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Flann O'Brien is an author from the U.K. Born 1911 and died 1966. Flann O'Brien is a pseudonym of Brian Ó Nualláin , also known as Brian O'Nolan. From GR; One of twelve brothers and sisters, he was born in 1911 in Strabane, County Tyrone, into an Irish-speaking family. His father had learned Irish while a young man during the Gaelic revival the son was later to mock. O’Brien’s childhood has been described as happy, though somewhat insular, as the language spoken at home was not that spoken by their neighbours.

Pre Q 1. Have you read any other books by Flann O'Brien?

1. Discuss the title of the book. .

2. Discuss the structure of the book. In what way is this structure unique? Did you expect something different knowing that the author was Irish?

3. The book references these legendary persons;
-Finn
-Suibhne
- Pooka
- Good Fairy
Modern personages:
- Shanahan
- Lamont
- Furisky
- Casey
4. Give an example of Anglo/Gaelic phrases.

5. "Having placed in my mouth sufficient bread for three minutes� chewing, I withdrew my powers of sensual perception and retired into the privacy of my mind, my eyes and face assuming a vacant and preoccupied expression. I reflected on the subject of my spare-time literary activities. One beginning and one ending for a book was a thing I did not agree with. A good book may have three openings entirely dissimilar and inter-related only in the prescience of the author, or for that matter one hundred times as many endings." This is the opening to the book, what does this paragraph tell the reader that he can expect?

6. Discuss the narrator.

7. What does our narrator feel about the function of characters?

8. What legacy to the novel does this novel offer?

9. Was there a plot or is this character driven, or is it something else?

10. Did you find the book readable. Were you engaged or was it a chore to read.

11. Other comments, quotes, opinions, etc.

I finished the book today. I found it amusing but not sure what I read. I found the article about the title interesting and that is why I shared the link. The structure jumps about and goes from the unnamed narrator, his uncle to tales about all these myths and personages. I enjoyed the dialect. I listened to the audio which was fun to listen to. The narrator is a person who is rather isolated as he stays in his room, in his bed and he does entertain the idea of writing and even writes a bit. I think he might be a rather smart, perhaps socially awkward person who likes to drink. Which is not unusual in socially anxious people. The Legacy might be the structure, the inclusion of the myths. It is a writing about a guy who writes, whose characters turn on him. I am not sure if the novel is plot or character driven because it is hard to follow but there is a plot. And I don't think all the mythological, folklore and other personages qualify so much as characters. That being said, it was interesting to be introduced to so many new mythological and otherwise characters. It wasn't hard to listen to because the accent was so fun. It is short so that helps too. I really liked many of the sayings in the book. I think it is quite quotable. I liked the intro where he discusses that a book can start and end in many different ways. I think I've read that idea in another book. Given that the book was published in 1939, this author was ahead of his time. This was his debut novel. I've read The Third Policeman a while back which is also a weird book. The author has a wonderful sense of humor.

Pre Q 1. Have you read any other books by Flann O'Brien?
I have never read anything else by Flann O'Brien or even Brian O'Nolan for that matter.

1. Discuss the title of the book. .
Evidently, it reflects a location in Ireland where two rivers come together ("the narrow water of the two birds") but is also the name of a Pub. However, to a non-Irish person without that knowledge, the reference to swimming followed by the reference to flying is a tiny dislocation that sets one up for an interestingly odd book.

2. Discuss the structure of the book. In what way is this structure unique? Did you expect something different knowing that the author was Irish?
The book is an example of early 20th century metafiction in which the author's main character is an author whose main character is an author who lives with his characters both from fantasy, cowboy movies, Irish song and Irish legend. I did not know what to expect but the book is absolutely Irish to the core.

4. Give an example of Anglo/Gaelic phrases.
The book is full of references to Irish history, legend and literature. The one that stands out simply because the book spends a lot of time with it is King Sweeney the mad, and his travels all over Ireland. There is a lot of King Sweeney's poetry in the book which was evidently taken from
Buile Suibhne, a middle Irish romance.
Although in O'Brien's mouth we get such memorial lines as: "good its bright neat sallow, good its yewy yew-yews".

