Flann O’Brien
The Third Policeman finds his way to At Swim-Two-Birds and lives to write about it, writes to live within it. Riding his bloody bike, he feels his molecules changing, becoming something other, something cyclical. Along the way, he meets Saint Augustine and James Joyce, both of whom are really dead, but only one of whom is an apparition.
The other is a bartender who doesn’t know about Finnegans Wake.
Well, actually, that’s only part of the story and the wrong part. The real Dalkey Archive is nothing like the above. I like the novel, but it’s just not up to the same standard as O’Brien’s (or O’Nolan’s) best two works, The Third Policeman and At Swim-Two-Birds, which just happen to be among the very best novels of the 20th century in English.
The novel does start out with great promise, and is funny, well-written and nicely paced. Its construction is solid and balanced. Something, though, is missing. It’s almost as if O’Brien didn’t quite have his heart in it, which is understandable, given the difficulty he had in publishing his earlier works. But any novel that brings back the great character De Selby and has him discussing religion with Saint Augustine can’t be all bad, and this one certainly isn’t. It just doesn’t quite live up to its own premise.
The main character is Mick, and he’s a young man in the state of flux. Not sure exactly what he wants to do with his life … and, because of that, he’s slightly susceptible to influences of other characters larger than life. Like De Selby. De Selby is a mad scientist of sorts, straight out of The Third Policeman (which O’Brien could not publish in his lifetime) by way of a sort of distorted self-quotation. He’s a mad scientist who has some rather apocalyptic thoughts regarding the human race, and may have discovered the substance to set that in motion. He also has found the ability to stop time, make wonderful whiskey in less than a month and have discussions with the old Church Fathers, like Augustine. Mick and his friend Hackett join De Selby and witness these dialogues. This is the part of the book that O’Brien should have expanded and expounded in greater detail. It was more than interesting, especially as it took place in an underwater cave.
Mick finds another project to keep him busy. He has heard from an acquaintance that James Joyce is not really dead, and is living in a town north of Dublin (The Dalkey Archive was published in 1964. James Joyce died in 1941). He searches for him and finds a man he thinks is Joyce. This Joyce thinks he’s Joyce, too, but is nothing like the great writer we know and love. And he doesn’t seem to be aware of his own classic works. The reader has to make up his or her own mind as to whether this is really James Joyce (even within the fictional framework) or just a delusional bartender with a desire to be a priest.
The two projects — Mick also tries to prevent De Selby from carrying out his apocalypse — dovetail and Mick’s girlfriend Mary gives him a third choice. The resolution is a bit of a surprise, but not by much. All in all, a pleasant read, well-crafted, well-written, but just not atomically gifted like the two novels mentioned above.
*For an excellent biography of Flann O’Brien, I heartily recommend Athony Cronin’s No Laughing Matter: The Life and Times of Flann O’Brien
I disagree. The Dalkey Archive is less flashy but more substantial than either @S2B or 3rd Policeman (the unity of their conceits also limits them, however madcapably those limits are tested) — were it not so, he wouldn’t be among my top ten 20c writers (it takes more than one or two books).
Interesting … I’m glad someone has a much different view of the book. It probably didn’t help me to read this one after The Third Policeman and At Swim-Two-Birds. Might be a similar response to those who read Haruki Murakami … and come to some of his later books first. I see his later works as less strong, but still very good.
Again, I liked the book. It just seemed to me like it didn’t quite live up to its own premise. Though there is much good dialogue, humor, and the creation of the Joyce character is a classic. The anti-clerical Joyce as someone who wants to enter the Church, etc. The twist on his view of his own work as offensive to his current sensibilities.
I think O’Brien also does a very good job of writing dialogue mocking intellectual pretensions via pub-talk. Very funny and spot on. It’s not easy to roll 64K words together like that. Jargon run amok, etc.
I love the picture posted with this story.Way back in the golden age of the NYTimes book forums whiskey was the one to get me reading Flann O’Brien but when I went to the bookstore the only novel they had was“The Hard Life” which is a lesser book but since it was my first Flann I have an affection for it above the otheres excepting At Swim.I actually like “The Dalkey Archive” more than the “The Third Policeman” but I think it’s because I read it first of the two novels.
