Third Policeman: Amazon.ca: Flann Obrien: Books

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From Amazon

A comic trip through hell in Ireland, as told by a murderer, The Third Policeman is another inspired bit of confusing and comic lunacy from the warped imagination and lovably demented pen of Flann O'Brien, author of At Swim-Two-Birds. There's even a small chance you'll figure out what's going on if you read the publisher's note that appears on the last page. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. If ever a book was brought to life by a reading, it is this presentation of O'Brien's posthumously published classic. Norton individually crafts voices and personalities for each character in such a way that a listener might imagine an entire cast of voice talent working overtime. This is a comic/surreal tale of a one-legged gentleman farmer who participates in a poorly planned botched robbery-turned-murder, only to find himself having a long conversation with the dead man shortly after the deed. In addition he hears from his own soul, who he names Joe. Joe's voice is that of a wry observer with a voice of calm, removed authority, whereas dead man Mathers' voice is completely nasal, at once sickly and droll. Mathers sends the farmer to a two-dimensional barracks of three metaphysical policemen. Here he finds himself in a world where people can become bicycles and eternity is within walking distance. Norton's rendition of the main policeman, Sergeant Pluck, tips the reading into a full-out performance. The enormous blustery fellow with red cheeks and brushy mustache and eyebrows is portrayed like a jolly yet dangerous Disney walrus. Norton's Irish brogue, accentuated to different degrees with the various characters, ties the ribbon on a perfect presentation of this absurd and chilling masterpiece. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Customer Reviews

25 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.8 out of 5 stars (25 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars I get it! Wait, no., Feb 12 2007

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N. Fehr (Winkler, MB) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Third Policeman (Paperback)

I spent most of my time reading this book with my brow furrowed in a sort of "What the...?" expression, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. Those who like to imagine the look of a scene while reading will have a fiendish but delightful time trying to get their heads around some of the descriptions in this story, and the dialogue and premise are first-rate. Still, a difficult one to recommend for any who are not prepared for one of the more bizarre reads they may encounter.

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5.0 out of 5 stars So good it makes me giggle, Oct 20 2003

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KoKo the Talking Ape - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Third Policeman (Paperback)

First, a few quibbles. Strictly speaking, this book is not "surrealist," as a few reviewers aver. Nor is it a mystery, nor science fiction, probably. The closest thing to it I have read is Stanislaw Lem, though the feeling is closer to Swift.

O'Brien spins an incredibly imaginative, voluble, funny, inventive yarn. Our nameless protagonist meets policemen, visits eternity, and develops a relationship with a bicycle. His soul, Joe, enjoys proclaiming that he (the protagonist) is "Signor Bari, the eminent one-legged tenor!"

The protagonist is a literally amoral person. In other words, he is not troubled by any dilemmas other than how best to preserve his own hide (and possibly to publish his work on bogus savant de Selby.) His role in this book is not to simulate a real person, in other words. Like Gulliver, he observes O'Brien's world and in reacting to that world, acts as a proxy for the reader. But more on that below.

Having committed a self-serving though impulsive murder, he begins to meet odd people and have odd conversations. He meets a curiously circumlocutory policeman, and after a mind-bending conversation, he begins to talk in similarly loopy style, in a hilarious attempt to fit in: "Those chests... are so like one another that I do not believe they are there at all because that is a simpler thing to believe than the contrary."

O'Brien displays amazing virtuosity with the English language, especially considering it is his second language (his first is Irish.) And yet his characters talk in a (to my untravelled ear) a peculiarly, and hilariously, Irish way: "Only myself has the secret of the thing and the intimate way of it, the confidential knack of circumventing it." But there are also passages of limpid beauty

But what is he making fun of? Self-obsessed scholars and their exegetists, undoubtedly. But there are also themes of punishment and guilt, both felt and adjudicated. After a few hours of consideration, I might hazard that O'Brien is making fun of, and cherishing, greed, selfishness and the desperate desire to avoid justice. When visiting eternity the protagonist discovers he can have literally anything, so he requests and receives bricks of gold, jewels, small but frightful weapons, etc.; he generally displays venality and defensiveness. When it turns out he cannot bring any of it with him, he bursts into tears. When a policeman sympathetically offers him a piece of candy, he cries even harder.

So although the protagonist is amoral, the book is basically a morality play. In fact it turns out that the entire book is a long description of the hapless protagonist's comeuppance. O'Brien's Catholic upbringing shows through, I suppose. Humanity's lot is justly a poor one, yet one cannot blame them for longing for better. Perhaps it is just best to have a sad whiskey.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A "Must Read" for cyclists, Jun 17 2003

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pskils (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Third Policeman (Paperback)

This is one of the funniest books anybody with a right-minded sense of humour will pick up. For cyclists, it is required reading along with a good cycle repair manual. In other words, until you've read this book you cannot properly understand the bicycle.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Novel I've read in a long time.
This novel is an brillant satire. Unlike other writers, O'Brien does not satirize political or social conditions but reality itself along with philosophy. Read more

Published on April 4 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars #1 fave
Wow! I just got done reading Flann O' Brien's "The Third Policeman" and I must say it is one of the best books I have ever read: and for me, that is saying a lot. Read more

Published on Mar 13 2003