Samuel Beckett and the Idea of God

Examines the evolution of 20th-century Irish playwright’s references to God over the course of his writing career. Finds in his early essays on art and literature similarities between his aesthetic and religious sensitivities, and argues that what the young writer was rejecting in art resembled what he was rejecting in religion. Then traces the biblical resonances through his early fiction, drama, and later prose, noting his wide and careful reading of spiritual writers. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.