dubliners) was such an incredibly enriching and rewarding experience. As an Irish-Catholic who attended Catholic school for the entirety of my primary and secondary years (and was very adjacent to a certain Jesuit high school and a certain Christian Brothers school in my home city), Joyce's observations about the minutiae of life in Catholic school and its influence on your psyche were perhaps my favorite parts of the novel (or, at least, the ones that resonated with me the most deeply). Joyce nailed the paranoia, obsessions and compulsions over one's morality, and the intense pendulum-swinging between decadence and asceticism that Catholic school engenders. It's both comforting and disconcerting that, over a century later, those forces are still at play.

Aside from the personal reasons, the prose was rich and beautiful and hit every single note I could possibly ask it to. I'm a convert to the Joycean compound. I miss Dublin so very much.