Well I see I have the receipt for “The Hard Life” in the book and I started my Flann O’Brien journey on 07/02/01 and I stand corrected because I bought “At Swim Two Birds” the same day.It must have been the cover art of“The Hard Life” at the time that drew me towards it first.Or maybe it was because the print was larger and it was a shorter book.
Hey, John. Thanks for the comment. I haven’t gotten around to reading The Hard Life yet. But I have his complete novels now, from Everyman’s Library, and intend to get to them all. Also want to reread his journalism as well. Twas a great writer who could have been greater, but for (at least the legend goes) the drink and too much time spent in journalism.
May I come out of nowhere and vote for Barbara Guest’s “Seeking Air” among the great novels of the 20th century? Shameless promotion of a writer with whom I am very familiar, but hey, what’s the harm?
Robert, fire away. No problem. I’m probably too biased to make such a conjecture. She’s my aunt.
There are many differences, of course, between Flann and Aunt Barbara. I think Barbara Guest largely fulfilled her promise as a poet, novelist, essayist, biographer, etc. Less was expected of her and she bested those expectations by New York, Carolina, and Berkeley miles. O’Brien, not so much. He’s much like Cyril Connolly in that regard. Much greater things were expected of them than their end production … Of course, appearances can be deceiving. But, again, in relative terms, they both achieved greatness. There is always one’s own promise to match up against. Falling short of that is the general way of artists. But, if we compare Flann and Cyril with other writers, they come across pretty well. Who knows? Our luck that we have their works to enjoy, contemplate, etc.
That said, I’d put Barbara Guest and old Flann in the brilliant category … Connolly too.
Surprised. Either because you’re up at this time (my workshift, so naturally I’m awake) or that my idle mention tapped so rich a vein of your considerations. Thank you. I am inspired to investigate further.
I suppose one of the suggestions I am making is that unlike the example of O’Brien, where our considerations are based on a number of novels, “Seeking Air” is Guest’s one and only novel (properly speaking). Therefore it would not pass the standard set forth above by John A. Abel, and can serve as a kind of test case for his argument. As a second suggestion, I might ask of anyone evaluating Barbara Guest’s “Seeking Air” that they consult Kathleen Fraser’s essay on same in her collection of essays, which I think appeared in 2000. It is her essay that has led me to reserve a special admiration for the novel and is what leads me at this time to have the daring to rank “Seeking Air” among the best.
Footnote to the previous: For the moment I cannot recall exactly what you would call “The Countess of Minneapolis” by Barbara Guest. Though it sports certain similarities to the text of “Seeking Air”, I do not think it officially is a novel, or, shall we say, “competes” in the novelistic arena.
And John, you didn’t leave it in the taxi. But we’ll clam up about that …
Oh and by the way while we’re off topic I see that last month the complete poems of Barbara Guest got published, to[o] little notice.
Barbara Guest has plenty of admirers and I think will gain in reputation over the decades and centuries. There are, however, many other candidates for People’s Choices for poets, and more power to them.
Correction, sorry. It appears it was nnyhav’s comments implying (as I am taking it for my convenience) that you cannot judge [a fiction writer’s achievement] on only one or two books. So, interesting, try the theory out on a one-novel candidate or on a writer whose reputation is based entirely on one book (“Catch 22″ ??) (“Appointment at Samarra” ??), as if the person got lucky. (Ohara’s Butterfield phone number book isn’t too bad, but I’m just using examples that come to hand, not making any claims.)
Robert, Toole’s _A Confederacy of Dunces_ is probably the canonical example you’re looking for. I’m just saying that to be in the top tier it takes more than 1 – 2 examples. And it’s not that I don’t appreciate what BG accomplished
(cf http://nnyhav.blogspot.com/2006/02/barbara-guest.html )
it’s that consideration of the body of the work enters into it, not just isolated examples however fine, because there’s so much competition
(cf http://nnyhav.blogspot.com/2007/08/my-top-ten-and-what-of-them-i-havent.html )
I wish I could read Gaelic. Would be great to read An Beal Bocht in the original. O’Brien grew up on Irish, was fluent, written and verbal. Always losses in translation, of course. But I still need to read it, even if it’s in English.
Thanks for the links to your review of Seeking Air.
