I've been trying to track down where he's buried so I can add him to my list. His real name was Brian O'Nolan - though he also wrote under Miles na Gopaleen and Lir O'Connor.
I suspect that he lies in Dalkey nr Dublin. I have very fond memories of Dalkey because we always used to spend the morning on Sandy Mount beach before boarding the ferry back to Blighty. Tom used to play in the sand and I used to wander round Joyce's tower or have a gander at the 40ft bathing club. I always found it a remarkable place - like sitting inside a novel (Ulysses). At any moment I half expected Stephen D to appear, wrestling with the old "ineluctable".
At-Swim-Two-Birds, I haven't read. I did recently buy The Third Policeman - which starts well but then suddenly goes all weird - so I gave up. I know kj is a fan.
C
Flann O'Brien/Brien O'Flann
I read a biography of the man last year, but looking at the last page again it doesn't mention what happened to his mortal remains.
I adored "At-Swim-Two-Birds" when I was younger; and there's no doubt it's a brilliant and very funny novel. But it's not the same now that I can't empaphise with the descriptions of squalid student life. Also I don't find the array of post-structural magic tricks quite as charming as I used to.
"The Third Policeman" I reread last year: a much darker (and even more hilarious) story with a disturbing moral dimension absent from the ludic "At-Swim". You're right, it does get very strange in the middle, but it has a rip-roaring denouement. As a result of TTP I see the intrinsic comedy and menace in the bicycle, and I honestly can't look at one propped innocently against a railing without suppressing a murky chortle.
His other masterpiece (apart from the daily masterpieces he wrote in his "Irish Times" column - "The Best of Myles" is perfect toilet reading) is the bog-Irish Gaeltacht parody "The Poor Mouth".
"The Dalkey Archive" isn't that great, "The Hard Life" I've not read. He did a play too, I haven't read that either.
I adored "At-Swim-Two-Birds" when I was younger; and there's no doubt it's a brilliant and very funny novel. But it's not the same now that I can't empaphise with the descriptions of squalid student life. Also I don't find the array of post-structural magic tricks quite as charming as I used to.
"The Third Policeman" I reread last year: a much darker (and even more hilarious) story with a disturbing moral dimension absent from the ludic "At-Swim". You're right, it does get very strange in the middle, but it has a rip-roaring denouement. As a result of TTP I see the intrinsic comedy and menace in the bicycle, and I honestly can't look at one propped innocently against a railing without suppressing a murky chortle.
His other masterpiece (apart from the daily masterpieces he wrote in his "Irish Times" column - "The Best of Myles" is perfect toilet reading) is the bog-Irish Gaeltacht parody "The Poor Mouth".
"The Dalkey Archive" isn't that great, "The Hard Life" I've not read. He did a play too, I haven't read that either.
fine words butter no parsnips
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tomwein880
- Posts: 31
- Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2007 10:13 pm
Who was the biography by, k-j? Cameron could always write to the author c/o the publishers, and ask him if he knows
I'm an FOB fan myself, and I think k-j has summed up the oeuvre pretty well. The man / bicycle theory in The Third Policeman is definitely a thing of beauty.
I had a pint of Guinness in his honour in McDaids a few years ago. Just the one? Well, I was on my honeymoon, so normal standards of behaviour did not apply.
I had a pint of Guinness in his honour in McDaids a few years ago. Just the one? Well, I was on my honeymoon, so normal standards of behaviour did not apply.
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tomwein880
- Posts: 31
- Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2007 10:13 pm
Is that Anthony Cronin the same AJ Cronin who wrote The Citadel and The Green Years? If so, then I can certainly recommend him as a writer, particularly The Citadel, which is crushingly sad, but very touching - the story of a young doctor and his declining idealism.