5. "Having placed in my mouth sufficient bread for three minutes� chewing, I withdrew my powers of sensual perception and retired into the privacy of my mind, my eyes and face assuming a vacant and preoccupied expression. I reflected on the subject of my spare-time literary activities. One beginning and one ending for a book was a thing I did not agree with. A good book may have three openings entirely dissimilar and inter-related only in the prescience of the author, or for that matter one hundred times as many endings." This is the opening to the book, what does this paragraph tell the reader that he can expect?
Right away you know you are going to have more than one story line, more than one beginning and more than one ending. It also sets the reader up for a metafiction as the author is talking about writing through the authorship of his main character. However, it wasn't as if I then knew what to expect, it was more a signal to me to be tolerant.

6. Discuss the narrator.
The outside frame narrator is a college student of literature who spends much of his time in bed thinking up his own literary work. He is not named although his uncle, who he lives with, is an employee of the Guinness Brewery. It is he who dreams up the author Dermot Trellis who then writes the stories of John Furriskey and his compatriots. The student also tells the story of Pooka, of the devil class, and Good Fairy, of the good fairy class, and both the narratives get tangled with the legends and poetry of Irish romances, particularly King Sweeney and Finn MacCool.

7. What does our narrator feel about the function of characters?

The characters are the story and the author should know them well, so well that they should live with him. The characters of course rebel and drug Trellis (not the narrator/student) in order to live their own lives. One believes from this that the author O'Brien believes that he is not completely in control of his characters although the nature of the characters do comprise the core of the book.

8. What legacy to the novel does this novel offer?
Although there was metafiction before this book was written, the fact that this book melded a modern metafiction with ancient Irish romances and with a parody of James Joyce and other "modern" Irish authors did seem to serve as a way to open the door to larger extremes in popular fiction. I believe it did this largely through its delightful wit and humor.

9. Was there a plot or is this character driven, or is it something else?
Certainly it is the characters that drive the writing but it isn't "character driven" in that there is no concrete evolution of any of the characters throughout the book unless you claim the madness of Sweeny becoming more mad or the gruesome tortures of Trellis educating him to what he had done to his characters. In general I would answer: "something else".

10. Did you find the book readable. Were you engaged or was it a chore to read.
Absolutely readable, I even found myself laughing out loud. However, as Kristel mentioned, it helped that it was short.

11. Other comments, quotes, opinions, etc.

Characters looking up into a tree: " Whatever it is, observed the poet, it's not a man. It hasn't got a trousers on it. It is likely a marsupial"

"A pint of plain is your only man"

"Conclusion of foregoing"

Some great questions from Kristel, I’ll pick out the ones which most reflect the thoughts I had while reading

Have you read any other books by Flann O'Brien?
Yes I’ve read The Third Policeman, and I preferred it to this one.

Discuss the structure of the book. In what way is this structure unique? Did you expect something different knowing that the author was Irish?
The structure was the aspect that I found most fascinating. I liked the way the three strands were woven together and overlapped, and the repetition of certain phrases and passages. I don’t know if it’s unique, I’ve seen comparisons with Joyce but haven’t yet managed to read more than a few pages of him.

"Having placed in my mouth sufficient bread for three minutes� chewing, I withdrew my powers of sensual perception and retired into the privacy of my mind, my eyes and face assuming a vacant and preoccupied expression. I reflected on the subject of my spare-time literary activities. One beginning and one ending for a book was a thing I did not agree with. A good book may have three openings entirely dissimilar and inter-related only in the prescience of the author, or for that matter one hundred times as many endings." This is the opening to the book, what does this paragraph tell the reader that he can expect?
Well, it’s going to be mayhem! There’s already some tongue in cheek humour when the narrator speaks about himself, and his story is set up to be structured in an unconventional way. There will be multiple openings and endings, and stories within stories.

