Flann O'Brien

With the publication of The Third Policeman, Dalkey Archive Press now has all of O'Brien's fiction back in print.

A Novel

The Third Policeman

y✦

✦ an irish classic 
✦ absurd philosophical comedy 
✦ the very excuse to thoroughly enjoy it wo understanding what's going on 
✦ a literary jigsaw puzzle—big picture takes shape in the end and hits u 
✦ weirdest bike ride ever 
✦ love it

Jesse Morley

p. 20
"The the eyes were horrible. Looking at them I got the feeling that they were not genuine eyes at all but mechanical dummies animated by electricity or the like, with a tiny pinhole in the centre of the 'pupil' through which the real eye gazed secretively and with great coldness. Such a conception, possibly, with no foundation at all in fact, disturbed me agonisingly and gave rise in my mind to interminable speculations as to the colour and quality of the real eye and as to whether, indeed, it was real at all or merely another dummy with its pinhole on the same plane as the first one so that the real eye, possibly behind thousands of these absurd disguises, gazed out through a barrel of serried peep-holes."

"‘Not hens’ piniony under-wing feeling?’ I questioned keenly. The Sergeant shook his head abstractedly."

"'It is nearly an insoluble pancake,’ he smiled, ‘a conundrum of inscrutable potentialities, a snorter.’"

Milk

It's alright. Quite difficult to follow at times because it's so all over the place. Funny on occasion in its absurdity, but also very difficult to connect with because of it.

Melody Izard

This is an Alice down the rabbit hole kind of book with a distinct Monty Python twist. There are lots of bikes and lots of mysterious readings and this damn third policeman. Craig and I listened to it during our trip to Grayton Beach and it was certainly not something you could listen to if you were trying to decide if you needed to make a left-hand turn or stay straight.

The Third Policeman A Novel

Reviews