- Hardcover: 192 pages
- Publisher: Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd; New edition edition (23 Mar 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0715630253
- ISBN-13: 978-0715630259
- Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.6 x 1.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,452,538 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
This is a collection of writings from the Irish satirist Flann O'Brien, edited from more than 3000 columns which appeared daily in the "Irish Times" under the pseudonym Myles na gCopaleen. Where previous collections are mere compilations, this collection of wartime columns treats the famous Irishman Myles na gCopaleen and his hectoring associates as the fictional characters they were intended to be. Tracking the shocking disintegration of this bright young writer, philosopher and social commentator, we witness Myles' steady decline, as his sparkling wit darkens in an alcoholic tragedy of the mind.
From the Publisher
A new hilarious book from the Irish master Flann O'Brien
'The first comic writer I would think of' J.S. Perlman
'The first comic writer I would think of' J.S. Perlman
At last! A new and hilarious book from the Irish master, Flann O'Brien. This magnificent work confirms the author's reputation as the funniest man who ever lived and the foremost satirist to come from Ireland since Jonathan Swift. At War was edited by John Wyse Jackson, co-author of John Stanislaus Joyce, from the more than 3000 columns which appeared daily in the Irish Times under the pseudonym Myles na gCopaleen.
For the first time, this collection of wartime columns treats Myles and his hectoring associates as the fictional characters Flann O'Brien intended them to be. Tracking the shocking disintegration of this bright young writer, philosopher and social commentator, the author chronicles Myles na gCopaleen's steady decline, as his sparkling wit darkens in an alcoholic tragedy of the mind. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The previous writer's comments made me curious and I agree with him that this is a gem of a book. In all other collections of Flann O'Brien's columns written as Myles na gCopaleen there is a certain relentlesness about the selection. Here at last, with tongue in cheek by the editor (what an excellent introduction!), Myles himself is resurrected as a character who was invented by rather than used as a 'pseudonym' by Flann O'Brien. He was so succesful (and this collection brilliantly shows why) that Myles took over the writer's life, increasingly making it miserable. No Flann O'Brien fan should miss this book!
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a disappointing book. Much of the fault lies with the editor, John Wyse Jackson, who provides minimal annotation, so that material as replete with dated cultural lore as Ulysses is incomprehensible. He claims that 'Cruishkeen Lawn', the column written by Flann O'Brien as Myles na gCopaleen over 25 years, is in its entirity a work of art, a monstrous, uncontainable offshoot of the novel - to prove this we should be given a multi-volumed complete collection, not this emasculated rag-bag of 'highlights', which are mainly snippets of the original columns. Few of the non-English phrases are translated - the classical education common in the 1940s is no longer available now, he shouldn't take the reader's knowledge for granted. Jackson's editorial fancies (specious chapter divisions etc.) are also egocentrically intrusive. However, it must be admitted that Myles himself is not blameless. While Flann O'Brien's novels grow in richness and strangeness with the years, these colums have dated very badly. Many of the same obsessions (cliches, puns, hypocritical artists, drink, Myles' own misery/disgust etc.) are done to death, initially funny, but eventually monotonous and tortuous. Jackson's attempt to essay Myles as a fictional character is acceptable in so far as it goes, and a dark decline can be evinced, but the construct 'Myles' is too Protean a figure, too slippery in meaning and value to always correspond to the notion of character. Much of this, though, is still outrageously funny, especially in its casually, difficultly, playful use of language; funnier still, if we remember the Franco-like state of Ireland at the time, with Church and government creating a system of catch-all censorship and, hence, an arid culture of meek subservience. The blasts of invective here are bracing, and never fall into cosy liberal pieties - O'Brien's irony is too mercurial for that. Best of all are the anecdotes, redolent of dank, smoky, male-sodden pubs, yet unfailingly weird.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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1 review
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
An emphatic, opinionated and sharply resonating discourse
7 Mar 2004
Format:Paperback
Compiled, edited, and with an informative introduction by John Wyse Jackson, At War is an impressive and much appreciated collection of the columns of Brian O'Nolan (1911-1966) which were originally penned for "The Irish Times" during the war years of 1940 to 1945 under the pseudonym of Flann O'Brien. An emphatic, opinionated and sharply resonating discourse that simply does not back off or back down, At War is a stirring account of real problems in troubled times and of one man's determination to speak out and be heard. One of the titles in the outstanding "Lannan Selection Irish Literature Series" from Dalkey Archive press, At War is a welcome and recommended addition to Irish Cultural Studies reference collections and supplemental reading lists.
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