Puckoon

Truly bizarre, and yet truly Milligan-esque. The basic gist of the story is that a certain Irish village is split in two by a boundary commission, with the line going through the local Catholic church's graveyard. Hijinks ensue, with a cast of (mostly) Irish idiots. One has to quantify it as mostly, since there's a Chinese garda on the loose. If you love Milligan's stuff, you'll love this; if not, it's likely you won't. That includes the fourth-wall breaking and the various illustrations, along with ethnic humour and a hefty load of bawdy jokes. I, personally, liked it, but then, I'm a Goon Show fan.

Spike at his anarchic best.
Painfully funny.

Towards the beginning of the book the Dan Milligan character is walking down a road when he stops to consider his legs. He interrupts the narrative and demands to know who wrote his legs.
Spike is compelled to confess it was him.
Dan then complains bitterly about the scrawny legs he's been stuck with all his life and an argument ensues - one voice coming out of the book and one going in.

It's the literary theory debate about the author/character/reader dynamic but much, much funnier.

Sheer genius.

This must be the second or third time I've read Puckoon.

The gaps between reads are long enough for me to have completely forgotten the whole thing. Given the sheer quantity of inane one line laughs there are in it, it's not surprising how much gets lost in time.

It's dated but still funny, still anarchic, still irreverent and still worth a read.

I read it in one evening and an afternoon, had I started in the morning I could have read it in a day. If you haven't read it and are old enough to remember Spike, then Puckoon is a shrine to his sublime sense of the absurd.

Inspired silliness permeates this farcical novel. The story, which improbably enough, centers on the ongoing battle between the British and the IRA is really nothing more than a hook from which to hang a series of unlikely comedy sketches, sometimes surrealist in their lack of logic. Very funny indeed, it holds up remarkably well. American readers will undoubtedly miss some jokes to do cultural differences and lack of the historical background.

4.5/5
Extraordinary book, exquisite wordplay which generates laughing-out-loud fun. I'll come back to this after getting acquainted with the history of Ireland.

Tenth chapter had a haphazard heap full of elements and characters and it felt like a jumbled up porridge of sentences.

But rest all chapters were too awesome. Must read.

First book I read more than once! Convulsingly funny, insightful, sad story about the Partition(typical Spike Milligan)

A title I consistently return to when in need of cheering up. The singer in the bar scene never fails to make me laugh not least because it reads so true.