John Calder has estimated that, if the present production of books continues unabated, Beckett will by the year 2000 rank fourth behind Jesus, Napoleon, and Wagner among the most written about persons in the world! While it is understandable that the puzzles of this very puzzled man would provoke such a plethora of books and articles, it is rather ironic that a writer who is "at home on the path of silence" would command such a talkative audience. (p. 5)

Beckett is not fully appreciated as what he is: a player. Persons who have noted the element of play in Beckett have tended to construe play as merely one dimension among others in Beckett's vision. A more adequate reading locates in "existence is play" the foundational metaphor of his entire literary cosmos. (pp. 5-6)

Playing … is the principal strategy by which Beckett's people establish existential meaning, however ephemeral and truncated...