On a recent trip to the bookstore I decided to broaden my horizons a bit and try out some authors who I've heard good things about but had never really given a shot. The first of these is Samuel Beckett (no, not the protagonist from Quantum Leap), an Irish novelist. Molloy was the book I had heard a recommendation about on the somethingawful.com forums, so I decided to check it out. It turns out that Molloy was the first in a loosely-connected trilogy along with Malone Dies and The Unnameable, so I kind of hoped I would like Molloy since I had to buy all three in one book. At first I was hesitant. After one paragraph, the novel is an insane, rambling single-paragraph wall of text for the next 100 or so pages. At brief times it moved along well enough, but then you're treated to essay-length nuggets about how to effectively suck on sixteen different rocks in the correct order. Wow. Anyway, during this first half you hear the story of Molloy from the main character himself, and he's either going to or leaving his mother's house. I'm not even sure if the character knew what was going on. Molloy seems to be reaching old age and really just doesn't care much for public appearances anymore, so he sort of stumbles around Ireland before reaching his final resting place out in the woods. At this point, the book shifts completely to the much more sensible narrator, detective Jacques Moran, who has been assigned to find Molloy. Moran's half of the novel reads much easier, but during his year-long journey to find his man, he also struggles with his advanced age similarly to Molloy. This second half was a joy to read as there was indeed a bit more plot and characterization. This leaves me with some hope for part 2 of the trilogy- Malone Dies, will be less of a meandering mess and possibly touch upon the theme of aging in a similar way. We'll see.
December 8, 2009
Molloy
On a recent trip to the bookstore I decided to broaden my horizons a bit and try out some authors who I've heard good things about but had never really given a shot. The first of these is Samuel Beckett (no, not the protagonist from Quantum Leap), an Irish novelist. Molloy was the book I had heard a recommendation about on the somethingawful.com forums, so I decided to check it out. It turns out that Molloy was the first in a loosely-connected trilogy along with Malone Dies and The Unnameable, so I kind of hoped I would like Molloy since I had to buy all three in one book. At first I was hesitant. After one paragraph, the novel is an insane, rambling single-paragraph wall of text for the next 100 or so pages. At brief times it moved along well enough, but then you're treated to essay-length nuggets about how to effectively suck on sixteen different rocks in the correct order. Wow. Anyway, during this first half you hear the story of Molloy from the main character himself, and he's either going to or leaving his mother's house. I'm not even sure if the character knew what was going on. Molloy seems to be reaching old age and really just doesn't care much for public appearances anymore, so he sort of stumbles around Ireland before reaching his final resting place out in the woods. At this point, the book shifts completely to the much more sensible narrator, detective Jacques Moran, who has been assigned to find Molloy. Moran's half of the novel reads much easier, but during his year-long journey to find his man, he also struggles with his advanced age similarly to Molloy. This second half was a joy to read as there was indeed a bit more plot and characterization. This leaves me with some hope for part 2 of the trilogy- Malone Dies, will be less of a meandering mess and possibly touch upon the theme of aging in a similar way. We'll see.
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