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A review by lee_foust
The Complete Short Prose of Samuel Beckett, 1929-1989 by Samuel Beckett
5.0
I have so many Beckett editions below are thoughts on only the stories in this collection not availible in the other standard Grove editions. I read these as part of my project of re-reading the complete works of Samuel Beckett in chronological order.
Just about finished with Dream of Fair to Middling Women. Read the "Assumption" story here and the two pieces lifted from Dream... Adolescent drivel, I'm sorry to say. I enjoyed "A Case in a Thousand," however, although it can hardly be said to be Beckett-ian. If he's gone another route he might have been quite brilliant there too.
"All Strange Away" and "Imagination Dead Imagine." Not much new ground here, but the beginning of an even more stripped down bodies in spaces delineated geometrically. Personality and voice are getting stripped away. And the characters--although less distinct--are becoming plural. Like false starts for more in the theme of How It Is.
"Enough." New ground! Distinctly Beckett yet a departure from the short texts of the early '60s. Not a lot to it, but delightful I think. Not sure if I would have had it not had Beckett's name at the top. Narrator here appears to be female. While there have been females mentioned in some of these mid-period texts (mostly inert bodies) this is the first female narrator in S.B.'s oeuvres up to this point I think.
"Ping." Perfect little poem text stripped to minimum maybe but almost not there.
"Lessness." Much as the title suggests. Stripped to the bare bones. Most beautiful--in a vast endlessness--of these empty prose portraits.
"Stirrings Still." Chilling to read the last words Beckett wrote, knowing full well he was writing, assuming for the last time, for to end yet again. Beautiful same concerns--few answers--just a gesture, a mark, a trace.
Just about finished with Dream of Fair to Middling Women. Read the "Assumption" story here and the two pieces lifted from Dream... Adolescent drivel, I'm sorry to say. I enjoyed "A Case in a Thousand," however, although it can hardly be said to be Beckett-ian. If he's gone another route he might have been quite brilliant there too.
"All Strange Away" and "Imagination Dead Imagine." Not much new ground here, but the beginning of an even more stripped down bodies in spaces delineated geometrically. Personality and voice are getting stripped away. And the characters--although less distinct--are becoming plural. Like false starts for more in the theme of How It Is.
"Enough." New ground! Distinctly Beckett yet a departure from the short texts of the early '60s. Not a lot to it, but delightful I think. Not sure if I would have had it not had Beckett's name at the top. Narrator here appears to be female. While there have been females mentioned in some of these mid-period texts (mostly inert bodies) this is the first female narrator in S.B.'s oeuvres up to this point I think.
"Ping." Perfect little poem text stripped to minimum maybe but almost not there.
"Lessness." Much as the title suggests. Stripped to the bare bones. Most beautiful--in a vast endlessness--of these empty prose portraits.
"Stirrings Still." Chilling to read the last words Beckett wrote, knowing full well he was writing, assuming for the last time, for to end yet again. Beautiful same concerns--few answers--just a gesture, a mark, a trace.