Reviews for The Best of Private eye, 1978

The average rating for The Best of Private eye, 1978 based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-07-21 00:00:00 Rene Hernandez The Best of Myles is a selection from the newspaper articles of Flann O'Brien, author of At Swim-Two-Birds and The Third Policeman. The pieces, all for The Irish Times, were written initially under the pseudonym An Broc which means the badger. The name was then changed to An Cruiskeen Lawn, which means the full little jug, but was soon switched to Myles na gCopaleen and then to the definitive version, Myles na Gopaleen. (It seems the reviewer has been reading Wikipedia -FO'B) Erm...the name Myles na Gopaleen means 'Myles of the little horses'. (The correct translation is 'Myles of the ponies'; the principality of the pony should never be subjugated to the imperialism of the horse - FO'B). Flann O'Brien was against imperialism on principle, needless to say. (Why say it in that case? And if there's any whiskey in the case, I'll have some of it -FO'B). The..the articles appeared regularly from the early 1940s until shortly before Mr O'Brien, who must surely qualify as Ireland's greatest comic genius, d-died on April 1st 1966. (Just say I died on April Fool's Day and be done with it -FO'B). The n..name Myles na Gopaleen was inspired by a character in Dion Boucicault's play, The Colleen Bawn, which dates from 1860. In Boucicault's melodrama, aimed at American audiences, Myles was a lovelorn Irish peasant who..who distilled alcohol in his spare time. (No half-measures, please, Myles was a full-time poteen maker and drinker - FO'B). Another of Boucicault's plays had inspired O'Brien's compatriot James Joyce to borrow the character Shaun from Arrah Na Pogue, written in 1864. Shaun became a central figure in Finnegans Wake, which incidentally was published in 1939, the same year as O'Brien's first novel, At Swim-Two-Birds. (Do you have to underline that I will be forever eclipsed by Joyce? - FO'B). While the first few pieces Flann O'Brien contributed to The Irish Times were written in the Irish language, the rest were written completely in English. (That is not accurate: the columns frequently reverted to Irish, eg, the 'Corkadorka' articles were written in Irish and several sections of 'The Brother' series were written in a version of Irish transliterated for English speakers, eg, 'bee kuramack lay the hell' which means, 'be more careful please'. Another set of articles, 'Literally from the Irish', though in English they were written, an Irish syntax they were having - FO'B) The..the topics covered in The Best of Myles range from steam trains to music, from the shortage of alcohol during the war to the abundance of cliché during the same period. (What is a list of things always said to do? Range. What is always the opposite of a shortage? An abundance -FO'B (groaning)). S...since Mr O'Brien's two best known novels, At Swim-Two-Birds and The Third Policeman were completed before he began writing for The Irish Times, many critics believe that..that directing his energies towards filling a daily newspaper column with ever more witty and creative material prevented the author from fulfilling his destiny as the leading Irish novelist of the twentieth century. (What action must always be taken in relation to our energies? They must be directed. What must a destiny always be? Fulfilled. I begin to suspect this reviewer hasn't read the book. If she had, she'd have learned from the 'The Catechism of Cliché' section to avoid such worn-out phrases - FO'B). Hmm...while At Swim-Two-Birds was greeted with acclaim (groan -FO'B), a fire in the warehouse where the copies were stored meant that it didn't reach a very wide audience. The Third Policeman was similarly ill-fated also unlucky: it failed to find a publisher and the manuscript was subsequently mislaid lost. It didn't surface again until after Mr O'Brien's death. (It was not lost, it was simply lying in the back of a drawer. And before you say anything smart, and I feel you are working up to it, I'm entitled, as the author of 'The Catechism of Cliché', to create a clichéd destiny for my own manuscript if I choose -FO'B). However, some of the ideas and scenarios from The Third Policeman apparently made their way from the back of the drawer into a later novel called Dalkey Archive which was published in 1964. Incidentally, James Joyce is a character in that novel - after forging his own obituary to avoid being drafted into the army in 1939, he turns up in a village on the outskirts of Dublin where, under an assumed name, he works as a barman. (The reviewer has been reading Wikipedia again I see -FO'B). Phew...I think there is nothing more to be said except that The Best of Myles is only one of the selections from Flann O' Brian's journalistic career that now exist. The following titles are also available: Myles Before Myles Myles Away From Dublin The Hair Of The Dogma Further Cuttings From Cruiskeen Lawn Flann At War The Various Lives of Keats and Chapman (Someone is surely buying a lot of pints with the royalties from all these books and it certainly isn't me -FO'B. Furthermore, what completely non-existent thing is invariably stated to be there? The nothing more that often remains to be said. Ok, in what direction should I now shut? Up. FO'B).

Review # 2 was written on 2010-10-04 00:00:00 Scott Bruggeworth This bumper-sized collection of Cruiskeen Lawn columns runs to 400 pages in a small 10pt font. You would be mistaken for thinking this covers his entire career at the Irish Times. In fact, it only covers from 1940-1945. Begad! Bearing this in mind, his output was extraordinary. The range of wit, erudition, linguistic skill and creativity is outrageous. Among the funniest columns are the "Research Bereau," "The Brother" and the "Catechism of Cliché." O'Brien is at his finest when taking a ridiculous idea and stretching it to breaking point. His grasp of language is also amazing. This book bedazzles with endless wordplay and puns. There are also frequent forays into Latin and French, as well as an entire section written in Gaelic. The section "Miscellenous" is less successful. There are one too many rambling and baffling columns here, and the book does seem to run on forever. Still: a top read and the definitive collection of O'Brien's articles and genius during wartime Ireland. A pint of Flann is your only man.