Joyce is also a very good example of a small body of work bringing about a huge reputation. Word was that if he had lived, his next book was going to be short and sweet. Well, maybe not sweet. It would have been interesting to see it, and the rest of the future he may have had. Amazingly enough, O’Brien actually produced more written works than Joyce. Another Joyce may have the record for most published “literary” novels. Joyce Carol Oates. Prolific fits her to a T. Also, Georges Simenon. Famous story tells of Alfred Hitchcock calling him up one day (roughly paraphrased):
“Hello, can I speak with Georges?“
“He’s very busy right now,” his wife answers. “He’s in the middle of his latest novel.“
“Oh, okay then. I’ll wait.“
I love those two O’Hara books“Appointment in Samarra” and “Butterfield Eight” and his short story collection but haven’t read any of his later writing.I know there is one large novel the name escapes me at the moment.I’ve heard both good and Bad things about his later work.
Whew! I was afraid O’Hara would seem slight to you, and I am glad and I did not take it that Barbara Guest was unappreciated by present company, but that the range of appreciation among poetry lovers does, and no doubt should, include many other poets besides her. We may not in our lifetimes be able to gauge her importance, but we can cast our votes.
Getting back to Mr. Flann O’Brien: From the looks of it, his first novel will be mighty entertaining. The mind of the narrator, or implied author, is a compendium of the works of James Joyce. In different ways, Virginia Woolf never stops tapping into the works of William Shakespeare and there must be German authors who enjoy a different and similar relationship with Herr Wolfgang von Goethe (also Carlyle?).
The ancient Greek quotation that precedes the novel, by the way, must be Democritus and refers to the notion of nature as being composed of separate, distinct elements. Don’t quote me on that, but if you were curious about the line of Greek (on one of the front pages in my Everyman edition), it translates as “For all things exist (or ‘stand out’) apart from each other.“
Also, I think the point I focused on is a fair point. I’ll state my and nnyhav’s concern in the following (different) way. Can we regard “Seeking Air” among novels in general? Or does it remain in our purview as an example of what we like particularly about Barbara Guest, so that the novel, so-called (see the cover), serves to highlight and extend the delight created by her poetry, as if it fascinated in terms of its own or of a more limited category? A poetic-fanciful but highly accentuated in its aesthetic refinement-cubist-private and highly personal sort of novel-so-to-speak.
But I apologize for going on so.
I too like the analysis presented at the nnyhav blogspot of Barbara Guest’s “Seeking Air.” The writer is charmed by some of the word play of Guest, and I made a brief comment at that site to the effect that you can find more of same (or similar) in her book of poems, “Miniatures and Other Poems.“
Nnyhav is one of the most astute readers I’ve ever encountered. And the amount of his reading is prodigious. As for Aunt Barbara: She will get her due. I’m waiting for a copy from my cousin and will have an interview with her on this site before long. Hopefully, early next year.
I was just now wandering about in the workplace which is a law office thinking about how I would like to say something about the wonderful interview with Finn MacCool very near the beginning of O’Brien’s “At Swim-Two-Birds” the catalogue of birds therein for example and about how as mentioned in a previous comment to this essay the author Flann O’Brien was so knowledgeable of Gaelic/Irish and how the Finn MacCool business is very different from the way Mr. J__ J_____ would have accomplished such in his epic “Ulysses” and how maybe being close and intimate with the Gaelic source is attributable to the special charm of the “At Swim-Two-Birds” example and I am wandering about as I said and I am idling by the fax machines in the other room and I look at the log for incoming faxes coming into the law firm and see the last receiver’s name listed as J_____ Finnegan.
Hi, I’m away with limited onlinearity at the moment, but thanks for the overkind words and the pointers; I had a browse yesterday of the Complete Poems (Wesleyan) at the bookshoppe, a bit disappointed in that, while the typography’s ok, it elides that part of collaborative efforts that aren’t Guest’s (e.g. accompanying illustrations) and perhaps some that are?
Here’s wishing all a preposterous New Year! (though it would seem some are off to an early start …)
Thanks for the head’s up on the Complete Poems. Interesting. The history of the publication seems to have been problematic as well. I was in contact with her daughter ( my cousin) throughout much of it. She’s the co-editor for the book. Seems the date for publication was pushed off several times. Of course, that may be the norm for such ventures. Not sure. Regardless … I hope you and yours have the very best new year.