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How It Is
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Manufacturer: Grove Press
Author: Samuel Beckett
Publisher: Grove Press
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $11.05
You Save: $ 1.95 ( 15% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Grove Press
Author: Samuel Beckett
Publisher: Grove Press
Average Customer Rating:
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How It Is Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780802150660
ISBN: 0802150667
Label: Grove Press
Manufacturer: Grove Press
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 147
Publication Date: 1994-01-18
Publisher: Grove Press
Studio: Grove Press
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780802150660
ISBN: 0802150667
Label: Grove Press
Manufacturer: Grove Press
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 147
Publication Date: 1994-01-18
Publisher: Grove Press
Studio: Grove Press
Editorial Review of How It Is
“It is one thing to be informed by Shakespeare that life “is a tale told by an idiot signifying nothing”; it is something else to encounter the idea literally presented in a novel by Samuel Beckett. But I am reasonably certain that a sensitive reader who journeys through How It Is will leave the book convinced that Beckett says more that is relevant to experience in our time than Shakespeare does in Macbeth. It should come as no surprise if a decade or so hence How It Is is appraised as a masterpiece of modern literature. This poetic novel is Beckett at his height.” — Webster Schott
“A wonderful book, written in the sparest prose. . . . Beckett is one of the rare creative minds in our times.” — Alan Pryce-Jones
“What is novel is the absolute sureness of design. . . built phrase by phrase into a beautifully and tightly wrought structure — a few dozen expressions permuted with deliberate redundancy accumulate meaning even as they are emptied of it, and offer themselves as points of radiation in a strange web of utter illusion.” — Hugh Kenner
“A wonderful book, written in the sparest prose. . . . Beckett is one of the rare creative minds in our times.” — Alan Pryce-Jones
“What is novel is the absolute sureness of design. . . built phrase by phrase into a beautifully and tightly wrought structure — a few dozen expressions permuted with deliberate redundancy accumulate meaning even as they are emptied of it, and offer themselves as points of radiation in a strange web of utter illusion.” — Hugh Kenner
Customer Reviews of How It Is
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Essential!
Review: This is final statement about the meaning of life in the 20/21 st centuries: I can't go on; I must go on; I can't go on; I'll go on. You must deal with this, and you can't live without it.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Modern Epic Poetry
Review: _How It Is_ is another challenging, far-out epic by Samuel Beckett. Beckett pushes the far outer boundaries of what can be accomplished through literary fiction. _How It Is_ brings us to the most remote frontiers of artistic consciousness, pioneering new ground into the furthest reaches of the human mind. Join us for this epic voyage into the mind of a profoundly disturbed genius.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Whither the well-wrought novel?
Review: Beckett mastered standing on both sides of the borderline between convention and experiment. How It Is, both immediate in poignancy and resistant to a straight-forward reading, is wonderful testimony to this incredible ability. What is most wonderful about How It Is, and Beckett's late prose works in general, is how the form of the works speak just as loudly as the meanings of the words, if not louder. If anyone is heralding the death of the well-wrought novel, Beckett has demonstrated a controversal but brilliant way forward. We might baulk at its strangeness, but Beckett's is a very generous strangeness, one that requires work on the reader's part but will give the reader a unique experience of what a literary work can do.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: An eerie, original novel
Review: Once again, that poet of despair Samuel Beckett puts the reader through purgatory--or, in this case, an endless tract of mud, which our narrator muddles through for about 150 pages. Written entirely without punctuation, and sometimes a little obscure as to exactly what is going on, this book does not make for easy reading. It's worth the effort, though.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: "warmth of primeval mud impenetrable dark"
Review: Imagine. Wallowing, hoping, despairing, sinking, dreaming... then a phrase:
Review Summary: Essential!
Review: This is final statement about the meaning of life in the 20/21 st centuries: I can't go on; I must go on; I can't go on; I'll go on. You must deal with this, and you can't live without it.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Modern Epic Poetry
Review: _How It Is_ is another challenging, far-out epic by Samuel Beckett. Beckett pushes the far outer boundaries of what can be accomplished through literary fiction. _How It Is_ brings us to the most remote frontiers of artistic consciousness, pioneering new ground into the furthest reaches of the human mind. Join us for this epic voyage into the mind of a profoundly disturbed genius.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Whither the well-wrought novel?
Review: Beckett mastered standing on both sides of the borderline between convention and experiment. How It Is, both immediate in poignancy and resistant to a straight-forward reading, is wonderful testimony to this incredible ability. What is most wonderful about How It Is, and Beckett's late prose works in general, is how the form of the works speak just as loudly as the meanings of the words, if not louder. If anyone is heralding the death of the well-wrought novel, Beckett has demonstrated a controversal but brilliant way forward. We might baulk at its strangeness, but Beckett's is a very generous strangeness, one that requires work on the reader's part but will give the reader a unique experience of what a literary work can do.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: An eerie, original novel
Review: Once again, that poet of despair Samuel Beckett puts the reader through purgatory--or, in this case, an endless tract of mud, which our narrator muddles through for about 150 pages. Written entirely without punctuation, and sometimes a little obscure as to exactly what is going on, this book does not make for easy reading. It's worth the effort, though.
I almost didn't get through it myself. "Post-modern hocus-pocus," I thought sourly, as I read the first third. But it becomes oddly compelling, even poetic. Beckett's severely minimalistic style is fascinating; there's nothing in this book except the eerily dehumanized voice of its narrator, a lonely monologue that generates real poignancy. The effect is like hearing a voice from beyond the grave, and it haunts the mind like few conventionally written novels do.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: "warmth of primeval mud impenetrable dark"
Review: Imagine. Wallowing, hoping, despairing, sinking, dreaming... then a phrase:
"the air thrills with the hum of insects"
More mud. Grovelling, twisting, stumbling, crying... then another:
"I listen a good moment they are good moments"
Somehow the mud doesn't seem so dirty, the darkness doesn't seem so bleak. For there is lustre even in the mud. Such is the beauty of Beckett.
and is there not infinite wisdom in the following?
there are moments they are good moments.