The Third Policeman (1967)

“Your talk," I said, "is surely the handiwork of wisdom because not one word of it do I understand.”
― Flann O'Brien, The Third Policeman

This is an insane book. I mean that in the best way, I really do: So much bizarre stuff happens in this book, you have to turn your brain off and just enjoy the ride.

Policemen obsessed with bicycles. Wooden-legged men. Murderers. Eternity. It's all here, and it's all worth reading. What a pancake! ( )

An unusual book, to be sure. Its closest counterpart might be Alice in Wonderland, but where Alice has whimsy, clever wordplay, unforgettable characters, and the most quotable dialogue this side of Shakespeare, The Third Policeman has a strangeness, an obsession with bicycles, and a rather limited palette of actors and settings.

It sparked into life on a few occasions (most notably in the discussion of DeSelby, a philosopher/physicist who never appears but whose ideas are revealed at length), but was ultimately a bit wearying. The final chapter had some power--I can imagine the same book at half the length (just cut any reference to a bicycle) and it would be much more satisfying.

(Probably bicycles are metaphors for something and if I figured it out I'd enjoy the book 1000 times more, but I didn't, so I didn't). ( )

Loved this, typical O'Brien genius, with hell being depicted as nothing more than a skewed and repeating version of normality. Not for lovers of normal narrative, but this author was always about challenging assumptions about society, identity, language, intellectualism, and morality. ( )

I did not actually "like" it that much, for it baffled me and blew chaos into my brain, but it might just be a formidable pancake if only for that.

It is as likely to go away now as "Infinite Jest" is, and it runs to about a fifth of the latter book's length. But I digress. This book is devoid of sense, but it manages to thrive like an anthill full of stupid little creatures acting in close accord. It is one brain slug of a book and if I made myself wonder why you should not read it, I wouldn't be able to come up with an answer. ( )

Weird and bad. Slightly bad because I actually enjoyed some parts of it but I don't recommend it. ( )