Discuss the narrator. The narrator is a student, seen as lazy by his uncle. He is nevertheless a smart student who is using his literary dabbling to distract himself from the pressure of his studies, and he brings the strands of his narrative to life.

What does our narrator feel about the function of characters? The characters can take on a life of their own, they don’t have to obey any imposed rules and can behave in any way that brings the story to life. The author is in some ways at the mercy of the characters, rather than vice versa.

What legacy to the novel does this novel offer?
This novel takes the idea of metafiction, a form which already existed but hadn’t been developed to a great extent, and mixes it with legend and myth. It has an original approach, incorporating elements of Modernism and pushing the idea of what a novel ‘should be�.

Was there a plot or is this character driven, or is it something else?
Something else. The characters are at the centre of events but aren’t always easy to distinguish and are never described in any detail, rather they are represented by various phrases or tropes.

Did you find the book readable. Were you engaged or was it a chore to read.
A bit of both. Most of the time I was engaged and entertained, but occasionally I found the MacPhilleskey and Good Fairy parts a chore.
I wish I had known more of the poetry and legends because I would have recognised more of the parodies.

Pre Q 1. I have not read any other books

1. Others have covered this but it also reminded me of At Swim Two Boys not sure which novel came first.

2. This book is a hot mess with characters from different stories all converging and taking on a life of their own escaping their narratives and invading others.


5. The reader can expect what he gets total mayhem

6. The narrator is a solitary young man who spends most of his time in his room. I loved his wry observations about those around him when he encounters them.

7. That they are free and can do what they want.

8. A new take on the story within a story and the author being part of the work.

9. Character driven for me as it was mainly about what the characters got up to without having a rigid structure.

10. I did find it readable and some of the comments did have me laughing especially being sick until his eye balls nearly fell out after a heavy drinking session.

I just finished this, and not surprisingly loved it.

Pre Q 1. Have you read any other books by Flann O'Brien?

Yes, I listened to the audio version of The Third Policeman.


2. Discuss the structure of the book. In what way is this structure unique? Did you expect something different knowing that the author was Irish?

This is such a stellar example of metafiction. It makes some of the other practitioners seem like amateurs. The structure is unique in that there is a story within a story within a story (etc). I expected something different because it is a Flann O'Brien novel, not because he was Irish.


5. "Having placed in my mouth sufficient bread for three minutes� chewing, I withdrew my powers of sensual perception and retired into the privacy of my mind, my eyes and face assuming a vacant and preoccupied expression. I reflected on the subject of my spare-time literary activities. One beginning and one ending for a book was a thing I did not agree with. A good book may have three openings entirely dissimilar and inter-related only in the prescience of the author, or for that matter one hundred times as many endings." This is the opening to the book, what does this paragraph tell the reader that he can expect?

This opening tells the reader that they can at minimum expect a non-linear narrative. I assumed that we would have 3 openings and 3 endings, although the novel isn't that cleanly and obviously divided as that.

I thought that was quite an arresting first line. How much bread are we talking about here! I think quite a lot.

6. Discuss the narrator.

Assuming we are referring to the student..... he is a university student who on the face of it is terribly lazy and seems to enjoy himself more than study. I thought the scenes where he was talking with his friends were very well done - they are all so terribly earnest and feel superior. It turns out this impression is smoke and mirrors as well, and he actually does well in his university studies.

7. What does our narrator feel about the function of characters?

They are to be borrowed and manipulated, but equally they manipulate the author.

8. What legacy to the novel does this novel offer?

I think it really shows what can be done with metafiction in the hands of a skilled writer.


9. Was there a plot or is this character driven, or is it something else?

Definitely something else.


10. Did you find the book readable. Were you engaged or was it a chore to read.

It wasn't a chore to read at all, however it did take me a (little) bit to be fully engaged.


11. Other comments, quotes, opinions, etc.

I found the whole kangaroo question quite funny.