At Swim-Two-Birds: A Novel (3) (Penguin Modern Classics Ser.)

By: Flann O'Brien

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Synopsis: 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