Painting on to a hundred

A stellar cast of historians, novelists, philosophers and actors prove that there is always something to be done about Samuel Beckett. Review by Edward O'Hare

Samuel Beckett: 100 Years. Edited by Christopher Murray. New Island, €14.99 / €39.95

Even though Samuel Beckett came to the conclusion that language is redundant, there is little sign of the industry of interpretation he gave rise to becoming silent. The celebrations to mark his centenary have heard many smug voices urging people to "go back to the works", as though it is possible to pick up a novel of Beckett's and simply consume it. Beckett's books are enormously challenging when first approached. Reading them can leave you in no doubt about their power and originality, but to understand why they have such a principal place in modern literature, informed critical works are needed.

This book answers the questions any newcomer to Beckett's work might have. Each of the 13 sections has a general theme, which is covered in detail with little reference to the established canon of Beckett criticism. The emphasis is on Beckett's own words rather than what others have already said about him.

What really sets this book apart is the quality of the essayists. The contributors include Terence Brown, Richard Kearney, Katharine Worth, Declan Kiberd, Barry McGovern, Anthony Cronin and John Banville. These are people who are openly fascinated by Beckett's work and who are not afraid of letting their obvious passion infuse their contributions.

Christopher Murray edits this book. He provides the witty opening essay 'Panting on to a hundred'. Murray re-affirms Beckett, who is often regarded as belonging to the continental literary tradition, as an Irish writer. He also relates how Beckett's pessimistic view of human existence, although exaggerated in his art, was one he fully believed in and clung to, even when other playwrights, including Arthur Miller, accused it of being an intellectual cul-de-sac.

The reclamation of Beckett as an Irish writer continues in Terence Brown's essay, which gives an account of how Beckett's years in Ireland were overshadowed by his loathing of the philistine Free State authorities. Terence Brown shows that even though the intolerance of Irish society compelled him to leave, it was this country which shaped Beckett's consciousness. Declan Kiberd explains how Beckett's early years as an exile in London became transmuted into his weird and wonderful early novel, Murphy.

The rest of the book covers other aspects of Beckett's life and work and each essay gives the reader some new insights. Gerry Dukes writes a fine essay on Waiting for Godot and why it was this work which finally made Beckett's name. Anthony Roche shows how Beckett further explored his ideas on the stage in plays like Endgame, Happy Days and Krapp's Last Tape. JCC Mays looks at an often overlooked figure, Beckett the poet. There are two magnificent essays on Beckett and philosophy and his views on the nature of the creative imagination by Dermot Moran and Richard Kearney.

Barry McGovern's essay is a revelation in terms of how he cross-references his knowledge of Beckett's radio plays and his other works to find the true place for them in his oeuvre. It serves as a reminder that in the case of interpreting Beckett, it may be actors who know his works best. The haunting late prose work Ill Seen Ill Said is the subject of John Banville's essay. Reading one of the great masters of contemporary fiction on the writer who, in his words, sets an example to all artists, is in every way the enlightening experience it promises to be.

The standout essay has to be Anthony Cronin's contribution on Beckett's famous trilogy, Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnameable. Cronin, the author of the best of the three biographies of Beckett, takes on the huge challenge of assessing these labyrinthine books in the space of 11 pages. He achieves this without ignoring any aspects of these works and manages to give a wonderfully eloquent meditation on the freedoms, real and unreal, of creating literature.

Once you have finished this book, you immediately want to read or reread Beckett's works for yourself. It leaves you with an understanding of why Beckett wrote the works he did and why they have an ever-increasing appeal. Beckett saw the irrationality and brutality of the world first-hand and laughed back at it in defiance. The fact that so much of humanity was forced to remain silent preyed on his mind and drove him on in his quest for authentic expression.

In the modern age, in which people's fears about their own meaninglessness cause them to commit mass murder and destruction, Beckett, a writer who believed that the very uncertainty of our shared situation should be the grounds for universal compassion, shall indeed go on. 

An essay from Samuel Beckett: 100 Years will be broadcast every Thursday night on RTÉ Radio One at 8.02pm for the next 10 weeks