Ulysses -- Circe and Eumaeus

I'm going to skip over the "Oxen of the Sun" episode, because I find I don't have so much to say about it, except that it's really great, and is probably tied with "Cyclops" for favorite.

With that bit of fanboy gushing out of the way...
This time through Ulysses, I found "Circe" and "Eumaeus" to be the most painful to read/listen to.  "Circe" of course is well-known to be very difficult, but "Eumaeus" is typically considered an easy read.  At the end of Circe, we and Bloom emerge with a sense of triumph.  We readers have conquered a very difficult section of prose, and Bloom has (for now) come to terms with his dead son, his feelings of inadequacy, and so on, and is prepared to move on and extend a helping hand to Stephen.

We readers know that Stephen has been searching for a father-figure, and also that he needs a bit of prodding to put his life on the right path.  Bloom, on the other hand, wants a son and is searching for a connection to someone he can talk to.  Both are outcasts.  Bloom is an intellectual in his way (mostly on the scientific side), while Stephen is an intellectual in a more ivory-tower way, but it seems like they could find some common ground.

Instead, though, we find in "Eumaeus" mis-step after mis-step.  Bloom hears the sailors' Italian and says it's a beautiful language; Stephen tells him they're just haggling over money.  Bloom calls Stephen an orthodox catholic, when he's anything but.  Bloom, trying to find something to talk about, says that Stephen's father is proud of him -- he could hardly pick a worse conversation-starter.  Stephen for his part is drunk, but on top of that is a bit of jerk.

Also, it may just be the narrator of the version I'm listening to, but this time around I really agree with Kenner's suggestion that the voice in "Eumaeus" is Bloom's.  All of his circumlocutions, his infelicities that pop up from time to time in the narrative are brought to the forefront, and we feel a bit embarrassed for him.  Bloom really isn't much of a raconteur, and he tends to wander off the subject, and it's easy to see why others aren't very friendly to him, aside from their anti-semitic tendencies.