In the past year or so, I have been feeling a lingering fatigue with the indignant, in-your-face identity politics that seems to be present in many of the new books that cause a stir in bookshops and on social media. I suppose this is an extension of the societies they emerge from. My experience reading these books is sometimes a sense of suffocation; it’s so forceful that it doesn’t leave me with the mental space to reflect on the ideas and questions raised for myself. I don’t want to mention specific books, but I remember reading a book not so long ago that I really wanted to enjoy, but I had to put up a bit of a fight to do so while being hit by quite brash claims of injustice after injustice as the chapters passed by.

When I started listening to Dubliners, the contrast was stark. Set in early 20th Century Dublin, this is no doubt a book that tackles the social, political and economic concerns of its time and encourages the reader to do the same. But that is not its story. Rather, it tells of the emotional struggle of a young woman being forced to choose between her gentle fiancé and ungrateful but dependent father; of the moral missteps that lead a young man to a meaningless life and ruin; of the adventure of two young boys playing truant and discovering a darker side to their city. It is intimate, emotional and thought-provoking. Each story ends leaves the reader quietly touched and full of questions about life and the choices we make as we move through it.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the element that took this book to another level for me and that was the audiobook narration by Irish actor, Jim Norton. Joyce’s dialogue is already alive with character, wit and a great deal of Irish colloquialisms and Norton did it complete justice with his ability to switch effortlessly between accents, characters and emotion. The whole experience was a pleasure and fully immersed me in each story.

Note: James Joyce’s Ulysses was banned in Ireland for some time due to “blasphemy”. As I am not deeply familiar with the context of the stories in Dubliners, I can’t pretend to understand all the references, so this review is on that basis and not a blanket approval of all his beliefs (not that any other review would fall under that description either)!