The Dalkey Archive: Amazon.ca: Flann O'Brien: Books

Product Description

Texture 11-93

"The Dalkey Archive is witty, sly, outrageous, and the characters remind one at times of Nabokov or De Vries."

Joseph Coates, Chicago Tribune Books 2-28-93

"Dalkey Archive [Press] has made one reader very happy and likely will intoxicate many others with Flann O'Brien's fine brew of malt, salt, air, heady ideas and rich, ripe prose."

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Customer Reviews

9 Reviews

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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Average Customer Review

4.8 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Why the Irish are mighty, and why no one else understands them, Oct 27 2008

By	Jack Blatant (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Dalkey Archive (Paperback)

I've heard Flann O'Brien compared with James Joyce many a time, and fair enough: O'Brien in some ways is almost like a shadow side of Joyce, a court jester who leaves you shaking your head at his ridiculous antics, and then sitting up in bed later that night as you see the message underneath those antics.

This book is my favourite of Flann O'Brien's. It doesn't contain my favourite scene of all time, but I find this the most evenly paced of the mad Irishman's work. The section where Saint Augustine argues that he is not black is my favourite part of the book, although it is really as a total (and totally bizarre) piece that this book has its strength. A good reminder of how ridiculous the world probably is.

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5.0 out of 5 stars My favourite Flann O'Brien book, Nov 26 2003

By	"maximumhawklord" (earth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dalkey Archive (Paperback)

This is an excellent book by my favourite Irish author. It has several plots all of which are very funny, although I think my personal favourite is the love triangle between Mary, Mick, and Hackett. It was also written after James Joyce had died so it is very interesting (and amusing) how he is miscast in this book. He is alive and in hiding for one thing. Joyce was actually an early champion of Flann's work so they might have been friends.

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5.0 out of 5 stars weird but necessary, Jun 25 2003

By	gonolin - See all my reviews

O'Brien is not a household name but he is a wag of the calibre of Oscar Wilde or even Joyce when Joyce wasn't taking himself too seriously. This is a classic but nearly unknown work. It does require some interest in traditional literary issues such as the history of church metaphysics, but only to give the basis of a good joke. Track this work down and read it, for the betterment of your wit and understanding.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the Most Peculiarly Funny Books Ever Written
I first read "The Dalkey Archive" twenty years ago, while a graduate student at Trinity College in Dublin. Read more

Published on May 8 2002 by botatoe

5.0 out of 5 stars O'Brien's hallucinatory vision of the Midwest
Flann O'Brien is well known among eireophiles and connoisseurs of high modernism alike for his hilarious literary forays, as he tilts at the absolute limits of language like a... Read more

Published on Oct 31 2001 by John Galton, Jr.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Logic of Laughter
I love Flann O'Brien in both his languages and all his names. No book has ever made me laugh as loud or as long as his An Beal Bocht/The Poor Mouth, but along with the laughter,... Read more

Published on Jul 9 2001 by J. S. Custer

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my all-time favorites
This is a charming, wonderful book, one of my all-time favorites. It's as quirky and funny as the rest of O'Brien's work; the underwater conversation that the two main characters... Read more

Published on May 2 2001 by James Nawrocki