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norassick's review against another edition
4.0
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)
He's without a doubt a great playwright (it kills me to compliment a man)
swagmansnake's review against another edition
5.0
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.
ctomchek's review against another edition
5.0
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.”
“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.”
joeduncan's review against another edition
5.0
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.
"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.
lukija's review against another edition
5.0
Toivun.
*
Lukemisen jälkeen minusta tuli ulos muistiinkirjoitettaviksi sanoiksi nämä:
Täytyy jatkaa ei voi jatkan hiljaisuudessa
Ovi ovi ovi
Tarinani ovi hiljaisuudessa täytyy jatkaa
*
Lukemisen jälkeen minusta tuli ulos muistiinkirjoitettaviksi sanoiksi nämä:
Täytyy jatkaa ei voi jatkan hiljaisuudessa
Ovi ovi ovi
Tarinani ovi hiljaisuudessa täytyy jatkaa
jammasterjamie's review against another edition
3.0
Well, having already read Waiting for Godot, I was expecting my dive into more of Beckett's writing to be a little depressing, but I wasn't expecting it to be so disappointing. Godot is fantastic and really draws that old feeling of existential angst to the forefront and never lets go. Endgame was decent, but placed so closely to Godot in this collection and having its emotional centre in such a similar vein, it just felt like maybe a little too much of the same. Happy Days was a standout and a great little story. The rest of this collection is uneven at best, and I get that Beckett was experimenting in extreme minimalism in his later years, but man, it really wasn't for me and there were some passages I found to be downright unreadable. To sum up, strong start, vomitous finish.
stephh's review against another edition
2.0
This was a play I was supposed to read in my first year of uni and honesty I can't remember if I read it and chose to forget that memory, or never bothered. Either way, when I came to read it now it just wasn't for me. I like some modernist stuff but this one was just a bit too despair-filled.
Endgame is a play with four characters: Hamm and Clov are more central, but we also have Nagg and Nell, Hamm's parents who each live in a bin. The four are living in what seems to be a perhaps post-apocalyptic world. They are approaching death and the main focus of the play is the pointlessness of human existence.
This was an interesting play to read, and definitely worth a quick read if you're looking to read more plays or more modernist works. I can see why it's acclaimed as an important piece of literature, but it just wasn't for me. It's a play filled with despair and decay and utter hopelessness. There's not really much more I can say about it (and no real plot or twists to spoiler) - it's full of very specific conversations between the characters that reflect on a much broader scope of life. I gave this two stars because it kept be interested but I can't say that I enjoyed it at all (though you're not really supposed to I guess!).
Endgame is a play with four characters: Hamm and Clov are more central, but we also have Nagg and Nell, Hamm's parents who each live in a bin. The four are living in what seems to be a perhaps post-apocalyptic world. They are approaching death and the main focus of the play is the pointlessness of human existence.
This was an interesting play to read, and definitely worth a quick read if you're looking to read more plays or more modernist works. I can see why it's acclaimed as an important piece of literature, but it just wasn't for me. It's a play filled with despair and decay and utter hopelessness. There's not really much more I can say about it (and no real plot or twists to spoiler) - it's full of very specific conversations between the characters that reflect on a much broader scope of life. I gave this two stars because it kept be interested but I can't say that I enjoyed it at all (though you're not really supposed to I guess!).