Rating: 
Summary: Waiting For Boredom(Godot)
Review: To be frankly honest I have now read this book 4 times, I don't know exactly why I did so but I did and I am still confused. If you feel that you should get the book that a lot of critics call "the most important play of the 20th century" then while you're at it pick up a coles notes style book for it. But don't pay much for the interpretation book since the one I bought summed up the entire play in one paragraph that took up half a page. And I agree with one critic who described the two act play in one sentence "nothing happens...twice" Unless you have to buy this book for school or you're a large fan of plays then don't bother doing more than looking at the pretty cover art
Rating: 
Summary: waiting for godot
Review: I started reading "Godot" with absolutely no idea what it was about and no knowledge of Beckett. Honestly, the first act had me throroughly confused...but when i started catching on to the patterns and the symbols, then it started getting good. If you're reading "Waiting for Godot", just keep in mind that it's not supposed to be entertaining, per se...I guess i viewed it as a fable, or a warning not to lose yourself in inevitable repetition.
Rating: 
Summary: the true meaning lies in the little things
Review: this important play has quite a long and interesting history. many of its productions around the globe tried to give their own versions of the story. and here lies its uniqueness: its outlines draw an empty space, submissive to any explanation you'd like to fill it with.throughout the play, becket plants little secrets, jokes, and double meanings in many words. the word "godot", is combined from "god" and the suffix "ot" which adds a sense of affection, as if it was "little god". but this is only one of the many meanings to this word. the most interesting one is the resemblance to the french word "godet". godet is a smoking pipe, or a street lamp, or any vessel which is made in order to be filled with something. and the connection is obvious - godot's character is just an empty vessel, which the reader or viewer can and should fill with whatever he sees right.and as godot's character, the whole play is like this empty vessel. therefore, numerous different meanings are placed in this vessel, varying it's qualities and finding new ones constantly. but there remains an important question, how empty is this vessel? well, in my opinion the only way to capture it's true thickness and original universal meaning is by noticing the little details in the play. because it doesn't really matter who godot is or isn't, and wether didi and gogo are reacting to a big disaster of some sort. the key is to ignore the vessel, to reduce the attention in the characters and their deeds, for they are beckett's truth's grim soldiers. they are, unknowingly, the messangers of the play, or it's true ideas, but their role in it is minor. the powerful character is their dialogue, who has a life of it's own. so don't try and dress the characters in different costumes, or dealing with bizarre inventions in order to fully understand what is going on. instead, listen carfully to the dialogue, and digest every sentence, for it is one of the best texts man has ever written. and not everything is crystal clear, but like other beckett's writings, well - it seems like you can understand it, before you know you do.
Rating:
Summary: Suggestions
Review: I skimmed through most of these reviews, and I found a lot of assumptions about this play. On the other hand, I found a lot of vague speculation, which seems the most modest and reliable perspective in approaching this play. To read Beckett is to not find that definite line-- especially in the word "Godot"--which will define the entire play. In the "Preface to Shakespeare," Johnson said, "when he offered his house to sale, [he] carried a brick in his pocket as a specimen"; in other words, it is wrong to find too much meaning in selected passages of a single work, but instead grasp the entire philosophy of the book. One must grasp, first, a general meaning of the play retrieved from various stimuli.Such stimuli can be found in the following: "The Myth of Sisyphus" by Albert Camus, possibly followed by his novel, "The Stranger". When the concept of "absurdity" is understood, then proceed in reading "Waiting for Godot". This will be an easy climb to a higher understanding, and a potentially unique and intellectual opinion of this tragicomedy play on existentialism, or the absurdity of life. Further stimuli: Jean Sartre, Heidegger, Kafka, and (to jog your creativity) Borges. I am aware that I haven't given any personal opinions or guidance of this play, but I feel that I would be doing a great disservice to you if I had. This book is an excellent book; however, it is not a book for the wreckless reader, but instead it is for the sagacious ones who will suffer a little research to truly understand the philosophy, which can not be done in a 1,000 words, or explained as well as those great minds who unveiled these philosophical jewels--hearsay will, in other words, diminish the mind-expanding effect.
Rating:
Summary: Waiting For Godot
Review: I read "Waiting For Godot" with my AP English class. Each student loved, hated, or had no opinion about the book. I thought it was awesome. Samuel Beckett depicts the existenstialist absurdity idealogy. Beckett's characters Vladimir and Estragon illustrate the importance of living each day to the fullest and hope for mankind (however that is my interpertation). I would recommend this play to anyone. We also acted out some of the scenes which allowed us to further understand the plays complexity. I am eager to see the play and read it again.
Rating:
Summary: Too deep for me to understand....
Review: When I give this play two stars, I am not doing so in an attempt to discredit it, or to say it is a bad piece of work. The two stars that I have given it is simply a rating on how much I understood it and its themes....which is very little. Perhaps I am not a deep enough thinker to understand this, or perhaps I was simply not in the proper frame of mind when I read it. Regardless, "Waiting For Godot" is very much a masterpiece, but I have a hard time understanding what it is about. I do not agree with the negative reviews that it has been receiving, but on the other hand, I can understand where they're coming from-- this play is extremely hard to follow. The dialogue is very complex, and the theme, though I think if I concentrate hard enough I can understand, is so jumbled together in my head, that there are simply no words to describe it. I urge you to read this play, if for nothing else than for how it challenges your mind. I'll be thinking about it for a long time, even if I don't quite comprehend it.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the Read
Review: I read this book with some previous knowledge of Beckett and the story, so I kind of knew what I was getting into. I did not find that the read was difficult, but it was definately stimulating. This tale of two men, Vladimir and Estragon, is sometimes hillarious, but underneath it all lies the greatest despair of all...nothing. I reccommend this book to anyone who likes the slightly off-center world.
Rating:
Summary: Is the glass half empty or half full?
Review: We used this book for Performing Arts for the area of Absurdism. This book has enlightened me both in my Performing Arts and my own Life, of how people in general just waste there lifes. The fact its content isnt flowing, but rather switching between Acts (rituals) simulates how people progress from day to day wasting there time, and for nothing. Your born, you die. You choose the in between. A sad theory, but maybe one that will encourage pessimists to believe that you can make the glass half full, if you try. Thats what I am still to work out.
Rating:
Summary: "We are all born mad. Some remain so" - Waiting for Godot
Review: I read this book a couple of days ago, and came here to see what others thought. I saw several reviews with just one star, and another with five and a quip about Americans being unable to think about what they read. I thought it was an excellent play and happen to be an American, so I just thought I'd stick that out and stand up for Beckett and the United States. Because this is, in fact, an excellent book. It is not tedious or slow; it is complicated without action. It's about the meaninglessness (hope that's a word) of life, about not waiting for life to pass you by, and about going out to find your destiny for yourself, instead of waiting for another to bring it to you. It's an awesome piece of work; I recommend it to anyone who likes to read, and anyone who has ever wondered why.
Rating:
Summary: A response to "A reader in Michigan"
Review: In your one star review, you actually understood Beckett's genius, despite your trepidation for it. The play takes place in two days that practically mirror each other. The idea of the days being practically the same is to show a human existence at its most basic level where each day mirrors the next, making human beings' struggles on earth completely meaningless. For instance, each day you wake up, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, go to bed, and then repeat the cycle the next day with slight deviations in your routine. Look at the three page monologue of Lucky where he points out that "man in brief...wastes and pines waste and pines..." To me this completes the theme of the play that man is born then he will one day die. In between, he wastes away at meaningless tasks. Beckett's straight forward stripped down look of existence makes me shiver with the truth it contains. This is truly a masterpiece of our time.
|
