Flann O'Brien: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Post-Modernist [Paperback]

Flann O???Brien???s The Third Policeman, completed in 1940, was initially rejected by his publishers for being too fantastic , and only appeared posthumously in 1967. Since then O???Brien has achieved cult status, although critical appraisal of his work has focused almost exclusively on his first novel, At Swim Two Birds(1939). By 1940 O???Brien was confronted with two towering traditions: the jaded legacy of Yeats???s Celtic Twilightand the problematic complexities of Joyce???s modernism. With The Third Policeman, O???Brien forges a powerful synthesis between these two traditions, and the paraliterary path he chooses marks the historical transition from modernism to post-modernism.

This groundbreaking study, first published in 1995 and now substantially revised, reconfigures O???Brien as a highly subversive writer within a rich and fertile literary landscape: indisputably Irish yet distinctly post-modern. It identifies The Third Policemanas a subversive intellectual satire, in the cutting-edge tradition of Swift and Sterne, and situates it as one of the earliest ??? and most exciting ??? examples of post-modernist fiction. This study is impressive, even brilliant, in its scope, thoroughness, mastery, and persuasiveness. Not to be missed is its clear delineation of postmodernism as a valid and defined literary approach. The highest praise I can give a critical book is that it makes me want to read or re-read the works discussed. Keith Hopper???s book on Flann O???Brien does that. He makes reading Flann O???Brien sound like an exciting and productive thing to do. Hopper makes his point with enviable ingenuity and pervasive force. He wears his stupendous erudition and expertise lightly and writes in a style that is sheer delight....Hopper has managed that rarest of feats: a scientific study from which both the expert and the layman can profit copiously. The highest praise I can givls5