New York Times Book Review
"More powerful and important than Godot... Mr. Beckett seeks to empty the novel of its usual recognizable objects -- plot, situation, characters -- and yet to keep the reader interested and moved. Beckett is one of the most positive writers alive. Behind all his mournful blasphemies against man there is real love. And he is genuine: every sentence is written as if it has been lived."
AUG/SEP 06 - AudioFile
It wasn’t until Samuel Beckett won worldwide acclaim and a Nobel Prize as a great existential playwright that his novels MALONE, MALONE DIES, and THE UNNAMABLE were published. The three are of considerable importance, given their author’s lofty position in modern world literature. They’re brilliant achievements, albeit difficult reading, especially this, the concluding volume in the trilogy. Who is the first-person narrator? Where is he? Is he alive, dead, in a coma? He doesn’t know, how can we? Sean Barrett doesn’t always know what he’s reading (who could?), but to his considerable credit, he understands and delivers most of it with zest and an authentic flavor reflecting the text’s Irish melodiousness, pessimism, and black humor. Sour, old Beckett would not approve of his approach, as Barrett makes the text too interesting. Y.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
