More Pricks Than Kicks

Quite a bracing read. I thought of Wodehouse's witty, breezy prose yet suffused with such misanthropy as to make Swift look like Dickens. Much more conventional in structure than Beckett's later works, yet with the same blacker-than-black humor and deeply absurdist outlook on life. Some of the same mind-boggling vocabulary, too, and passages that are all but unintelligible. Because of that and assorted sprinkles of Italian, French, and German, Kindle is a good way to read Beckett because of the built-in dictionary and translator, but half the time the dictionary is stumped and you have to Google. And then sometimes Beckett is the only search result because it's a word he just made up!

I have to go five stars on this one even though "Wet Night" was rather difficult. Beckett can be simultaneously comic, dark, merciless, pitiless, intelligent, satirical and creative. The times in which he is brilliant, which are many, he writes some of the most elegant prose that I know of. He is obviously a talent of astounding intelligence and background knowledge, so you best be on your toes while reading the majority of his work -- though admittedly, that will not always work.These ten connected stories are highly enjoyable and stimulating and you have an excellent opportunity to improve on your vocabulary as well. I must go on, I can't go on, OK, I'll stop.

This book was a wonderful discovery, I had always loved Beckett's plays but to find this book of prose and follow the life of his character Bel was so amazing. The use of vocabulary buy Beckett and the images therein rivals Joyce's Dubliners. Get this book and read it, what an undiscovered treasure it is.

Belacqua Shua, crawling straight from Dante's depths, to Beckett's exhaustible whirling realm, with all his crusty mud intact. Who could ask for more??

I ordered this for a class and while it was hard to read Beckett, I really enjoyed the stories and found them to be fun to discuss in class.

I bought this book because the title caught my eye. It was a very interesting read. It is very simple to read and the story is great.

gift, didn't read

Though some people may be frustrated by "More Pricks than Kicks'" discontinuity of time and seeming discontinuity of plot, they mistake their own reaction. "MPTK" is a stark but strikingly beautiful collection of short stories unified by the main character's striking personality. That character is Belacqua Shuah, Samuel Beckett's Dubliner anti-hero; he, auto-biographically, has many elements in common with the author, which makes the book read somewhat like a honest and creative confessional.Sometimes humorous, somtimes shockingly pessimistic, the short story format works surprisingly well, often allowing for especially clever closing images or phrases. The short story format also makes reading Beckett, rarely an easy task, a touch more accessable.But through it all, Beckett, the master of the declarative sentence, constantly condemns his main character; Belacqua cannot find it within himself to shed a tear when one of his three wives dies, nor does he buy his new wife a new ring, recycling his old wife's ring (inscripted with her name and all) for his supposed new love. This incorrigible bumbler is intellectual to a fault, and dies friendless and unmourned. So all in all, read about Belacqua, but don't be him.

Early writing.

Excellent product + smooth transaction = Happy customer.

There were too many Dublin in jokes and foreign language bits for the disperate stories to easily gel.

a book that is here and there, having it's own prefabrications and Hepplewhite translucent delectables.

I liked this book. This was the first i've read of Samuel Beckett , and I can say that no-one writes like Beckett, unique style, even though i know this was compared to James Joyce's Dubliners upon release. I guess it's because the style was concidered "modern" at the time. If i compare the two i liked Dubliners more as a whole, but the writing is funny in this, one thing i remembered most from this was an insult from "A Wet Night" , one of the weirdest ones i've read "You bore me more than an infant prodigy"."A Wet Night" was a bit hard for me to read, since english is not my first language, Beckett used a lot of words i've never heard before, and i read quite a lot of English language books. The preface tells a lot of background, and Beckett first was against re-releasing it, and i can agree. As i said, this is the first book i've read of Beckett, but i can see that his language is unique, and i am sure it will develop further in his later books, i will read his other works.The first story, "Dante and the Lobster" was also the best one, some of the other storys seem confusing to me.As for the quality of the printing: It's what to expect in a paperback copy, a bit better than that actually, as it "says in shape" after i've read it. Sturdy copy.