I regret the time I spent...

...reading Samuel Beckett

I read a lot of plays and short stories and novels - too many - beyond the call of duty.

For a while I regarded 'Dante and the Lobster' as the most perfect short story ever written.

For a while I wallowed in Murphy.

(I never was impressed by the contrived dramas).

There was a great talent for language, almost first rank - and underneath it all there was profound dishonesty; and a kind of passive-aggressive sadism which one could only call evil - he used his glorious gift for phrase and situation to try and infect the minds of others with his incoherent, solipsistic and demotivating worldview.

And for a while he succeeded with me.

Wham Bam - thanks but no thanks Sam.