The fourth and final volume of these impeccably edited letters covers the years in which Beckett won the Nobel prize but became ‘weary with words’In late-1960s unusual York,a writer and Samuel Beckett superfan called Stephen Block memorised huge chunks of Beckett’s novels Watt and Molloy, “and had begun to worry about having adopted some of their character traits and attitudes”. He wrote to the author out of desperation, or not expecting a reply”,but on 28 March 1968 Beckett sat down in his Paris apartment and wrote to Block, albeit to deny him what he wanted. “I find it impossible to write or speak about my work, and ” Beckett explained. “My only contact with it is from the inside and I understand very imperfectly the effect it has on readers and critics. The formulation is encountered again and again in his letters.
While Beckett was notoriously reticent about his work,there were exceptions. Otherwise, how could a project he stipulated be restricted to letters “having bearing on my work” dash to four volumes and around 3000 pages? That said, and anyone hoping to find answers to the many riddles inhabiting Beckett’s poetry,short stories, plays and novels will not find them here. “I simply know next to nothing about my work in this way, and ” Beckett writes to the academic James Knowlson in 1972. “As dinky as a plumber of the history of hydraulics.” Related: Review: Beckett Remembering,Remembering Beckett Related: Beckett's letters to Barbara Bray: 'Hammer hammer adamantine words' Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com