david hayman_beckett: a reluctant sitter

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Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia by and on Behalf of the University of Georgia and the Georgia Review is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Georgia Review. http://www.jstor.org Review: Beckett: A Reluctant Sitter Author(s): David Hayman Review by: David Hayman Source: The Georgia Review, Vol. 33, No. 1, Focus on the Imagination (Spring 1979), pp. 221-227 Published by: Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia by and on Behalf of the University of Georgia and the Georgia Review Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41397706 Accessed: 12-05-2015 23:53 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/  info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. This content downloaded from 109.121.63.134 on Tue, 12 May 2015 23:53:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: David Hayman_Beckett: A Reluctant Sitter

7/21/2019 David Hayman_Beckett: A Reluctant Sitter

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/david-haymanbeckett-a-reluctant-sitter 1/8

Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia by and on Behalf of the University of Georgia and the

Georgia Review is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Georgia Review.

http://www.jstor.org

Review: Beckett: A Reluctant SitterAuthor(s): David Hayman

Review by: David HaymanSource: The Georgia Review, Vol. 33, No. 1, Focus on the Imagination (Spring 1979), pp. 221-227Published by: Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia by and on Behalf of theUniversity of Georgia and the Georgia ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41397706Accessed: 12-05-2015 23:53 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/  info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of contentin a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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Page 2: David Hayman_Beckett: A Reluctant Sitter

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BOOK

REVIEWS

221

don.

In

this

ase,

footnoting,

ather

han

mitation,

may

be

the

sincerest

orm

of

flattery.

One

thing

s clear:

given

the

widespread popularity

f

America

Hu-

mor,

more will-

and

should-

be

written.

n

fact,

here

may

even

come

a time

when such work can

skip

the

obligatory apologies."

And

yet,

that

combi-

nation

of

scholarly ntelligence

nd

a

congenial pirit

which

produced

books

like

Franklin

J.

Meine's

Tall Tales

of

Southwest

(1930)

or

Constance

Rourke's

American Humor

(

193

or Walter Blair's

Native

American

Hu-

mor

(1937)

will still seem rare

and

precious.

As

a

literary

history,

t

once

overview

and

synthesis,

America's

Humor

belongs

to that

distinguished

company.

David

Hayman

Beckett:

A

Reluctant

Sitter

*

Samuel

Beckett has

become

almost

the

emblem

of

the writer

n

retreat,

making

withdrawal

he dominant

eature

f

texts

which

have

progressively

obliterated

hemselves.

Being

a

private

person,

he

has

raised

solation

o new

heights

s

a

value.

Inevitably,

s in

the case

of

Howard

Hughes,

the

assertion

of

privacy

has elicited

n

ever-increasing

mount

of

curiosity

nd

interest

n

the

life

and

background

of

the

man

who

has

generated

exts

which

to

so

many

of us seem

as

deeply personal

s

they

are

personally

moving.

t

is

per-

hapsalso

inevitable

hat

a

biography

has been

written

which

airs

the

secrets

of therecluse and thatthat

biography

has attracted n unusualamountof

public

nterest.

Like

Joyce

before

him,

but

with

less

interested

motives

(for

Joyce

needed

and

soughtpublicity

or his

demanding

works),

Beckett

has tried

to

forestall

biografiends."

e

has acceded

to

the

requests

f

Lawrence

Harvey

for

background

nformation

eeded

to

explain

his

early

writings,

rovided

bibliographical

etails

for Federman

and

Fletcher's

annotated

bibliography,

and

helped

Ludovic

Janvier

o assemble

his

Beckett

par

lui-même

As

might

be

expected,

he

has

(privately)

praised

Janvier

for

not

publishing

ll he

*

An

essay-review

f

SamuelBeckett:A Biography.yDeirdre air.NewYork:HarcourtraceJovano-

vich,

978.

iv,

36

pp.

$19.95.

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222 THE

GEORGIA REVIEW

knew,

an

action

surely

worthy

of

respect.

On

the

other

hand,

he has

con-

sistently

efused

o

give

nterviews r

to

make

public appearances,

as avoided

all

sorts f

publicity

nd mixedwith the

world

only

on

his

own terms.This

is

amply

documented

by

the book

under

consideration,

s

is

the

pain

caused

Beckett

by

untoward

publicity.

