Joyce follows Stephen Dedalus from infancy through school, religion, shame, aesthetic awakening.

The language matures as he does. Through nursery rhythm he matures to sermon, then argument, suddenly declaration. As with a lot of the literature around this time, Catholicism presses in. Ireland presses in. Family, nation, expectation all close around Stephen as he goes on. The artist must decide what to refuse in order to exist.

For readers interested in modernism, formation narratives, exile, the cost of thinking for oneself.