The Letters of Samuel Beckett: Volume 1, 1929-1940 Book

You have to love, or at least be profoundly intrigued by, Beckett to take on the (projected) four volumes of his letters. If you are, you have two choices. Start with volume 2, which covers the period when Beckett's genius took form, or start with volume 1 and know that you're in it for the intimations of what's to come. For me, it was worth it. There are a dozen or so letters--msot of them written to Tom McGreevy (Beckett's friend and minor writer) but also a terrific letter (9 Juoy 1937) written to a German friend Axel Kaun in which Beckett provides a near-fully articulated reflection on the aesthetics of separation and solitude. There's more here about "ordinary" social interactions--especially his difficult relationship with his mother--than I'd expected; some glimpses of the literary world he was on the fringes of, including some fun commentary on James Joyce. While I'm not conversant enough with painting to follow the hundreds of references to the museums Beckett visited in London, Paris and Germany, the equivalent on literature and music were frequent enough to keep me in the loops. He's particularly insightful (and quirky, surprise surprise) thinking about Dante, Sarte, Cezanne and Beethoven. One major surprise to me was his love for Beethoven's 7th Symphony (my personal favorite), which doesn't seem at all Beckett-like to me. As always, reading Beckett's a vocabulary builder for damn near everyone. My list of words to check out includes: ebullition, isonomy, tetrakyt, conarium, caecum, canular, esquivent, trovata, astuce, ahuris and suilline. Just sayin'. At times I got irritated with Beckett for his near perfect ability to ignore the socio-political world. But being in Paris during World War II would change that, which will be one of the major stories of volume 2.