One thing to remember is that just because something is labeled as great or classic, it doesn't mean that you will necessarily find it so. Like others have said, it is important to note that at one time a lot of these "great works" were revolutionary ideas that upset or enamored quite a lot of people. At the end of the day, they are still works of art and the success of a piece must lie within the viewer. If it doesn't resonate, then it doesn't work.

From my own experience with Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man I can say that I could see that literary forms were being played with, explored and constructed, but I do not remember a single line from the book. It didn't resonate with me. In fact, I don't really care for a number of those Modernist guys, in all realms of literature. That too, is a part of the progression of artistic movements and it's what drives people to create the kind of literature, art and music that they want to in order to define the eras in which they live. If you read criticisms those Modernists wrote about the generation that preceded them, it's as if no one of any literary merit other than their heroes had ever existed.