Reviews

Stories and Texts for Nothing by Samuel Beckett, Richard Seaver

bhaines's review against another edition

I liked the stories. nice writing, big images, systole of lights on the water, the mountain, the sky. this guy peed himself so much that he can't even walk normal without falling over.

being thrown down the stairs, the man with a bottle who wants a kiss, sleeping in stables / a boat, talking to a boy with a goat, lynching children who walk into him on the sidewalk, jesus crucified all of a heap, no dignity. hanging out with his friend the cabman.

Does that thing where the narrator is always questioning themselves or trailing off or saying they don't know:

I had merely to bow my head and look down at my feet, for it is in this attitude I always drew the strength to, how shall I say, I don't know, and it was always from the earth, rather than from the sky, notwithstanding its reputation, that my help came in time of trouble.

The texts for nothing were hard to get through. Really leans into the abstract no characters no settings no plot type writing. Though they all have the feeling of being external, to earth/life/youth/society/w.e.

miro's review against another edition

mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated

billy_the_kid's review

dark funny mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

klaraseidlova's review

emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

taitmckenzie's review against another edition

5.0

While most people are familiar with "Waiting for Godot," the play that made him famous, few have braved Beckett's prose writing. Dense and dreamlike only scratch the surface, having been influenced heavily by Joyce and Proust, Beckett sets out to destroy every convention and form of thought available to language, so that we are left with plotless, settingless, and even characterless stories that nonetheless explore the despair and consciousness of what it means to be alive. Not for the casual reader, or even most experienced ones.

emilyclairem's review against another edition

3.0

So this text pretty much proved what I've begun to suspect about my feelings towards Beckett: I cannot stand his longer works that are filled with just nonsense babbling (which is the point of them and that's fair, but I just cannot read them) and I like his slightly more structured texts with a "plot" (very loosely defined here as some people vaguely doing things, even just talking to each other, rather than just ranting to the void). I liked the stories and I could actually get through reading them and understanding them. The 'texts for nothing' I merely skimmed. I'm sure they're valuable but sometimes you have to draw a line with how much pain you're willing to tolerate.