2020 Book Reviews

5

Nohow On by Samuel Beckett

This book is

incredible. It's a collection of three prose pieces written by Beckett during his later years and are typically classified as his "Closed Space Novels".

I found each one intensely meaningful and very challenging to read. Here Beckett takes a very austere approach to words and writes powerful, blunt sentences. He does so much with so little and no word ever feels wasted, each feels selected for a purpose and for its own effect. Often I had to reread sentences and paragraphs and sections and it all felt very rewarding once I understood what he meant, or thought I did.

In these near plotless stories he explores loneliness, isolation, longing, life, death, meaning and meaninglessness. He argues, debates, concludes, and leaves you thinking. This is a beautiful work.