Watt

This work has an interesting place in Beckett's oeuvre, written to keep the author "sane" while in the Resistance and hiding out in the French countryside from the Nazis. You might well think such a setting would occasion the writing of a dramatic tour-de-force of some kind, but what the book really seems like more than anything is a kind of woodshed for the kind of writing Beckett was inclined to do.There's no story to speak of, and the girders that are there in its place seem only to serve as a kind of scaffolding for Beckett to refigure in different ways over the four parts of the book. The titular character (hard to call him a "protagonist" exactly) is kind of a blank cipher Beckett uses to hang all manner of experimental writing upon. Some of it will try your patience for its exhaustive (exhausting?) combinatorial permutations, of this, that, and the other; of this and that; of this and the other; of that and the other; or indeed of this, that, or the other individually. (These become longer and more frequent as the book goes on.) And some of it's quite funny, and some of it is funny *because* of its absurdly relentless grinding of details.Memorable points of Beckett's characteristic wry gallows humor include Watt's VERY silly walk to his new employer's home, the gratuitously burgeoning extended family of people with dreadful maladies (plus starving dogs) who all seem to exist for the sole purpose of carrying out the meaningless house rule that any of Mr. Knott's leftovers be "fed to the dog" although he has no dog, and the painstakingly complete description of five men all trying to look at each other and succeeding in every possible combination except those in which any two of them actually meet each other's gaze.So, not an essential piece of work, I would say, and not one that's altogether satisfying, but one that's worth noting as a possible glimpse into a bit of what goes on in the author's mind when writing. With this kind of madness, there's always a method.

"Watt" is the hilarious story of an itinerant character who walks one day from a train station, like a homing pigeon, straight to the home of a man whom he will serve. He enters the kitchen to take his spot, whereupon the present kitchen worker issues a rambling monologue of stunning length and baffling content, then leaves the household for Watt to stay behind. In the first few pages, we are already asking: Why did Watt just show up? Whose house is this? Who is this man in the kitchen already? Why is he delivering this major dissertation? What does it all mean?The rest of the book concerns Watt's service to the master of the house, some of it conventionally narrated, much of it digressive and odd. To explain this book, however, is to sound ridiculous. A certain number of things happen to Watt, he takes a certain number of actions, he engages in a certain number of conversations, and he ends the story in the book in a certain meaningful fashion. The entire story is told in Beckett's trademark effusive style, a rollicking, bizzare, but highly entertaining profusion.The meaning of the book is also classic Beckett: Don't wait for Higher Meaning, because there is none. All his books portray absurd characters doing absurd things, waiting for life to reveal itself, but ultimately realizing that life reveals itself through the living. To answer the questions posed above, the book is compsed like a circle, just like life. At the same time, it's also completely meaningless, just like life. We go to some place, we stand in some position, we engage with some people, we commit some acts, we turn and commit other acts, and we engage with some other people. Somehow, among all this ballet, the world still turns, and we still live upon it. For all their foolish sounding, Beckett's books do indeed have a meaning, that life is just the living of it.Beckett is a psychological master. His prose style will never be repeated. I'd call him the Babe Ruth or Michael Jordan of literature, a crude analogy, for which we should apologize, but it is one that we hope reflects the major impact of his work on the art, and his primacy among its literary practitioners.Beckett's work is random by no means. It is carefully crafted, and has an internal rhythm all its own. If a reader is willing to take off their shoes and run through the squishy mud of Beckett's life-swamp, so to speak, it is a joy to read and great fun to reflect upon. "Watt" is a good example of his work, relatively short, and relatively simple, but still likely to provoke great consternation among any who are not used to Beckett's gushing and admirable style, but great enjoyment among those who take it on its own life-affirming terms.Beckett is a great writer for those readers who seek a literary puzzle, a semantic challenge, and a story with a surreal whiff, which tells us how wonderful it is just to be alive, enjoying our time on earth. "Watt" is one of Beckett's more accessible and fun works.

I read Watt hot on the heels of Murphy returning to both after first reading them 40 years ago in my teens. Murphy written pre-WWII is a rambunctious mad-sad tale but with discernible almost conventional characters. Nothing in post-war Watt appears clearly discernible despite exhausting efforts to discern and there is little or nothing of convention here. I did enjoy Watt much more though. It may be many things: a representation of the pathetic even wretched nature of ordinary humanity, a rebellion against the tyranny of logic, a treatise on the impossibility of knowing... But above all it is a wildly funny and inventive feat of original storytelling. I loved indeed relished every page... Beckett's touch seems uniformly assured and brilliant. And along with the marvellously absurd humour there are surprising moments of poignancy and even beauty. I count it now as one of the best and most enlivening novels I have read since first reading it 40+ years ago.

memorably quirky characters in even quirkier situations...odd, even uncomfortable incidents...more quickly paced and more accessible than beckett's longer novels (though not easy and resolutely depressing at points)...great wordplay...elliptical insights...a good entry point to beckett's prose,...that said, I prefer his plays, esp. "happy days" with the unforgettable winnie.

Although Samuel Beckett is considered one of the great writers of the 20th century, I must consider him one of the most boring. His subject matter is tedious to an extreme and his work most unentertaining. Although I read Watt long ago and remembered it, I would not recommend this novel for a good read.basically for any reader. Read me instead!

It is humorous and unforgettable, it elevates the ordinary to both the comic and symbolic. The climax of the book is the ultimate comment on life, witty and meaningless - a cathartic experience.

Seminal literary work of twentieth century. Only very silly people would say it is too deep for them. Hilariously funny throughout. Reading by Dermot Crowley superb. Text very well sorted out by Chris Ackerley, who is also very good at hockey.

This book is a challenging read, Watt is a man obsessed by frivolous details, and the book readily goes through lexical marathons describing every possible permutation of a given potential action.. For pages and pages.. The tedium is very much the point though. All this in a surrealist frame where the narrative style is almost schizophrenic in its nature, switching abruptly and without repose or conclusion. Much like his play Waiting for Godot Watt is also darkly comedic, if you can get past the linguistic marathons you can appreciate its very nature as frivolous and comic, although it is a tragic comedy as Watt is trapped in such a mind. There is far more to say about this book than can be said in a simple review and no doubt many ways it can be analysed.If you like challenging, thought-provoking, surrealist/absurdist literature then give it a go.

I combined the book with the fabulous Dermot Crowley Audiobook which really added to the enjoyment. It's a book to bring the ordinary into focus as important, absurd, futile and very very funny. Perfectly untidy.

very disappointing, pretentious twaddle, almost unreadable. Wish I'd read other -ve reviews before reading it.

Surprisingly mundane by Beckett's standards -as he himself noted not his greatest hour -merely glimpses of the profundity and humour to come