One

might

think

hat these

procedures

nd

that

anguish

would at the

very

east

protect

him

until

after

his

death. But

thanks

o

the

indefatigable

Deirdre

Bair,

we now

have before

us

a

bulky

biography

oaded with

answers

to all

the

questions

we didn't

dare

ask

and

some

we never

even

thought

f.

No

matterhow

we

may

regard

the

invasionof

privacy

(one

might

call

it

investigativeeportage)or rather he abuse of good will suggestedby Ms.

Bair's

procedures

by

now so

well

publicized

hat

they

need

not

be

recapitu-

lated),

we

must

agree

thatthisbook

contributes

significantly

o our knowl-

edge

of

the man

and

even

lluminates

ome

aspects

of

his

work.

It

is

usually

wise

to

discount

by

fifty

ercent

biographers'

laims as

purveyors

f

light

to

purblind

critics,

but

certainly

Beckett's

agonizing

relationship

with a

powerful

mother,

ogether

with

the

psychosomatic

llnesses

nd the

psycho-

analysis

hatwere

its

classic side

effects,

hrow

nto

sharp

relief ertain

par-

ticularly

ark

corners

f

his minor

prose.

They

also affect ur

reading

f

the

Beckett

canon

and

will

probably

timulate

more

people

to

read further

nd

deeper.

If

this s

hardly

he

flawless

work

announced

by

the

critics ited

on the

dust jacket,we mustremember hatthe authormakesno claimsto

being

definitive.

One

of

my

colleagues

alls

thisbook

"materials

or

biography.")

Given the

reticenceof

her

subject,

who

apparently

ranted

her

few

inter-

views

and was

at

no

pains

to

supplement

he

information

supplied

by

those

of

his

friends nd

relations

willing

to

cooperate,

we

may

wonder

that there

are

so

few

obvious

acunae

and

so

little

padding.

On the

other

hand,

much

credit

must

be

shared

with

Beckett,

whose

letters

o

Thomas

McGreevy

enliven

he core

of

the

book,

especially

the

treatment f the

troubled

pre-

fame

years

and

Beckett's

reactions

o the

encroachment

f

fame.

McGreevy

was

a man to

whom

Beckett

felt

ttuned,

nd

Ms. Bair

had access

to

the

en-

tire

correspondence

f

over

three

hundred

etters

which

she

freely

quotes

and frequently araphrases. n many cases, these splendidlettersparallel

Beckett's

creative

writings,

or

he

transfers

passages

from

hem

nto

his

fic-

tion

and

drama,

from

he

briefest

image

and

scantiest

phrase

to

whole

para-

graphs.

Reading

these

xtracts nd

knowing

how

Beckett

manages

o

include

memorable

nd

characteristic

tterances

n

even

the

briefest

ard,

one

can't

help

looking

forward o

the

day

when

these

etters

will

be

available

n

their

entirety.

What,

we

may

ask

rhetorically,

oes

one

expect?

What

can

one

expect

from

literary

iography

oday?

How

does this

effort

measure

up

to

such

expectations?

A

biography

hould

obviously give

us fresh

nformation

nd

insights

n

and

into

the

subject's

background,

youth,

education,

contacts,

and

development.

t

shouldalso settheworkwithin hecontextof the life,illuminate heir

nteraction.

Ideally,

as

Joyce put

it,

a

biographicalportrait

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BOOK

REVIEWS

223

should

describe

the

life

n

termsof "the

curve

of an

emotion,"

giving

the

reader

a keen sense

of the

vitality

behind the works without

freezing

he

subject

or

undercutting

onsistency

f

character.

A

literary iography

need

not

be

dull,

but

t

should

not

be

sensational,

ournalistic,

r

trendy.

t

should

neither

iminish or

magnify

ts

subject.

On

the whole

Bair

does

well,

though

we

may

fault

herfor occasional

slips

nto

sensationalism

nd

for certain

jour-

nalistic ics. Her Beckett s neither

giant,

nor

dwarf.

He

is

vulnerable,

hu-

mane,

gentle,

agonizing,

demanding,

ronic,

generous,

withdrawn:

he

is

a

multiple,

protean

but

remarkably

powerful

ndividual.

The

events

of

his

life

fade

nto

the

background

n

the

presence

f

a

striking

nd

sustained

pres-

ence. In short, heBeckett

of this

portrait ends

to

confirm

he

Beckett

of

the creativework.

I

refer,

f

course,

not

so much

to the

interpretations

f

that

work

by

Bair

as to the assessments

ne

can make

as a careful

ritical

ead-

er,

ssessments

hat

have

been

made

even

by

critics

whom

Bair

consistently

e-

jects.

