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 the comparison to Joyce, but certainly he shares what he himself described as "Joyce's almost supernatural skill in conveying Dublin dialogue." His method of creating a grotesque reality heightened by details of surpassing ordinariness can be compared to Beckett's, while his use of fantastic Irish mythological motifs has some of the poetic wit of Stephens. Add to these the intricately constructed bilingual dimension of his work, and a unique comic genius emerges. (p. 141)
Certainly O'Brien is accessible to readers of English, in which language he is a superb stylist with an uncannily true ear for usage. That he had the same gifted way with Irish must be taken on trust by many. (pp. 141-42)
Joan Keefe, in World Literature Today (copyright 1977 by the University of Oklahoma Press), Vol. 51, No. 1, Winter, 1977.
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