I included this because many of the shorter plays by Beckett, along with the radio and television ones, were not available for inclusion on LibraryThing. Many of them are whimsical and not all of them hit the mark, but the good ones in this collection (mentioned in the specific reviews I've written) are well worth the collection. It's hard to envision, at times, what Beckett was getting at (as he was an elusive master) but there's something inherently strong and likeable about the plays in full. It's well worth the read and I think should be noted for dramatists, both aspiring and practising. I do think it would suit them well.

4. 25 stars. ( )

My recent reading of Beckett's plays included Happy Days, Embers, and Not I, the last two of which are included in this excellent collection of his shorter plays. The length of these plays does not diminish their brilliance or depth of meaning.
In these short plays Beckett focused even more tightly on the inner experience of humanity. In Embers, a play written for the radio Beckett presents a man named Henry who shares his thoughts, both through attempting to tell a story and through memories of his past. With creation of characters his imagination presents these others, including his family, with an intensity that makes them seem alive. Yet it is their ghostly and ephemeral character that takes precedence. In the background the sound of the sea provides an ostinato that is haunting. Henry's imagination, however, weakens over the course of the short play. We first experience this as his story is interrupted more than once, yet he returns to it only with more and more difficulty.
The memories of his past include scenes with his daughter and his wife, who may be present although her weak monotone voice suggests otherwise. "Not a sound" is a recurring phrase; but more important is the sound of dying embers. Henry tries to make us hear this but cannot project it:
"not a sound, only the fire, no flames now, embers. (Pause.) Embers. (Pause.) Shifting, lapsing, furtive like, a dreadful sound" (90). It is a sound (the title of the play) that we are denied. It represents death and extinction and to give it sound would be to give it life.
Beckett's prose has a serene, almost poetic quality and must have been extremely effective on a radio broadcast. ( )

It's Beckett. It's brilliant. But I repeat myself. Don't try to understand the deeper meanings, don't try to fit these plays into a formula, don't try to figure out which of the 'stories' they fit into, because they don't fit into any of them. Beckett wrote plays without words; plays without plots; plays without any of the standard things that plays "need", and he thumbed his nose at traditional theatre. Now he stands like the colossus of Rhodes over the theatre scene, and the rest of us can only stare in awe. The plays in this book range from short to very short, but they hit you in the gut with something, and it's something that is difficult to explain or understand. A playwright reading this work can only cringe in abject embarrassment at their own mediocrity - and study the craft to try to improve their own. In case you haven't guessed it, I highly recommend Beckett, but only for those individuals who are willing to accept theatre that doesn't have a linear progresson, doesn't have a beginning, a middle, or an end, and doesn't go where you expect it to go - in fact, often doesn't go anywhere at all. From the most mundane to the most surreal, he shows his audience everything through a funhouse mirror. Fun? Yes, fun. Dark...brooding...perhaps a bit mocking...but fun. If you don't like Beckett, you probably don't deserve Beckett. ( )

Almost too much Beckett from such a small book!: The perfect collection of Samuel Beckett's shorter works. A resource that no home library should be without.

One of the great 20th century authors, in the highest pantheon, along with Joyce and Celine. Beckett never once averted his eyes; he couldn't. An affliction of all fine artists... ( )