Monday, October 23, 2017

The Third Policeman

Far and away my favorite postmodern novel is Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman; O'Brien, having had some success with At Swim-Two-Birds, tried to get the new work published by the same publisher, who rejected it on the ground that they wanted the author to be less fantastic, not more. It was only published after his death. I think it's an almost perfect blend of humor, seriousness, and absurdity (both humorous and serious).

The BBC put out an excellent, and I mean excellent, reading by Patrick Magee of an abridgement (quite a competent abridgement, too) of the work, which you can find online. It's a bit over two hours long. I highly recommend it. Magee hits everything perfectly, and has the knack of stating the most insane absurdities as if they were obvious facts only a child would deny, which is absolutely essential to capturing the spirit of the work.