More

than

ever,

t is clear that

the

powerful

mpression

eadersderive

is

generatedby

powerful mpulses

n

Beckett's

ife.

t does

not

follow

that

we

as critics

and readers

really

need

to know the

precise

sources

of this

power,

but

still

t

is nice

to

have

specific

details

related

to

biographical

n-

formationwhich would

otherwise emain

privileged.

To

return

o

our

list

of

requirements,

biography

hould

be accurate

in

its

details nd

careful

n its

judgments.

Here,

as

we shall

see,

Bair's

book

falls

omewhat,

f

not

catastrophically,

hort.

Beckett readers have hitherto ad only the barestoutlineof his back-

ground

and next

to

nothing

bout

his

family.

What we

now

have

is a

spec-

tacular

and

disturbing

ccount that has

already

made

more

than

one critic

nervous. Bair

gives

us

a

profile

of

an Irish

Protestant

household

with

an

ebullient

atherwho

encouraged

his

sons

to

develop

their

bodies

and

a

rather

starchy

mother

with whom

an

"incompletely

orn" Beckett

had a

painfully

prolonged

ove-hate

relationship.

he otherwise

healthy

nd athletic

young

man was

subject

to

neuroticbouts

and

psychosomatic

maladies

hat

Bair be-

lieves

to

have stemmed

rom hat

relationship.

n

the

early

thirties

e

under-

went

psychoanalytic

reatment

with

only

moderate

uccess.

(It

was

prob-

ably

at

this ime hathe

acquired

the

knowledge

of Freud

and

Jung

reflected

in thenovels.) Throughit all he remained remarkably ood if distant nd

recalcitrant

on.

Were it

not

for

the extreme

eactions,

ne

might

ay

that

all of

this

s

normal nd

that

any

one

of

us

might

have ived

the same

ife

with

minor ariations. uch

equations

ome too

easily

nd

perhaps

ead

us

too

far,

but

given

the

ntensity

f

Beckett's

experience,

suggestive

arallel

between

a mother-ridden eckett

and

a

father-ridden

afka

springs

to mind.

The

affinity

etween

theirworks

and

visionshas

not

escaped

critical

notice,

nd

we

may

also note

certain

parallel

character

raits.

Bair chronicles

n

great

detail the

familial

onds

that,

even

in his

exile,

Becketthas

maintained

hroughout

he

years-

bonds

that

may

find

heir

or-

relatives

n

certain

aspects

of

his

plays

and

novels.

There

is,

for

example,

his

prolongedattachment orhisbohemiancousinPeggy Sinclair,who figures

as the Smeraldina

n

More

Pricks

Than

Kicks

And there

s

his

uncle

Jim,

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224

THE GEORGIA REVIEW

man who lost

his

legs,

his

sight,

nd the use of

his arms to

diabetes

but re-

tained

his

wit

and

cheerful

disposition

ill

he

died.

Beckett was

so

attached

to

this

uncle

that

(though

the

trip

s not mentioned

by

Bair),

he claims he

traveled o

Dublin

for his

funeral.

Perhaps

he was also

fascinated

by

the

ter-

rible

way

life

has

of

imitating

rt. Of

equal

interest,

ecause

equally

fresh,

is

the

account of how

he

spent

the war

years,

he

modesty

with which

he

downplayed

his

heroism,

nd

the

consistency

f his

motives

n

behaving

s

he did.

In

fact,

consistency

n

and

through

omplexity

runs

like

a

thread

throughout

his

portrait.

eckett

has

been

utterly

onsistent

ut

of

a

pro-

found

need to

be

true

to

himself.

his

is evident

lso

in the

account of his

relationship ithhiswifeSuzanne,whichbegan after hewriterwas sense-

lessly

knifed

by

a

pimp

n

Paris.

According

to Bair

(but

not

to

others)

t

has

remained

curiously

eparate-but-equal

rrangement

ver

since.

Consistency

is

also

evident

n

the

account

of

Beckett's

comic/tragic

elationship

with

James

Joyce

nd his

daughter

ucia. The

information

suppliedby

Bair

could

supplement

hat

n

Ellmann's

biography

nd

fill n lacunae

n

the

correspon-

dence.

Unfortunately,

s we

shall

see,

ts

value

is

diminished

by

errors

which

are

bound to

suggest

aveats.

