The Other Side of Samuel Beckett

The Romanian-born, Paris-based philosopher EM Cioran who and Beckett for some time were best friends, once asked Suzanne, Beckett's then-would-be wife, how could Beckett manage to live with all those pessimistic, gloomy and depressing ideas, attitudes and convictions. Suzanne replied tersely, "Beckett has another side." In this succinct answer, Suzanne summed up Beckett in a way that the three biographies could hardly do, and showed she understood Beckett viscerally more than all of the three biographers. Like when Horatio suggesting to Marcellus and Bernardo to sit down and discuss the meaning of why Denmark is too busy in a way that work is not separating weekends from weekdays, I say, let us sit to consider to know and understand Beckett's other side which seems to be a side, and here I once more pilfer from the great Bard, Hamlet's remark to Horatio, "undreamt of in all" Beckett books on Beckett. No wonder Beckett warned Bair, his first biographer, that he would read her book on him neither before not after it is published, and saying "yes" to Knowlson about a biography, stipulated to Knowlson that the book was to be published after his and wife Suzanne's deaths, and, of course, Beckett had died before Anthony Cronin's biography was out


The Other Side of Samuel Beckett Revisited


EM Cioran once asked Suzanne, Beckett's then-would-be wife, how Beckett could manage to live with all those pessimistic, gloomy and depressing ideas, attitudes and convictions. Suzanne replied succintly, "Beckett has another side." In this terse answer, Suzanne summed up Beckett in a way that the three biographies could hardly do, and showed she understood Beckett viscerally more than all of the three biographers. Like when Horatio suggesting to Marcellus and Bernardo to sit down and discuss the meaning of why Denmark is too busy in a way that work is not separating weekends from weekdays, I say, let us sit to consider to know and understand Beckett's other side which seems to be a side, and here I once more pilfer from the great Bard, Hamlet's remark to Horatio, "undreamt of in all"books on Beckett. And once again, as in another phrase from the great Bard as in this bit of dialogue in "Hamlet":

Bernardo: What, is Horatio there?"

Horatio: A piece of him,

Suzanne told the world that it only sees a piece of Beckett! No wonder Beckett warned Bair, his first biographer, that he would read her book on him neither before not after it is published, and saying "Yes" to Knowlson about a biography, stipulated to Knowlson that the book was to be published after his and wife Suzanne's deaths, and, of course, Beckett had died before Anthony Cronin's biography was out