Molloy by Samuel Beckett

 Molloy by Samuel Beckett

 

I have read recently in a book by Nina Berberova that Beckett wrote in French. I wonder if Molloy was written in French. In that case, my “strategy „of trying to read in the original language has failed me, because I‘ve read Molloy in English.

 I found Molloy exhilarating, surrealist, bizarre, shocking, over the top, perhaps vulgar and at times hilarious:

He forgets his name, his mother calls him Dan, even if that’s not his name he is a former vagrant who is now living "in [his] mother's room”

He makes love to a woman and then he asks:

“Is it true love in the rectum?”

He falls in love with “Ruth or maybe Edith”

I found this work surreal even if at times I thought Beckett must have been stuck in an “anal stage”, due to his frequent references to feces, turds, anus, defecation, etc.

The second part seemed to have a different style, with a narration which started in a “classic” way…but it turned out to be close to the absurd theatre.

 

At times I loved the book, but there were passages when I found myself thinking of other things.