3.0
At Swim-Two-Birds
ByPublisher Description
An indolent college student creates a chaotic fictional world in this classic of Irish literature: “A marvel of imagination, language, and humor” (New Republic).
In this comic masterpiece, our unnamed narrator—a student at University College, Dublin, who spends more time drinking and working on his novel than attending classes—creates a character, a pub owner named Trellis, who himself is devoted mainly to writing and sleeping. Soon Trellis is collaborating with an author of cowboy romances, and from there unspools a brilliantly unpredictable adventure that James Joyce himself called “a really funny book.”
“’Tis the odd joke of modern Irish literature—of the three novelists in its holy trinity, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and Flann O’Brien, the easiest and most accessible of the lot is O’Brien. . . . Flann O’Brien was too much his own man, Ireland’s man, to speak in any but his own tongue.” —The Washington Post
“As with Scott Fitzgerald, there is a brilliant ease in [O’Brien’s] prose, a poignant grace glimmering off every page.” —John Updike
“One of the best books of our century.” —Graham Greene
In this comic masterpiece, our unnamed narrator—a student at University College, Dublin, who spends more time drinking and working on his novel than attending classes—creates a character, a pub owner named Trellis, who himself is devoted mainly to writing and sleeping. Soon Trellis is collaborating with an author of cowboy romances, and from there unspools a brilliantly unpredictable adventure that James Joyce himself called “a really funny book.”
“’Tis the odd joke of modern Irish literature—of the three novelists in its holy trinity, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and Flann O’Brien, the easiest and most accessible of the lot is O’Brien. . . . Flann O’Brien was too much his own man, Ireland’s man, to speak in any but his own tongue.” —The Washington Post
“As with Scott Fitzgerald, there is a brilliant ease in [O’Brien’s] prose, a poignant grace glimmering off every page.” —John Updike
“One of the best books of our century.” —Graham Greene
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“One of the most difficult books I’ve read in the last few years, a surreal journey through the mind of a lazy and purple prose generating young writer. Individual stories collide like train wrecks, characters start writing new books without the author’s permission and everything gets mixed up. Somehow through it all, it made me laugh out loud every few pages.”
About Flann O'Brien
Flann O’Brien is a pseudonym for Brian O’Nolan (1911–1966), an Irish novelist, playwright, and satirist. Born in Strabane, County Tyrone, he is regarded as a key figure in postmodern literature. His English language novels, such as At Swim-Two-Birds and The Third Policeman, were written under the pen name Flann O’Brien. His many satirical columns in the Irish Times and an Irish language novel An Béal Bocht were written under the name Myles na gCopaleen. O’Nolan’s novels have attracted a wide following for their bizarre humor and modernist metafiction.
Other books by Flann O'Brien
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