Zone of Evaporation: Samuel Beckett’s Disjunctions is a valuable, and very readable, addition to Beckett studies. From Dream of Fair to Middling Women to How It Is, the book traces the modes of disjunction Beckett employed in his effort to “eff the ineffable”. From the comic incongruities of Watt to the ontological gaps of The Unnammable, Zone of Evaporation demonstrates the crucial and consistent role disjunction played in Beckett’s novels. The book describes Beckett’s divergence from Proustian metaphor and the revelation of the “real” towards an art which exploited the gaps and fissures within language and narrative and, ultimately, to an art which would go on to upset the post-structuralism of Jacques Derrida.
For those coming fresh to the works, Zone of Evaporation, written with an eye on the comic instincts of Beckett, provides almost a disjunctive guide to Beckett’s early and mid-period novels. To the seasoned Beckett reader, Zone of Evaporation offers an engaging, and challenging, new perspective on Beckett’s aesthetic practice.