Molloy in Never too Late to Read Classics

Dec 17, 2023 ForestGardenGal rated it liked it

Shelves: genre-fiction, classics-published-50-years-ago

I am not going to attempt a traditional review; I am not certain one can properly review a book in which the author manages to completely blacken page after page without giving the reader any concrete details about the era, the location, the state of the characters sanity or their relationship to each other, or even the faintest hint of a plot or a reason for the author having put pen to paper at all. I can only provide my personal feelings that were evoked during and upon completion of this boo I am not going to attempt a traditional review; I am not certain one can properly review a book in which the author manages to completely blacken page after page without giving the reader any concrete details about the era, the location, the state of the characters sanity or their relationship to each other, or even the faintest hint of a plot or a reason for the author having put pen to paper at all. I can only provide my personal feelings that were evoked during and upon completion of this book.

I am still digesting the second paragraph. I may need a moment before continuing. Yes, I'm sure I do. Or no I don't. I just want to say that I have remembered something I transcribed one evening after waking up from the previous night's activities, during which night I had a flurry of brilliant thoughts probably brought upon by one substance or another. The effect of the substance or substances upon my grey matter and upon my motor control having been that, despite the brilliance of my flurried thoughts, I could not physically write them down and I was frustrated until I was then impressed upon to dictate my thoughts into a handheld recorder as they brilliantly occurred to me. Reading the second paragraph of Molloy felt a bit like reading that, but only if I had also been very old, and smelly, and physically disabled, and homeless, and sexually ignorant, and socially inept, and obsessed with my mother, and a hypochondriac, and obsessive-compulsive.

Okay, I have finished but I am not yet dead. Or maybe I am dead. Am I one person or two? Am I the son running toward the parent or the parent pursuing the son and also abandoned by the son? Has the one overtaken the other? Will the personalities ever come into contact?

So very hard to read, but there were some lovely thoughts in the midst of all those darkened pages. The experience is like having the entire six pack of drinks, but lacking the little plastic thing that holds them together, keeps them organized, and makes it easier to carry all six in one hand.

In my opinion, the purpose of fictional literature is to convey ideas, stories, and feelings to an audience. This book certainly conveys some feelings, albeit mixed, and a few ideas as well. As for conveying a story, I think that this book falls a bit short- the story can only be found in the reader's mind after a deliberate attempt to create a story, and will necessarily vary reader by reader. This type of modernist artistic literature is so trying to the reader's patience, through a contrived manipulation of the very structure of our language, that the audience is severely limited thereby and instead of being used to convey ideas, stories, and feelings, it becomes useful only as art and is most often used only as an artifice by those who wish to appear more intellectual. Or maybe it's just not my cuppa tea.

R for language, sexual content, and violence. The book also harbors absolutely no regard for the niceties of polite society; if you are easily offended, you will probably not enjoy this book. ...more

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Aug 08, 2013 Amanda Greer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: changed-my-life

Reading 'Molloy' is like stumbling through a thorny and brambly maze, unsure of where you're going or where you've come from, while simultaneously feeling a sense of peace at this uncertainty, as if you've eagerly accepted unpredictability as a part of life.

'Molloy' will definitely make you think. You'll think so hard, you'll want to rip the pages from their spine and throw them into the nearest fire. The irony is that Beckett, while approaching existentialist issues like death, parent-child re ...more

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Aug 10, 2014 Neeria rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: z_2014, litt-francophone

LC du 15 août avec Iroise, Chat de bibliothèques, Yvon et Cryssilda

Molloy, c’est un roman cyclique. On suit Molloy dans son retour à sa mère mais n’est-ce pas plutôt une quête de lui-même ? Une quête qui n’aboutit jamais en fin de compte. Moran est détective, il enquête sur la disparition de Molloy. A l’instar de Molloy, il va perdre progressivement l’usage de son corps.

Premier roman de Beckett que je découvre. Beckett, je l’ai étudié au lycée : en terminale littéraire, c’était Fin de partie, p ...more

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