Rating: Summary: Complicated yet Interesting Review: Waiting for Godot is a book that takes a lot of concentration and understanding. It holds a great amount of importance and significance dealing with life. You will find yourself very frustrated at imes because of the way Becket writes the book. The plot is very dull and boring. It takes place around a tree on the side of a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. The main characters are two men named Vladimir and Estragon. They spend the entire book waiting for Godot, a man in which neither of them have ever met. They need to talk to him because they have questions and no answers. While they wait they meet Pozzo and Lucky, two other important characters. The theme of hope plays a mojor part of the book. Hope is what Vladimir and estragon build while they spend days waiting for Godot. The two characters are faced with many situations in which their hope is a great importance. Their hope gets them a long way. Waiting for Godot is a good book once you are able to realy understand it. The author makes it difficult for readers to understand. Although it is frustrating at times there is strength in the book. That is the importance of our lives that is expressed to make a point to the readers. It makes you think about your life and the way you are spending it. Becket semed to make the book confusing which i believe could have been written just as good without being so confusing. At the end it would have been nice to know what happens. Maybe it was made to be like that but it would have been good to know the outcome and not just leave the reader with wonder. If you are able to take a challenge and read Waiting for Godot, I wish you luck. Once you understand Beckets writing, it really is quite an interesting book.
Rating: Summary: Worth your while! Review: Waiting for Godot is a powerful book written brilliantly by Samuel Beckett. This paperback causes you to raise questions, and you don't know if they have answers. It begins in a foreign country and last for two days. The setting gives you a sence of extreme isolation. The protagonists are two slapstick characters named Vladimir and Estragon. These woman seem to be lost and have severe memory loss. They also claim to be waiting for something by the name of Godot. While they sit, sadly and pathetic next to a lonely road, they encounter philosophical and physical problems within themselves. The path they sit upon seems to imply purpose but there is nowhere to go and nothing to be done. Symbols that are not definite but suggestive are throughout the book. They make you think hard about the text. The main idea that is proposed is faith. This religious term keeps them waiting for this character named Godot. As they question themselves you begin to ask yourself, "What are my beliefs and what's my purpose in life?" Look around for questions and symbols of human nature and creation. This book may be hard to understand but it is full of great meaning. It could be worth your while.
Rating: Summary: Waiting for Who? Review: Samuel Beckett's, Waiting for Godot, is a very interesting book. It is pretty hard to get into, though. It was very hard for me to get into because at first I really did not understand it. I kept saying to myself how stupid Didi and Gogo were. I just couldn't understand why they would not leave, why they were waiting on Godot. They would just sit around all day waiting for someone they had never met. Day after day they did the same thing, and every morning they would ask each other what they were going to do that day. Every day they had the same answer, they were going to wait on Godot. This book has a lot of references to God and the bible, but Beckett never comes out and says, "Godot is God." This really was not my kind of book. It deals with God and who God is, and not giving up on waiting for God. If you like that kind of thing, this is the perfect book for you. It will make you think and question your belief in, exactly, who God is. I will admit, I would never have read the book if it was not required for my English class, but I'm glad I did. Once I understood exactly what was going on, it was a lot more interesting. If you are someone looking for joyous reading I would not suggest you get this book, but if you are required to read it, try your best to understand it first and the reading will be a lot easier and a lot more fun for you.
Rating: Summary: Amazingly Funny Review: There is something about this innovative play that is really funny, but it is hard to say what exactly. The story is almost like an episode of "Seinfeld" where it is really about nothing, but the various plot lines keep it moving and captivating. I am not a huge fan of most literature (plays or novels), but this is by far the best thing I have ever read. There's no complicated language that muddies the story or useless information that has no relevance. Every line has a purpose and gets the point across well. The story is clearly based on the life of Beckett as brief research on him, and an understanding of existentialism, will reveal that he was waiting for something in life but didn't know what. That is my interpretation of the play, but the true beauty of the play is that there is an endless number of ways that it can be interpreted, and it is different for every reader. Because the underlying concept of waiting without purpose is easy to relate to, this play is great for anybody. I highly recommend it!
Rating: Summary: Prepare to be frustrated... Review: Waiting For Godot is a classic. I know it's really shaped how modern plays. But wow... this play is frustrating. It has it's moments, but for a majority the play you just want to bang Didi and Gogo's heads against one another. When I was reading this I couldn't help but wonder what people saw in it. I really had to struggle to get through it. If I hadn't been required to read it for my drama class, I would have tossed it out my 3rd-floor apartment window. Do read it if like me, you're interested in writing plays. But if you're just reading it because a friend was raving how good it was, give it a miss. They're probably just "being" pretentious drama majors who couldn't tell art from a scribble done by a two-year old.
Rating: Summary: This is a fair warning..back away from the T.V. Review: Vladimir and Estragon are two characters that are both living their lives in a routine that is unchanging and predictable. There is no space for impulses and they have shrunken their lives down to word games and simple diversions to pass time. If it is the following of our finest impulses, the belief in our own beauty and strength and a desperate honesty that makes us kings and queens then these two are as far from being kings and queens as possible. Like Lucky, they are tied to a rope and bound by a master they have created in their own minds. It is understandable that they are impoverished and that the world is not opened entirely to them for success and prosperity; however, it is the resemblance of their lives to those of many we know that makes this play so haunting. Many people spend their lives watching television or passing the time with argument like Estragon and Vladimir and all that the next day holds is what has already come before it --nothing.
Rating: Summary: One Man's POV Review: Who needs book reviewers and critics? Is it not that each of us has his or her own opinion about this book? If I wished the input of others, I would turn to James Hillman -- "Be true to your depression" -- and Jung (quoting the message over the door to Hades) -- "Abandon all hope ye who enter here." -- now these men know what the human condition is all about. One might call it Creative Despair. And then, too, there is something essential about "not knowing" (Hillman again)...or, as Goethe put it: "I don't know who I am, and God forbid I ever should." Just some thoughts :)
Rating: Summary: Absurd indeed, for a reason. Review: Beckett uses the absurd because reality and the linear, "normative" narrative can not encompass the emotion which the common plight perpetually attempts to expell. A dark comedy which all should read. Highly recommended.
Rating: Summary: Strictly and Deliberately Constructed Absurdity Review: After reading only twenty pages, I was too tired to continue to read, because every conversation requires the strong concentration on its analysis. All conversation is composed of some particular intervals, some adequate distance between characters. Its role is to confirm the identity of the mutual intention or the absence of the mutual hostility, or to tranquilize the anxiety about the misunderstanding. I wonder why this novel is called as absurd after analyzing these correctly constructed conversations. The unconscious behaviors in their conversations, for example, the pause, the interval, and the distance are composed to understand their unique characteristics. This concern about the unconscious has already been manifested at his first work of "Murphy." The important thing is not to interpret the logic of the conversation, but to read the meaning of the unwritten.
Rating: Summary: A question to the potential reader: Review: What is your perception of the VOID ? The vacuum ? If you ever had the chance to feel the absolute void, the true nothingness, would you consider it to be beautifull ? Would you consider it to be God ? Or would you be scared and turn away ? To get a feeling of what other people felt just read the previous reviews. Some of them thought it was majestic, some of them thought it was God and some of them fled away, scared, and because they got scared they thought that it was something ugly. Since we do not have the chance to perceive the real void because the natural law forbids it, the closest thing available is Waiting for Godot. The words are misleading. There should be no words, but Becket had no other choice in the material world that we live. So if you are curious to see in what category you belong just read it. As for me, I thought it was beautifull. One of the most beautifull things I have ever experienced....
|