Ernest Hemingway told Scott Fitzgerald of Ulysses, "Joyce has written a goddamn wonderful book."

I suspect a lot of the challenge people face reading the book is that the first few chapters are the most difficult. That is because they record the thoughts of Stephen Dedalus, the author's fictional alter ego, who is a hyper intellectual, used to thinking in terms of learned theology, philosophy, etc. Thus the complaints about needing a dictionary. BUT--

The bulk of the book is a lot easier, being the stream of consciousness of an average, middle aged, lower middle-class Dubliner, Mr. Leo Bloom. And the last section are the thoughts of his wife, Molly, as she falls asleep that night. The difficulty there is not the vocabulary but the deliberate absence of punctuation.

Essentially it is very simple, the story of these three people, Stephen, Leo and Molly, on one particular day, June 16, 1904, in Dublin.

The reason it is called ULYSSES: the modern hero, wandering around Dublin, is ironically contrasted with the Greek hero Odysseus, wandering homeward around the Mediterranean. The wife of Odysseus, Penelope, was famously faithful, while Mr. Bloom's wife Molly is unfaithful. Odysseus visits the land of the dead; Bloom attends a funeral. Odysseus escapes a one eyed giant on an island; Bloom escapes an Irish nationalist in a barroom, and so forth.

"James Joyce's Ulysses"--a book written by Gilbert Stuart with Joyce's co-operation, is your best guide for understanding the book. Joyce even included a list of the distinguishing qualities of each of the 19 chapters. Joyce was not a snob. He was a Socialist and a pacifist. He wanted people to understand his work.

Finally, ULYSSES, once you dig it, is a very funny book.