Finally,

n

addition o a

careful

accounting

of

Beckett's

writing,

here

s

a

useful

and

enlightening

iecing

together

f ac-

counts

of

his

oversight

f

productions

f

his

plays.

Once

again

we

are struck

by

the

picture

of

a

surprisingly

elf-assuredman

demanding

of

actors

the

ultimate

against-the-grain

ffort

o

repress

much

of

their

training

n

the

ser-

vice of eccentricbut

powerful

dramatic ffects.n short, hereare

plenty

of

good

things

n

this

book,

and

no

Beckett

enthusiast

r

scholar

can

afford

not

to

read

it.

This

having

been

said,

we

must

also note

some

flaws.

Throughout

the

book,

but

particularly

fter

he

etters

o

McGreevy

have

dried

up,

the

read-

er

gets

whiffs

f the

dissertation

pox,

traces

of the

card

file

generating

re-

quently

boring

catalogues

of

facts

Beckett's

trips,

visits

home,

the

medical

problems

f

both

Beckett

nd

Suzanne,

his

visits

rom

reland,

ontacts

with

relatives,

tc.).

These

are

occasionally

fleshed

ut

with

dubious

passages

of

mind-reading

hich

could

only

be

justified

f

backed

up by

correspondence.

Since

Bair's

sources of

information or

the

recent

years

have

been

meager,

however, largechunkofthebook is veryaridreading, ontainingittle r

nothing

hat

lluminates he

human

situation.And

since

this

happens

to

be

the

period

during

which

scholars

nd

criticshave

had

the

most

to do

with

Beckett,

am

certain

that

much

was lost

because

the

author

failed to

ap-

proach-or

got

no

help

from-many

of

Beckett's

academic

friends

nd

ac-

quaintances:

cholars

ike

Raymond

Federman,

Richard

Ellmann

(who

gets

rough

treatmentn

these

pages),

and

Hugh

Kenner

whose

work

s

obliquely

rejected).

There

is

throughout

his

biography

an

antiacademic

bias

which

may

stem

from an

avowed

distrust

f

critical

approaches

which

lack

the

biog-

rapher's

nside

view.

Yet,

one

wonders

why

those

of

them

who

have

had

real

contact

with the author'ssubject,even thosewho may not have hadBeckett's ealof

approval,

would

not

add

something

o

this

ccount

and con-

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BOOK REVIEWS

225

tribute ubstance o the

concluding

hapters.

No

available

opportunity

hould

have been

neglected

o

bring

the

recent

years

to

life.

t is

curious

that,

ike

Richard

Ellmann

to

whose

biography

f

Joyce

this book

has

been

perhaps

hyperbolically

ompared),

Ms.

Bair

is

weakest

when

approaching

he

pres-

ent. We shall

clearly

have

to await

a

later

study

to

give

us a

full account of

the

post-Nobel

years.

Furthermore,

ince

the

comments f

colleagues

sug-

gest

that

t least some of the sources

were

misrepresented

n

these

pages,

we

will

also have

to

await the

necessary

orrective

study.

As a

Joycean,

was

delighted

o have

new

and

more detailed

nforma-

tion

concerning

eckett's

relationship

ith his

rish master" nd

concerning

his prolonged

and

agonizingrelationship

with

Lucia

Joyce.

It should be

noted

thatBeckett's

sympathy

orLucia in her

deteriorating

mentalcondi-

tion

was

genuine

and

sustained

as

was

his admiration

for

Joyce,

whose

mementos

e stillcherishes.

ut

my pleasure

n this

nstance

was

alloyed

by

disappointment

ith factual

and

interpretive

rrors.For

example,

one of

Beckett's

prized

possessions

s

Joyce's

famous

waistcoat

embroidered

with

dogs,

a

photograph

f which was

reproduced

n the La

Hune

catalogue

of

the

Joyce

collection.

Ms.

Bair

calls

it

his

"extraordinarily lower-patterned

waistcoat."

Perhaps

t is

true that

"in December

1929,

Joyce

nvited

Beckett

to

translate

Anna

Livia

Plurabelle,'

but

Becketthimself

ememberst

differ-

ently,

aying

hat

Alfred

Péron and

he

first

ndertook

he

job

on

their

wn.

The

authority

ited

for this detail

s

Mme

Péron,

and one

is struck

by

the

frequencywithwhich onlyone sourcehas been consulted nd how seldom

that ource

s the

authorhimself.

ow

is

it

possible

that,

despite

he

correct

version

n

Ellmann,

Ms.

