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Rating: 
Summary: Somehow read Nohow On
Review: "Nohow On" is a Beckett's second trilogy, consisting of "Company," "Ill Seen, Ill Said," and "Worstword Ho," taking its title from the last lines of the final work.If your only Beckett experience has been with the ever-popular "Waiting for Godot" or "Endgame," then you're missing out (not to detract from the merit of those works). But if you thought either of those works were too difficult and still hunger for more Beckett, you might be best served to start with his short plays rather than this trilogy. Nevertheless, "Nohow On" is a fascinating read. "Company" does not have any plot, setting, action, or characters to speak of, but is still riveting and has a chilling last line. "Ill Seen, Ill Said"'s construction is just as vague, but not quite as captivating, though containing fascinating imagery. "Worstword Ho" is probably the least accessable of the three, reading like a stark prose poem. All in all, the trilogy is a very difficult read, but a satidfying exercise; after all, Beckett is one of the finest writers of our time.
Rating: 
Summary: The Master's Masterpiece
Review: Beckett was uncomfortable with comparisons to Joyce - which is understandable both in light of their relationship and of the difference in their respective aesthetics. However I believe that "Worstward Ho" holds a place in the Beckett canon similar to the position of "Finnegans Wake" in Joyce's work. Both are the last major works of their authors and both represent the most perfect realizations of their artistic visions. "Company" is the union and fulfillment of two of Beckett's recurrent themes - autobiography and "closed place" imagery. Its prose is spare and lyrical, evoking powerful images while its narrative style explores the ambiguities of the relationship between narrator and auditor. "Ill Seen Ill Said" is a beautiful narrative which is singular among Beckett's prose works in having a female narrator. Its expanded, yet still abstracted and "distilled", cosmology (in comparison to the "closed place" works of the '60s and '70s) represnts an interesting new direction (or destination?) for Beckett's writing. Originally written in French, this work's poetry is best appreciated in that language. "Worstward Ho" is, I believe, Beckett's masterpiece. It recapitulates all the major themes of his work - the futility of the act of expression, the poverty of language and the problematic dichotomies of perceived and perceiver and of narrator and auditor. It is written in the barest, most stripped-down prose ever composed. At the same time, it is repetitive and resonant. Less than five thousand words long, it compresses volumes of meaning. The more reduced and undetermined the language is, the more potential meanings and significations its words take on. The attempt to pare and refine leads to an ambiguity which grows and dilutes - a paradox Beckett uses with mastery. Despite appearances, the work's structure is as intentionally articulated as its prose. It is also a work of great and black humor, full of punning and wordplay. It should be savored and read and reread.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning...
Review: Beckett, like his mentor Joyce, carried his creative and visionary power through his last years. This unofficial "trilogy" marks the last great Beckettian moment, which, in my opinion, ranks second only to Endgame in sheer poetic beauty. Between the opener, "Company," and the closer, "Worstword Ho," there is the struggle between creation and annihilation, belonging and forlornness, hope and despair, daybreak and dawn. And then, the middle piece, "Ill Seen Ill Said," could be the screenplay of a beautiful movie that was never made (perhaps in the imagination of Beckett himself?). On.
Rating:
Summary: Best of Beckett?
Review: I have been reading "Ill seen ill said" obsessively for years. When I wore out my copy I purchased this book, which contains two other late "novels." Company is beautiful and relatively accessible. "Worstword Ho" reads like a prose poem. If you only know Beckett from your college reading of "Waiting for Godot" you are missing a lot.
Rating:
Summary: Some of the most perfect prose of the last century
Review: If we politely ignore the short story "Stirrings Still," which was completed in 1989, the year of Samuel Beckett's death, these three short (very short) novels comprise the final crowning achievement in his long and brilliant prose career. Best known as the author of the play "Waiting for Godot" ("En attendant Godot"), it remains to be seen whether Beckett will ever be as lauded for his prose as he already is for his contributions to absurdist theater, but he should be. Although his trilogy of novels - "Molloy," "Malone Dies," and "The Unnamable" - are probably better-known, the three works collected in this omnibus edition entitled "Nohow On" are some of the most perfect prose of the 20th century. "Company" combines memories from Beckett's own childhood in Ireland with the minuscule movements made by an old man alone on his back in the dark. It is one of Beckett's "closed space" works, in which as little movement as possible is made, both literally and figuratively, yet it is also one of his most accessible and beautiful pieces. "Ill Seen Ill Said" (originally written in French as "Mal vu mal dit") takes the idea of "closed space" one step further, and removes any connection to Beckett's own personal memories. And finally, "Worstward Ho," which Beckett wrote in English and considered "untranslatable" into French, is a distillation of language into its very essence, in which the reader must concentrate on every word, and in which two- and three-word sentences are more beautiful and devastating than just about anything most so-called great novelists ever wrote.
