490. Watt

Watt
Samuel Beckett
1953
Around 260 pages

Only ten more novels until the big 500. Unfortunately, for that happy moment to occur, we have to get through two Becketts in a row. Hey, I want to enjoy a novel written while hiding from the Gestapo as much as the next guy. But I don't click with his style, which is oh so very Irish.

It's difficult to summarize a Beckett novel, since so much of the action takes place in the abstract. I guess suffice to say, Watt obsesses over his employer Mr. Knott, who never appears in the novel. His experimental style made it feel like an undergrad assignment to me, where he was tasked with incorporating a certain amount of motifs into one lengthy project. 

Here's one quote to illustrate how rough it can be to get through this thing:

“Here he stood. Here he sat. Here he knelt. Here he lay. Here he moved, to and fro, from the door to the window, from the window to the door; from the window to the door, from the door to the window; from the fire to the bed, from the bed to the fire; from the bed to the fire, from the fire to the bed." I mean, are you trying to get on my nerves? Or sound like a children's book? Or fill a word count? 

We don't even get a break between Becketts, that's cold, Listmakers.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Written by Beckett on the run in France during World War II.

UP NEXT: The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett