The Beckett Trilogy: Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable Paperback – January 1, 1979

The late, great Samuel Beckett was a solitary tour de force. Though known to many as a playwright, for such masterworks as Waiting for Godot, to name one, he also was the author of numerous short stories and novels. One of his better known prose works is this trilogy, originally released separately. Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable [sic]. They are just as good when read in this single volume as they are when read separately. Myself, I originally bought and read Malone Dies years ago and have read it a number of times, though I never do tire of it. In fact, there are certain novels that are so good they are worth reading over and over. Anyway, as I said, I read Malone Dies some time ago and quite enjoyed it. I knew then, that it was part of a set of three works, which included Molloy and The Unnamable; not quite sure why it's spelled "Unnamable" and not "Unnameable" but... oh well. An interesting thing about Beckett's work, or rather the way he wrote is that, himself, a native of Ireland, a speaker of English, Beckett wrote many of his novels and plays in French and then, for English-speaking audiences, he translated his own works. I think that a writer who is able to translate his own work is the most authoritative source to do so, as long as he is proficient in both languages in which he's working (e.g., from French into English or vice versa).Another, shorter work of Beckett's I like a lot is Mercier and Camier. It is not dissimilar, in a few ways to Waiting for Godot, except that M's Mercier & Camier are not stationary, waiting on someone; M & C are on a mission of some sort and have several adventures/misadventures. But, as with many Beckett works, the characters are integral parts to the story and their various trials, tribulations as well as the good times can evoke a series of emotions from a deeply interested reader. I highly recommend the so-called BECKETT TRILOGY but, just as good would be to acquire the three novels which make up the trilogy (Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable). What makes this 3-in-1 package so good is that one is able to read all three stories, one after the other. But, at the same time, you don't have to read all three, one after the other, as if they were part of one greater novel, not unlike Marcel Proust's life's work, The Remembrance of Things Past, the gigantic tome, made up of three parts of which Swann's Way, also sold on its own, is probably the best known. No, you could read, say, Molloy and then put it down, go and pick up another book, then come back to The Trilogy and read Malone Dies next. But, that's the only caveat I'd mention: that the sequence of the novels should be read in that order, not that one would necessarily get lost if one were to read Malone Dies first & Molloy last, but, it would pay off for you, at least to your reading delight.

This wonderfully desolate and austere trilogy is only going to work for you if you already have some affinity for Beckett's work. If you want to get some idea of where he might have been going with 'Waiting for Godot', this could well be the answer. In some ways, the journey (internal/external) is like 'King Lear' for our times: a bleak and unrelieved search for meaning, purpose, and some sense of closure or conclusion. As you might suspect at the begining, the prospect of success is slight. Why then take the time to plough your way through a trilogy, which depicts characters becoming increasingly enfeebled and incapable, just as the language becomes reduced and impoverished?Beckett's skill with language, is paradoxically to do more with less: even as the language breaks down, and mirrors the characters' own deterioration, the words are made to work harder, and by some strange alchemy they do, conveying a moving and strangely beautiful desolation from the waste and decay from which they are conjured. I think it's impossible to read this without seeing the parallels in our own atomised and materialistic lives (McCarthy's 'The Road'?), and the knowledge that at some future point we all must find our individual paths down desolation row. Essential reading for all those who value self-awareness, and the search for meaning.

Christmas present for my aunt. She loved it.

Excellent

excellent

pages of the book are yellow; the book itself has a bad smell. It is very hard to be read.