Bair

places

the

Breton

seaside

resort

of La

Baule,

where Lucia was

staying

t the

beginning

f

the

war,

in Switzerland?

This

would

put

the

Joyce

family

n

a safe

spot

at

the

very

time

they

were

trying

desperately

o be united

on

neutral

ground.

The

less said

the

better oncern-

ing

Bair's

commentary

n

Joyce's

work,

especially

on

Finne

ans

Wake. We

may only

note

n

passing

her naïve

assumption

hat

passage

written

n

1926

and

referring

o

Sam alludes

to

Beckett,

who met

Joyce

in

1928;

the most

obvious

subject

of

this

passage

is

Joyce

himself.

More

surprising

s

a

mis-

reading

both

of

Joyce's

reaction

to

and

Beckett's

probable

intent

n

More

PricksThan Kicks Bair cites only partof Joyce'smildly approvingcom-

ment,

overlooking

he

significant nderlying

nxiety

and

the

biographical

overtones n

the

following

ines: "One

of

the

characters

s named

Lucia

but

is

quite

different.he

is

a

cripple

or

something."*

he

tale

in

question

does

contain

Lucy

(not Lucia).

In

a veiled

fashion

t

may

reflect

eckett's

dis-

turbing

elationship

ith

the

daughter

f the man

he so

admired.

One

would

expect

this

allusion to be

caught by

a

biographer

who

is

so

quick

to

draw

conclusions

rom ther

data,

and we

may question

n this

light

he

statement

that he ast six

stories re

not

autobiographical.

We are

used to

seeing biographers

oing

through

heir

paces

as

critics,

*LettersfJames oyceed. Richard llmannNewYork:Viking ress, 966),II,

316.

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22

6

THE

GEORGIA

REVIEW

adducing

conclusions

rom

details

of

the life.

At

times

uch

details nd con-

clusions

are

genuinely

helpful,

f

only

in

bolstering

he

insights

f

critics.

Here,

where we are

lucky

enough

to

findbits of

diary

or

letters,

r conver-

sations,

we

can

see

what Beckettwas

reading

and

what he valued

in

litera-

ture: the

Journal

f

Jules

Renard,

he

worksand

personality

f

Samuel

John-

son,

and the

early

work

of

Louis-FerdinandCéline

(who,

he

told

Peggy

Guggenheim,

was

the

foremostwriter f our

century

fter

Joyce).

Unmen-

tioned,

but

also

significant

re

the

Portuguese

polypoet

Fernando Pesoa and

van

Gogh

as

letter

writer,

tc.

The

biographical

ources for

images

and de-

tails,

he ife

patterns

epeated

n the

work,

nd the

treatmentsf

unpublished

and, n somecases,hitherto ntreatedmanuscriptsre all of value. Less use-

ful

are the extended

plot

summaries

nd

the

value

judgments

which

reflect

very

ittle

ritical

sophistication.

nd then

here

re

the

all

too

frequent

lar-

ing

errors nd

misreadings.

Her

biographical

ixation

eads

Ms. Bair

to make

statements

ike the

fol-

lowing

concerning

Beckett's

hilarious nd

disturbing

wartime

masterpiece

Watt:

At

times

t

verges

on

autobiography.

.

.

There

are

descriptions

of the

countryside

round

Foxrock,

allusions

to

his

boyhood

and

constant

eferences o

the

seasonal

cycles

of

the

plants

nd

animalsof

Ireland.

At other

times,

Watt

is

only

an

academic

exercisefor a vital mindhemmed n by the accident of war,

which restricted

his

residence,

ccess

to

books,

friends nd

family.

It

is hardto

believe

that o

careful

craftsmans

Beckett s would allow

aca-

demic

exercises o be

printed.

Ms.

Bair

goes

on

to

state that

n

purging

his

style

of

Joyce

(which

he

actually,

hough

perhaps

not

so

consciously,

id),

Beckett

"concentrated

or

[sic]

a

single

meaning,

xplicit,

mmediately

p-

parent

. .

and

with

profound

mplication

or

his own

personal

existence

s

well

as for

the

universal

udience." This is

certainly

rue,

but the

emphasis

is

misplaced.

