In my opinion, Beckett's trilogy of novels is one of the greatest works of art ever created. The third part takes the stylistic and thematic decomposition of the previous parts to the extreme. At the same time, this book is a completely new reading experience. You'd have to read the last 130-page paragraph in one go to get the full effect (not that I ever could).

The eternally waxing and waning narrative voice forces the reader to adopt an almost Buddhist mindset. You cannot expect any continuity from the text, nor can you adhere to any facts that you might wish to deduce about the narrator's situation. But once you have reached this state, without expectations of the future, without memories of the past, you can surrender to the elegant flow of words.

The plays that are readable are quite good, but most of them are very hard to grasp as written text. So yeah, just go to the theatre.

I’m not even sure what to say but this book was exhilarating. Can’t seem to grasp what it fully was about and can’t really find anything online that concretely describes his intentions but I’m taking away the idea of language, consciousness, the self, questions of existence, the existence of a book without an author, and also the identities that are created above our conscious. I also feel like this could be about Samuel Becketts voice as an author and if that voice were separated from him. Idk. Either way still worth reading based on the prose and structure alone. Crazy. Overall, it was fire tho.

I missed beckett's godot so this is mostly why i came back (also I'm sick and literature always fixes what ails me) LOVED WHAT WHERE so much.
He's without a doubt a great playwright (it kills me to compliment a man)

I’m not even sure what to say but this book was exhilarating. Can’t seem to grasp what it fully was about and can’t really find anything online that concretely describes his intentions but I’m taking away the idea of language, consciousness, the self, questions of existence, the existence of a book without an author, and also the identities that are created above our conscious. I also feel like this could be about Samuel Becketts voice as an author and if that voice were separated from him. Idk. Either way still worth reading based on the prose and structure alone. Crazy. Overall, it was fire tho.

my fav of the trilogy, tho i imagine that might only be bc it was the last, not to say i was happy for it to end, but rather that there’s a learning curve to reading beckett, and the farther u go the more penetrable the nonsense, and soon enough u come to find— between the fart jokes & amidst the 100 page long paragraph— this shit is riddled w eternal truths

“All this business of a labor to accomplish, before i can end, of words to say, a truth to recover, in order to say it, before i can end, of an imposed task, once known, long neglected, finally forgotten, to perform, before i can be done with speaking, done with listening, i invented it all, in the hope it would console me, help me to go on, allow me to think of myself as somewhere on a road, moving, between a beginning and an end, gaining ground, losing ground, getting lost, but somehow in the long run making headway. All lies.”

Ok I have taken a long time to consider the gushing you're about to read if you continue. This trilogy is amazing. The whole thing. It evolves so wonderfully, taking creative leaps with each book without losing focus. The novels (in fact, all of Beckett's work) revolve around isolation and despair, the interminability of experience, and an empty hope for silence. Such heavy themes would bog most writers into unreadable whining, but Beckett's prose is overflowing with empathy. I can honestly say that I felt known reading the unnamable in a way I never have before. Let's let the work speak for itself:

"Unfortunately I am afraid, as always, of going on. For to go on means going from here, means finding me, losing me, vanishing and beginning again, a stranger first, then little by little the same as always, in another place, where I shall say I have always been, of which I shall know nothing, being incapable of seeing, moving, thinking, speaking, but of which little by little, in spite of these handicaps, I shall begin to know something, just enough for it to turn out to be the same place as always, the same which seems made for me and does not want me"

WTF right? It's hypnotic. Also, so deeply human it makes me want to cry. I do recommend starting at the beginning but each of the novels are stand-alone. All of Beckett's novels are intertwined on some level though(the Unnamable mentions all the characters from his previous novels, going all the way back to Watt). Also I do have to say, these books can be difficult to follow at times, especially the Unnamable, which will have to be a slow, deliberate read for most people (it's the shortest of the three but took me the longest to finish). I can't say anymore without ruining it, but as a last little gush I'll say that this an incredibly satisfying literary experience and I'd love to chat if you've gone through it as well.

This. Later. Now. Never. Not. But. Sure. Here. Mitvit.

Toivun.

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