Rating:
Summary: what are the right words....
Review: my innate feeling that everybody is under-qualified to comment on this literature is my perverse justification for commenting on this literature. once you weave your way into the strange world of late samuel beckett, there is a universal beauty and humour inherent in the seeming despair of these short pieces. it is work seemingly void of the thought-provoking trivialities (oxymoron as it is) that can inflict becketts longer, earlier novels, however much i loved them. of course, this work requires much thought and effort but it seems to transcend this in recurring moments of recognition. it is these peaceful moments that encapsulate the beauty of literature and elevate it to realms beyond philosophical speculation. just my two cents. ill-shared.
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable
Review: These three novels represent Samuel Beckett's greatest accomplishment. What are they about you might ask? Let's just say that they're about everything and nothing. They are profound commentaries on the universal existential crises plaguing all of mankind, and an utterly fascinating reduction of what it means to be a human. Be forewarned: these novels are extremely modern, abstract works of art, and for many will be very difficult reading. The final installment, _Worstword Ho_ is officially the greatest work of fiction, page for page, that I have ever read. It is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. These novels are not to be taken lightly and it should be noted that Samuel Beckett put the "high" in highway. This is abstract literary thought at its far-seeing outer limit.
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable
Review: These three novels represent Samuel Beckett's greatest accomplishment. What are they about you might ask? Let's just say that they're about everything and nothing. They are profound commentaries on the universal existential crises plaguing all of mankind, and an utterly fascinating reduction of what it means to be a human. Be forewarned: these novels are extremely modern, abstract works of art, and for many will be very difficult reading. The final installment, _Worstword Ho_ is officially the greatest work of fiction, page for page, that I have ever read. It is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. These novels are not to be taken lightly and it should be noted that Samuel Beckett put the "high" in highway. This is abstract literary thought at its far-seeing outer limit.
Rating:
Summary: ON. TILL NOHOW ON.
Review: This slender volume brings to us one of the great achievements of 20th century art and it establishes Beckett indisputably as one of the great figures of world literature.
Throughout his long artistic life Beckett had more than his share of blustering critics and disparagers. Yet it was always a matter of assailing Beckett's supposed 'view of life', even with an occaisional embarrassingly small-minded questioning of his 'sanity', and there has never been, and can not be, a substantial and coherent assault upon his artistic ability. It is appalling that there are professional people (and lay) so perverse and petty as to resent a man's artistic genius simply because they feel an aversion to his personal vision. But no matter, Beckett has a substantial body of serious readers whose devotion he has earned, for no artist has struggled more bravely and honestly with his craft.
Though I can read French and have read several of Beckett's works in that language, it is not my native language so I will not presume to assess Beckett's standing as a writer of French literature (though Fin De Partie is unquestionable great writing), but I will put forth the view that Beckett is the greatest English language writer of his generation. Even if he had only written the works reaching from MURPHY (1938) to HOW IT IS (1964)which fall into two basic groups with WATT as a dividing line, he would still have no real peers in international English literature in his time, but the fact that he went on from there to create a third group of works which culminates in the three 'novels' that comprise NOHOW ON is amazing and moves him far out of the reach of any other literary artist of his time or after. It is a simple fact that no one writing today can approach Beckett's artistic standard. He was a genius and more, he was an artist of rare devotion and integrity.
One does not need to be familiar with the long span of Beckett's work to perceive the greatness of COMPANY, ILL SEEN ILL SAID, or WORSTWARD HO, but their greatness seems only deepened by the knowledge that they are preceeded by greatness (WATT, MOLLOY, ENDGAME...). Still I would suggest that if you like NOHOW ON and you are not familiar with Beckett's earlier work that you become so because it will only increase your appreciation of Beckett's extraordinary artistic depth.
Finally, I for one would like to say that few things in my life have moved me as much as Beckett's courageous turning away from an art of 'general truths' and so sensitively and deeply exploring the difficult and often painful mysteries of actual human experience. Beckett taught me that art is a genuine vocation as deep and demanding as any in the world, and more so than most.
Thank you, Sam Beckett.
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