A special continuity runs through Beckett's works. On almost any page of his numerous novels, stories, plays, and even poems, the words conspire to create a sense of déjà vu: "I've seen this before," every reader responds. Within each work itself, certain lines return to haunt the narration, inspiring an overwhelming sense of remembrance.

The same words that inhabit his earlier writings return in Beckett's newest novel, Company, but something other than the familiar textual pattern that we recognize is woven into the novel: memories that have a suddenness and a clarity almost unknown in his previous books stand away from the page—the memories seem to stand against the page. Beckett provides a few moments of memory, often involving a young child in a country similar to Beckett's native Ireland. During these scenes of childhood. Beckett's prose no longer inspects itself; the words fall back into...