Written over three months in 1946, ''Mercier and
Camier'' was Beckett's first post-war work, and his
first novel in French. He came to regard it as a
practice piece, and set it aside to write his trilogy.
''Mercier et Camier'' was finally published in 1970, and
in Beckett's English translation four years later. The
eponymous heroes tramp around a city, then out of it,
then back again. They are aimless, but there is
something elusive that they should be doing. They
arrange meetings, they drink, they argue, they discuss
being shot of each other. They are preoccupied by the
weather, by provisions, by a raincoat, by an umbrella,
by a bicycle...'All of these ingredients in the later
work are accompanied here, fleetingly, by those things
in Beckett that we know but cannot really name, those
things that occupy so much of the trilogy. Intangible
things, traps in the mind, that voice we hear, the
stop-start understanding, the ongoing bewilderment, the
fear' - Keith Ridgeway. George, said Camier, five
sandwiches, four wrapped and one on the side. You see,
he said, turning graciously to Mr Conaire, I think of
everything.For the one I eat here will give me the
strength to get back with the four others. Sophistry,
said Mr Conaire. You set off with your five, wrapped,
feel faint, open up, take one out, eat, recuperate, push
on with the others. For all response, Camier began to
eat. You'll spoil him, said Mr Conaire. Yesterday cakes,
today sandwiches, tomorrow crusts and Thursday stones.
Mustard, said Camier. |
|