Customer Reviews

Nohow On: Company, Ill Seen Ill Said, Worstward Ho: Three Novels

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If we politely ignore the short story "Stirrings Still," which was completed in 1989, the year of Samuel Beckett's death, these three short (very short) novels comprise the final crowning achievement in his long and brilliant prose career. Best known as the author of the play "Waiting for Godot" ("En attendant Godot"), it remains to be seen whether Beckett will ever be as lauded for his prose as he already is for his contributions to absurdist theater, but he should be. Although his trilogy of novels - "Molloy," "Malone Dies," and "The Unnamable" - are probably better-known, the three works collected in this omnibus edition entitled "Nohow On" are some of the most perfect prose of the 20th century. "Company" combines memories from Beckett's own childhood in Ireland with the minuscule movements made by an old man alone on his back in the dark. It is one of Beckett's "closed space" works, in which as little movement as possible is made, both literally and figuratively, yet it is also one of his most accessible and beautiful pieces. "Ill Seen Ill Said" (originally written in French as "Mal vu mal dit") takes the idea of "closed space" one step further, and removes any connection to Beckett's own personal memories. And finally, "Worstward Ho," which Beckett wrote in English and considered "untranslatable" into French, is a distillation of language into its very essence, in which the reader must concentrate on every word, and in which two- and three-word sentences are more beautiful and devastating than just about anything most so-called great novelists ever wrote.

These three novels represent Samuel Beckett's greatest accomplishment. What are they about you might ask? Let's just say that they're about everything and nothing. They are profound commentaries on the universal existential crises plaguing all of mankind, and an utterly fascinating reduction of what it means to be a human. Be forewarned: these novels are extremely modern, abstract works of art, and for many will be very difficult reading. The final installment, _Worstword Ho_ is officially the greatest work of fiction, page for page, that I have ever read. It is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. These novels are not to be taken lightly and it should be noted that Samuel Beckett put the "high" in highway. This is abstract literary thought at its far-seeing outer limit.

These are not easy works. That said, they are perhaps more honest, profound, and original that the many other, more accessible works you could be reading otherwise. Each is certainly a more than a bit tiring, and, like so many other works by Beckett, you'll find yourself frustrated if you breeze through a single paragraph without nearly committing it to memory. So, if they are as worthwhile as I previously suggested, what might justify all the trouble? The one or two passages that will strike you - and perhaps only you - on each reading. The title of my review is one you'll know if you enjoy reading Beckett, but also take a peek at this one that I've never seen singled out or particularly commended:

The words too whosesoever. What room for worse! How almost true they sometimes almost ring! How wanting in inanity! Say the night is young alas and take heart. Or better worse say still a watch of night alas to come. A rest of last watch to come. And take heart. (99)

Like Joyce, Beckett seems to reward the reader in almost direct proportion to how much effort they might invest in any given work. If a work proves difficult, it remains so for a reason - no writer, contrary to reputation, ever seeks the label of "inaccessible" or "esoteric." Beckett, like all great writers, moves in a realm beyond paraphrase, and no readers should beat themselves up for failing to catch every nuance and every meaning at a first go or a single reading. Or multiple readings. All that remains for someone dedicated to reading the work is to trust in it and - perhaps most importantly - enjoy it. Even if that may mean only catching a single passage, one passage at a time.

I have been reading "Ill seen ill said" obsessively for years. When I wore out my copy I purchased this book, which contains two other late "novels." Company is beautiful and relatively accessible. "Worstword Ho" reads like a prose poem. If you only know Beckett from your college reading of "Waiting for Godot" you are missing a lot.

Beckett, like his mentor Joyce, carried his creative and visionary power through his last years. This unofficial "trilogy" marks the last great Beckettian moment, which, in my opinion, ranks second only to Endgame in sheer poetic beauty.

Between the opener, "Company," and the closer, "Worstword Ho," there is the struggle between creation and annihilation, belonging and forlornness, hope and despair, daybreak and dawn.

