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A review by flowersisbritish
More Pricks Than Kicks by Samuel Beckett
3.0
This is a book I might reread at the end of the year to see if I get a better handle on. Beckett's a weird guy, and writes some weird dudes, this book is no exception. Each 'chapter' is essentially a different story revolving around this guy named Belecqua who is 1) kind of a contrarian and 2) magically able to get a lot of woman to love him... somehow.
I knew nothing about this going in, my only exposure to Becket being a bit of Molloy, but trying to decipher it blind was a good experience. To me, this is mostly a novel about how dumb love can be. Woman keep falling for Belecqua to the point it gets really ridiculous, and their involvement with him tends to lead to equally ridiculous events I won't go into detail about. Needless to say, loving Belecqua seems to be a sure fire sign of misfortune.
The novel is clearly supposed to be a comedy, with a lot of genuinely funny moments, and probably more that went right over my head. Still though, I found a lot of the chapters to be tedious to read, and the actions involved to be difficult to follow. Sure, there were some fun moments, and a couple really great vignettes, but was the slog worth it?
Again, I plan on rereading the novel if only to see it it's one of those books that's better the second time once you know the punch line.
I knew nothing about this going in, my only exposure to Becket being a bit of Molloy, but trying to decipher it blind was a good experience. To me, this is mostly a novel about how dumb love can be. Woman keep falling for Belecqua to the point it gets really ridiculous, and their involvement with him tends to lead to equally ridiculous events I won't go into detail about. Needless to say, loving Belecqua seems to be a sure fire sign of misfortune.
The novel is clearly supposed to be a comedy, with a lot of genuinely funny moments, and probably more that went right over my head. Still though, I found a lot of the chapters to be tedious to read, and the actions involved to be difficult to follow. Sure, there were some fun moments, and a couple really great vignettes, but was the slog worth it?
Again, I plan on rereading the novel if only to see it it's one of those books that's better the second time once you know the punch line.