Many readers have difficulty with Samuel Beckett’s post-World War 2 stories such as this one because of their stream-of-consciousness narrative approach. In this darkly comic dramatic monologue a reclusive, indolent man recalls how, after being evicted from the family home following his father’s death, he became infatuated with a prostitute he met on a canal-side bench. The more he tried to break away the closer they became until, after moving into her apartment, she gave him cause to leave her for good… a baby. Themes include misanthrope, self-obsession, love, misogyny, sexuality, the emptiness and futility of life.
A fascinating aspect of the story is the way the clearly intelligent, well-read narrator demonstrates bizarre thoughts and actions suggesting mental illness (e.g. his fascination with cemeteries and the scent of decaying corpses; his preoccupation with excreting and excrement).
First Love Text / PDF (8,250 words)