Brian O'Nolan ( 1911-10-05 – 1966-04-01 ) was an Irish novelist, journalist and humorist, better known by his pseudonyms Flann O’Brien and Myles na gCopaleen (or Myles na Gopaleen). Contents 1 Sourced 1.1 The Third Policeman (1967) 1.2 The Best of...
Pat Rooney, Special to the Rocky Denver Rocky Mountain News 01-22-2008 Fill in the blanks Ciaran O?Brien We asked midfielder Ciaran O'Brien, the Rapids' first-round selection (fifth overall) in Major League Soccer's SuperDraft, to . . . Fill in the blanks You...
"There is no answer at all to a very good question." -The Good Fairy, At Swim-Two-Birds Beginnings The difficulty with writing about Flann O'Brien's work emerges as soon as one pens the name of the author, itself a most slippery signifier...
With No Country For Old Men's cinematic debut it was perhaps inevitable that bookstores would see a surge of popular interest in the already-popular work of Cormac McCarthy. And in the East Village, where the reading of novels is hardly the greatest danger posed...
My Life in CIA: A Chronicle of 1973, by Harry Mathews. Dalkey Archive Press, 203 pages, $13.95.A few weeks ago, the arts section of The New York Times turned its solemn eye on literary fiction. On Monday, the fine novelist and short-story writer Steve Stern...
O'Brien was an eccentric writer of tremendous comic spirit. His work reveals an impressive knowledge of science, philosophy, literature, and theology. But his attitudes are always playful and satiric. Like Swift, who made fun of the Royal Society in Gulliver's Travels, O'Brien had a talent for making the principles of science seem ridiculous. The Sergeant in The Dalkey Archive, for example, explains the "Mollycule" theory: "Now take a sheep. What is a sheep only mil...
In O'Brien's early writing the surface brilliance of his invention is underscored with an affectionate concern for "the plain people of Ireland," but a harshly bitter quality seeps into his later work, probably because of professional and personal disappointments. He can be compared to Joyce, Beckett and James Stephens. All of them display an obsession with physical details of ludicrous discomfort vividly presented, often to comic effect. O'Brien always angrily rejected th...
To those who know O'Nolan's writing, ["Stories and Plays"] is a treasure. To those who don't, it is an excellent introduction, for every type of thing that he did in English is here, in brief, and in a rich assortment: the unfinished novel, "Slattery's Sago Saga," or "From Under the Ground to the Top of the Trees" is pure wild O'Nolan wit. "The Martyr's Crown" is one of the world's greatest short stories...
