Refreshingly free from academic jargon, Andrew Kennedy's "Samuel Beckett" is an acute and insightful examination of Beckett's major works up until "Play." It is also free from a larger critical agenda or theoretical intentions -- while Kennedy feels free to highlight various interpretations of Beckett's works, he careful avoids espousing his own, confining his examinations to the internal dynamics and development of Beckett's writing. Theme, structure, language, and narrative style are emphasized and often brilliantly illuminated by Kennedy's direct yet lyrical prose, and he goes to great lengths to show how each piece is a logical but often revolutionary product of Beckett's growth as a writer, thereby establishing a framework for understanding his oeuvre as whole. Especially worthwhile is Kennedy's discussion of the Trilogy: "Molloy," "Malone Dies," and "The Unnamable." In a lucid discussion of the work's complex layers of fiction, metafiction, and meta-narration, Kennedy unravels the Trilogy's jumbled skein of voices to highlight the constant thematic threads tying the three novels together: the diminishment of the self, the authorial burden, and the almost mystical self-consciousness of the act of writing itself.

While perhaps a touch too basic for the Beckett enthusiast, Kennedy's accessible but intelligent book makes a perfect introduction for the student or casual reader. Its only real flaw lies in its limited scope -- a few more chapters on the radio plays, shorter dramatic works, and final novellas would have been much appreciated.