Beckett's

transparent-seeming

tterance

like

that of

Kafka)

pointsup

its

universal

implications

nd

subverts

any single

meaning.

n

sum-

marizing heplot,Bair makessignificantrrors, mitting romheraccount

the

opening

equence

with

ts

portrait

f

threeestablishment

anies

and

the

oblique

glimpse

f Watt

through

heir

eyes,

telling

s

thatWatt

"is first

n-

countered

n

a

railway

station." submit

hat

the

hunchbacked

Mr. Hackett

is

a

surrogate

or

Sam,

who

admits o

telling

he

ast

part

of the

tale

at

Watt's

dictation.

The

note

sounded

by

Sam

and the

Hackett/Beckett

hyme

are

surely

ignificant

or both

biographer

nd

critic,

nd

the

opening

sequence

with

its

resounding

non

sequiturs

s

easily

as

important

s

the

concluding

pages

of

"Addenda"

over

which critics

ontinue

o

puzzle.

It is

worth

noting

hat

Ms.

Bair has

scant

sympathy

or the

novels

after

Murphy

nd none

for

the

second half

of

the

earlierMore

Pricks Than

Kicks

For her,onlyMurphy s a "carefully rafted ovel";it alonemerits chapter

by

itself.

ut even here

the

bias

s

evident:

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BOOK

REVIEWS

227

Most of

his

characterswere based

on

people

he

had

known,

but

his

ultimate ntention

was to make

Murphy

an

illustration

f

philosophical

principles;

hus,

there

was

a

certain amount

of

structure nd

form

he needed

to invent

nd then

impose upon

the

characters.

Her

treatment

f

the

trilogy

s another

matter.

With

few

biographical

crutches

o lean

on,

she

limps

from rror

o

error,

hedding

ittle

light,

x-

plaining

next to

nothing.

The

plot

summaries

re

mercifully

rief.

n

the

account of

Molloy

we

learnthat t

the

beginning

f his

narrative

Molloy

has

been in

his

mother's oom

"at

least a

year,"

that

he

begins"by telling

how

his

journey

began,"

thatheis arrested for the

way

herides he

bicycle,"

that

Lousse

actually

drugs" Molloy's

food,

that he

goes

to

the

seaside

"to renew

his

sixteen

sucking

tones."

None of these assertions

s

true n

any

verifiable

sense

in

a

novel where truth

nd verisimilitude

re

not

foregrounded.

or

the

record,

Molloy

says:

"I took

advantage

of

being

at

the

seasideto

lay

in

a

store

of

sucking

tones."

What is

important

ere

s the failureof

the

biog-

rapher

not

only

to

follow

the "facts"

but

also to

understand

he

nature

of

the

objects

she

is

dealing

with.

Fortunately,

hough

not

consistently,

he

does better

with

the

plays.

Having

compiled

these

quibbles,

we

must admit

that

Bair

has

written

book

which we

can and will

use. Until

a

better ccount

comes

along

it will

serveus quitewell.For all itsweaknesses,t s neither trivial ora negligible

accomplishment.

till,

f it satisfies ur

curiosity

oncerning

he

details

of

Beckett's

background

nd

life,

t failsto

elicit trust

nd

only

whets

our

ap-

petite

for

more

and more reliable nformation.

ne

may hope

that

it will

send

readers

ack

to

thebooks

to discover

Beckett

who

is

deeper

nd

richer,

more

amusing

nd

more

intriguing

han

anything

ound

on

these

pages.

Poetry

in

America:

Expression

and its Values

in

the

Times

of

Bryant,

Whitman, and Pound. By BernardDuifey. Durham,N.C.: Duke Uni-

versity

ress,

1978.

xiv,

358

pp.

$14.75.

In

Canto

XIII

Ezra

Pound

writes

of

"a

time

when

historians

eft blanks

in

their

writings"-

humble

concession

to

the

mysterious

therness

f their

materials.

The

major

historians

f

American

poetry-

Roy

Harvey

Pearce

and

Hyatt

H.

Waggoner-

have

chosen,

however,

o stress

what

Pearce

called

The

Continuity f

American

Poetry

though

they

defined

hat

continuity

quite

differently.

t

first

glance,

Bernard

Duffey's

Poetry

n

America

seems

an

innovative werve

from

this tradition

f historical

writing.

Right

at

the

start,

uffey

tates

hat he

has

"not

found

any

single

essence,

o much

as

I

havealterationnd a variety fpoeticvoices,"

and it

appears

that

this

critic,

abjuring

he

imperial

hrust

f a monolithic

hesis,

will allow forthe discon-

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