And then, the middle piece, "Ill Seen Ill Said," could be the screenplay of a beautiful movie that was never made (perhaps in the imagination of Beckett himself?).

On.

This trilogy, written towards the end of Beckett's illustrious career, shows Beckett at his darkest, densest and most inspired.

In the opening novella entitled 'Company' we are presented with a man lying on his back in the dark, receiving what he supposes are memories from his youth. Memories are a toy that Beckett loves to play with due to their fickle and fallible nature. They are, for Beckett, symptomatic of the human need to reach into the past to find something worthwhile in life. The need to reach back to find something better than what life currently offers. Ultimately what Beckett offers with 'Company' is a demonstration of the futility of such efforts.

A quite similar tone is set in the second part of the trilogy 'Ill Seen Ill Said', yet somehow the solitude of the central character is even more pronounced. In a situation reminiscent of his earlier dramaticule 'Rockaby', Beckett shows us the meagre existence of an old and solitary woman, and how she tries to while away her sad few remaining days. In this text Beckett makes beautiful use of one of his favourite muses, the miserable solitude of old age.

Although Beckett's prose work can always be said to be dense, nowhere is this more true than in the third part of this trilogy 'Worstward Ho'. Despite (or perhaps because of) its inaccessability, it represents Beckett's most clinical and concise criticism of the human condition. Here is where he most starkly portrays the human inability to accept the central void.

For any lover of Beckett or fine literature in general, this trilogy is an absolute necessity. These are three of the best works from one of the world's most exceptional writers.

"Nohow On" is a Beckett's second trilogy, consisting of "Company," "Ill Seen, Ill Said," and "Worstword Ho," taking its title from the last lines of the final work.

If your only Beckett experience has been with the ever-popular "Waiting for Godot" or "Endgame," then you're missing out (not to detract from the merit of those works). But if you thought either of those works were too difficult and still hunger for more Beckett, you might be best served to start with his short plays rather than this trilogy.

Nevertheless, "Nohow On" is a fascinating read. "Company" does not have any plot, setting, action, or characters to speak of, but is still riveting and has a chilling last line. "Ill Seen, Ill Said"'s construction is just as vague, but not quite as captivating, though containing fascinating imagery. "Worstword Ho" is probably the least accessable of the three, reading like a stark prose poem.

All in all, the trilogy is a very difficult read, but a satidfying exercise; after all, Beckett is one of the finest writers of our time.

Beckett was uncomfortable with comparisons to Joyce - which is understandable both in light of their relationship and of the difference in their respective aesthetics. However I believe that "Worstward Ho" holds a place in the Beckett canon similar to the position of "Finnegans Wake" in Joyce's work. Both are the last major works of their authors and both represent the most perfect realizations of their artistic visions.

"Company" is the union and fulfillment of two of Beckett's recurrent themes - autobiography and "closed place" imagery. Its prose is spare and lyrical, evoking powerful images while its narrative style explores the ambiguities of the relationship between narrator and auditor.

"Ill Seen Ill Said" is a beautiful narrative which is singular among Beckett's prose works in having a female narrator. Its expanded, yet still abstracted and "distilled", cosmology (in comparison to the "closed place" works of the '60s and '70s) represnts an interesting new direction (or destination?) for Beckett's writing. Originally written in French, this work's poetry is best appreciated in that language.

"Worstward Ho" is, I believe, Beckett's masterpiece. It recapitulates all the major themes of his work - the futility of the act of expression, the poverty of language and the problematic dichotomies of perceived and perceiver and of narrator and auditor. It is written in the barest, most stripped-down prose ever composed. At the same time, it is repetitive and resonant. Less than five thousand words long, it compresses volumes of meaning. The more reduced and undetermined the language is, the more potential meanings and significations its words take on. The attempt to pare and refine leads to an ambiguity which grows and dilutes - a paradox Beckett uses with mastery. Despite appearances, the work's structure is as intentionally articulated as its prose. It is also a work of great and black humor, full of punning and wordplay. It should be savored and read and reread.