Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce: The title pretty much explains it all—story about a young boy in Dublin who grows up to be a writer—like Joyce, at the end of the book he leaves Ireland, vowing to never return. Each chapter is written in a different style which reflects the boy's age, getting gradually more sophisticated as he gets older. The boy's alternating attraction to and rebellion against Irish Catholicism resonates very strongly with me. The third chapter, when teenaged Stephen is horrified by a vivid sermon about Hell and later runs to a priest at night to confess his sins, is incredible. It turned Mark Rothko and Samuel Beckett into life-long atheists, and turned Walker Percy into a life-long Catholic. Flannery O'Connor, another Catholic, said reading this chapter was one of the most important religious experiences in her life.
(from Chap 3) He knelt in the silent gloom and raised his eyes to the white crucifix suspended above him. God could see that he was sorry. He would tell him all his sins. His confession would be long...But God had promised to forgive him if he was sorry. He was sorry. He clasped his hands and raised them towards the white form, praying with his darkened eyes, praying with all his trembling body, swaying his head to and fro like a lost creature, praying with whimpering lips.
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