The Complete Novels (Everyman's Library)

Wonderful stuff and nonsense. Don't expect to understand the plots of these novels - in some cases don't look for any kind of plot. But if you are looking for a readable, highly entertaining and sometime very funny alternative to your secret inability to finish any work by James Joyce, look no farther . . . .

Containing the five novels by Flann O’Brien, one of many pseudonyms of the Irish writer Brian O’Nolan (1911 – 1966), this volume is a solid introduction to his fiction. The bizarreness, humor and fantasy in the novels are striking. At Swim-Two-Birds contains such oddities as a Good Fairy contemplating sex with humans, and a writer that has remained in bed for twenty years and only reads books with green covers.

In The Third Policeman a gentleman farmer who has devoted his life to studying a character known only as de Selby - who is perhaps the world’s worst philosopher, physicist and other things - embarks on a surreal journey after helping to murder a man for money to publish his treatise – on de Selby. One theme, which show more reoccurs in The Dalkey Archive, is the idea that bicycles and humans can take on each other’s properties.

Beginning with the narrator’s name, Bonaparte Coonassa, The Poor Mouth is the most straight-forward humorous of the novels. Originally written in Gaelic, it parodies and makes much of the Gaelic culture and language.

In The Hard Life two brothers try to make their way in life after being either abandoned or orphaned. With its Horatio Algerish elements, it is the only one of the novels to not delve into the realm of fantasy.

de Selby appears in the flesh in The Dalkey Archive with a mad plan to rid the earth of oxygen. It also features the reappearance of the Sergeant of The Third Policeman who espouses the bicycle/human transference theory. An elderly and confused James Joyce is also here – attempting to join the priesthood.

The Complete Novels is a handsome book, and contains a helpful introduction, bibliography, and a chronology placing the author’s life in historical context. show less

"The Third Policeman": so droll! Admittedly, I read it after hearing it tied to "Lost" but come on, Desmond. It's better seen as a goofy literary partner to Dylan Thomas and "Pale Fire": a foggy tale about mood and humor, not about mind-benders.

As a bonus, O'Brian's grasp of particle physics isn't entirely outlandish. At this moment, you're just a few electrons away from merging with your chair.

"When a man lets things go so far that he is half or more than half a bicycle, you will not see so much because he spends a lot of his time leaning with one elbow on walls or standing propped by one foot at kerbstones" (297).