The 'Bloomsday Book' is not a line-by-line commentary, and thank heaven! It is aimed at the first-time reader who, though intelligent enough to stumble through the extraordinary and complex work of art that is Ulysses without total failure, yet is lost enough to want a brief and acute summary of both the literal events of the plot and some of the deeper significances. Indeed, as many reviews have complained, Blamires's criticism may be a little dated, but it certainly is interesting to read and is often quite insightful; no-one is compelling you to accept all his interpretations, and the summary, aside from the criticism, is quite reason enough to acquire this book to accompany a first reading of Ulysses for someone who is not already a Joyce scholar. I used Blamires in a seminar on Ulysses in the semester past, and found it invaluable: I found it very satisfactory to begin with a swift but not careless reading of a chapter, then to read Blamires's summary, then to go through it again slowly, this time making notes. No-one should go his life without reading Ulysses; and 'The New Bloomsday Book' is an excellent way of making the novel accessible to those who are at first frightened off.

While the author purports to be objective in his presentation, this guide is permeated with his biases and distortions. The book is useful in deciphering details appearing in "Ulysses", but Blameres constantly interjects with personal interpretations of the material. This is not useful for the reader who seeks to understand - it does enable those who seek to rationalize James Joyce's bizarre, cultist novel.

This book is available for $39 at the Seminary Coop Bookshop (they ship anywhere and have a terrific website).

I like the Bloomsday guide because it helps the reader understand Ulysses. It is good to see crossreferences and interpretations. He is very strong on religious symbolism, but Blamires helps get through the book Ulysses.

This book is an excellent example--if not THE example--of why literary criticism exists; it is a concise but amazing classic. I was first introduced to it in college and today I just read it for the third time. Its pages enhance Ulysses and in no way detract from the art and beauty of the most complex and scholarly book ever published (in my humble opinion). Blamires is a serious man who wastes few words or sentences in his sterling discussion and recapitulation of Joyce's masterpiece. His narrative features extraordinary erudition, yet it is quite readable. Nowadays, most people are not familiar with the intricacies of Latin, Greek, and the symbols of Christianity, but Blamires makes such mysteries obtainable. The effect of his analysis is to magnify both our enjoyment and our education. Literary criticism, in this new millennium, seems to be about everything other than the text with its omnipresent, and opaque, references to the troika of class, gender, and race. Luckily, Blamires is above all forms of trendiness and non-sense. The Bloomsday Book brings us closer to the truths James Joyce meant for us to discover, and there is no better service with which the author could have provided.

I took Ulysses as part of a course, and The New Bloomsday Book was a tremendous help in my enjoying Ulysses.

I read up to the Cyclops episode without Blamires, and, though I was basically comprehending the book, I was losing a lot of the significance of what I was reading.

My practice from there on in was to read the episode, read Blamires's guide for that episode, and then read the episode again - a bit tedious, you might think, but Joyce is all in the details and the repeated reading.

There are some arguments against having a guide: clearly, part of the reason for Joyce's style was to disorient the reader, to make the reader work, to make the reader give up the dream of total comprehension, of "licking up the cream of thought", to use the phrase of Joyce's protege, Beckett.

On the other hand, why torture yourself! If you read it concurrently with Ulysses, episode by episode, it really doesn't ruin anything plotwise (there's not much plot to speak of!), but it opens up a the world of significant details that otherwise might have passed you by.

I say Blamires accomplishes what he says he aims to do: to reveal the significance of details of Ulysses' on the first read that would normally only come to be seen on a second or third read through.

A first reading of Ulysses is much more enjoyable without the blather of Blamires. If you absolutely cannot grasp the intricacies, sybmols, themes, etc. of Ulysses without outside help then read the cliffs notes of sparknotes or if you are devoted then get Gifford's Ulysses annotated. Blamires provides either too much information in some instances or not enough. The book has too much plot transcription and not enough GOOD (and up to date) analysis (he relies on readings of Ulysses by 1940s critics and not upon more recent scholarship and trends). Blamires tells toooooo much in the beginning. He prejudices the reader to think about or know certain things that he or she should only know as they are revealed by the author. For example, Blamires gives a bias to the reader by making him or her believe that Molly has been unfaithful many times before. Yes there is a list of former lovers in Ithaca (I think it's Ithaca) but most scholars believe that Molly's tryst with Blazes is her first. You don't need an "authority" to guide you through one of the greatest novels. Simply pick up Joyce and begin reading. To get the same effect of reading Ulysses with Blamires, just read Ulysses twice--it's much better the second time anyway!
(Another more pragmatic reason for not buying it is that the price of this book is at least double Ulysses--not worth the mostly hum-drum plot summary.)

This isn't exactly a work of criticism, and certainly not a "Cliff notes" guide to Ulysses: it's somewhere in the middle.

It's basically a paraphrase of Joyce's novel, roughly 260 pages, which tells the story of Bloomsday in plain language. So it's basically an understandable version of the novel in straightforward, unclouded prose.

It is not strictly a paraphrase, however, as now and then Blamires will tell you what is supposed to symbolize what. But it certainly doesn't list the characters or themes of "Ulysses" in any organized way, and there is no extended commentary.

Provided you understand this, the book can be immensely useful -- especially on your first reading of "Ulysses."

I should note that those who already have their sea legs with Joyce's book will, for this very reason, find Blamires's effort to be of limited use, for it largely tells a story you already know.

I am still digesting "Ulysses." I read it while walking around Dublin a few years ago. It was marvelous to trace the steps of Leopold and Molly, and to see what they "saw," but the novel remains a distant pleasure to the reader. I must admit it is not the most accessible book ever written, but it gets four stars for its intent ... and that it is better than "Finnegan's Wake." Be warned: This novel is not for the casual reader. This is one of several excellent accompaniments to "Ulysses" and well worth the price and the time to explore the various perspectives of Joyce and this seminal work.