Book Review - Watt by Samuel Beckett

 Watt by Samuel Beckett

London: Calder & Boyars, 1963 (first published Paris 1953)  ISBN 0714506109

Like most people, my exposure to Beckett has been limited to his drama. I've seen a few variants of Waiting for Godot, and I was peripherally involved in a production of Krapp's Last Tape. Having seen Godot a few times I felt like I started to understand what Beckett was trying to say about life, and became interested in his other works. Over the years I've purchased copies of his prose, with a view to reading them, but have always been slightly intimidated by the prospect of doing so. On the basis that Watt is an entree to his "major" prose works, I've finally taken the leap into the world of Beckett prose.

There is no doubt that Beckett is not easy to understand, but, in the case of Watt at least, he is actually enjoyable to read! It would be no surprise to learn that, in the course of the book, not much happens. Watt finds employment with Mr. Knott, and we then see him at an institution, and finally at a railway station taking a journey, which is where we met him at the start of the "story".

Watt is about perception more than anything else. How an event is perceived, and the various permutations of events that can be construed, the combinations that can be construed from an event; how we perceive things that happen, how they can happen in a certain way, how if you only see the result of an event (a person with shoes on) you can never know exactly how that event occurred (which shoe was put on first). Beckett, through writing out all the permutations of how an event might occur, brings our attention to how many ways life can move forward, and the relentless boringness of most activity we undertake.

Watt spends much of his time in the book pondering simple things - how Mr. Knott lived, what he ate, what did he do with his left-over food, how did he dress. The absurdity of the characters and events and the basicness and simplicity of the events create a comic pathos that is truly unique. 

What was Beckett trying to say in this novel? I'm not sure that I'm intelligent enough to work that out. Nothing of import happens, there isn't a character that seems to develop in any meaningful way. So is it a nihilist work? I'm not sure I'd go that far. In a strange way, this absurd story is a reflection on real life and on how people think, and the absurdity of much of what we do.

I'm not sure what to make of Watt, but I do hope that is have given me some mental tools and ability to move on to Molloy, which is my next Beckett target.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell