A review by blairmahoney
More Pricks Than Kicks by Samuel Beckett

4.0

In the book I'm currently reading, Suppose a Sentence, Brian Dillon mentions "Beckett's own merciless efforts to rid himself of Joyce's influence" and he certainly hadn't done that in this, his first novel. There's a lot to admire here, and at times I found myself gasping with admiration or noticing an internal chuckle even as I struggled through the thickets of obscure verbiage and allusion. But ultimately it felt like a kind of admirable parody of Joyce and enjoyable as that is (for me, at least) it doesn't match what Beckett would go on to achieve when he found his own voice.