*****
IT is a nightmare... it gives me the jim-jams.’’ So wrote Charles Prentice, Samuel Beckett’s editor, upon receipt of this singular work.
It was intended to conclude his collection of interrelated short stories More Pricks Than Kicks, but by comparison to those absurd, but essentially straightforward tales, Echo’s Bones truly is enough to give anyone the jim-jams. A triptych of surreal conversations between Belacqua Shuah, a dead man, and the people he encounters in a strange state of limbo, the text features no discernible narrative, yet is a fascinating stream-of-consciousness, while the end-notes run longer than the story itself.
It would certainly not make for the most accessible entry point for anyone new to Beckett’s work, but for scholars and aficionados, it’s a must.
James Robinson
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