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The Poor Mouth (Paladin Books)
 
 
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The Poor Mouth (Paladin Books) (Paperback)

by Flann O'Brien (Author), Ralph Steadman (Illustrator), P.C. Power (Translator)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 128 pages
  • Publisher: Flamingo; New edition edition (11 Oct 1993)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0586087486
  • ISBN-13: 978-0586087480
  • Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.9 x 1.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 66,402 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #4 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > O > O'Brien, Flann

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Product Description

Review

Written in 1941 at a time when the Gaelic League and its progeny had a stranglehold on Irish arts and letters and the Gaelic-speaking primitives of Galway and Connemara were sacrosanct to Ireland's cultural commissars, this savage satire on the native Irish peasantry brought down a storm of abuse on O'Brien's hapless head. And you can see why: pigs, potatoes, and "the pitiable condition of the Gael" now and evermore provide the theme, counterpoint and variations of this tale of the life and hard times of Bonaparte O'Coonassa, a resident of Corkadoragh, famed for its truly Gaelic poverty, ignorance and "unfragrant" aromas. Bonaparte lives largely on his backside on the rushes of his bad-smelling house with his mother and grandfather, known only as The Old-Grey-Fellow, and, of course, the pigs. His God-given stupidity and personal squalor confirm him as a pristine Gael. Unremitting misfortune is his lot ("the downpour comes heavily on us unfailingly each night") but this too is his heritage and destiny. Wickedly parodying any number of Gaelic authors, O'Brien underscores and overstates every cliche of the destitute Irish ennobled by hunger and strict adherence to the idiocy of rural life. A tour de force of mock heroics, The Poor Mouth was written in Gaelic the better to affront Ireland's cultural custodians. Power's translation is faithfully malicious and Ralph Steadman's malevolent drawings perfectly mirror the spirit of the text. (Kirkus Reviews)


Product Description

First published in Gaelic in 1941 under the title "An Beal Bocht", this book was translated into English in 1973. A parody of the Gaelic peasant writings of the Irish revival, the book features Bonaparte O'Coonassa - who tells the story of his life. By the author of "The Dalkey Archive".

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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
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4 star:
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3 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The funniest book you'll ever read?, 27 Sep 1999
By A Customer
What the synopsis fails to mention is that this is one of the funniest books in this or any other language. The book was originally written in Gaelic as a parody of the J.M. Synge style of Irishness (although O'Brien actually wrote it as a direct take-off of a particular Irish Gaelic novel, the name of which escapes me). And it succeeds: "the sweet words of Gaelic were oftener in their mouths than the potato."

Although written in a light style, the book's satire is bleak, making it the very blackest of satires. It helps if you have some background knowledge of Ireland and the Famine. His like will never be seen again, nor will the terrible nights of noctural deluge and the dread Sea-Cat.

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Scabrous joy, 17 Jan 2005
This is a brutal and hilarious satire on the selling of Ireland, hitting hard at all phony Irishness and the child-among-the-ashes memoir which still dominates bestseller lists. O'Brien has a rich sense of language which has carried over in this translation from the Gaelic. The book is furiously funny with plenty to laugh out loud at.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Comic genius: why out of print?, 1 Jul 2006
By M. Williams (Traveller) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
While travelling around Ireland recently I encountered Tomas O'Crohan's autobiographical work "The Islandman" and was very drawn in by its lively depiction of life in the Blasket Islands during the latter half of the 19th century into the early 20th.

I told a bookseller about this, and she suggested I read "The Poor Mouth" as it is a direct parody of "The Islandman". Although both books were originally written in Gaelic, the latter (1941) follows within a few years of the O'Crohan book's translation into English. It was over 30 years before "The Poor Mouth" was translated into English for the benefit of a much wider audience.

Greatly benefiting from reading the two books in succession, I was laughing out loud within a few pages, with some chapters reading like Tom Sharpe.

I had a lot of trouble finding a copy of this book in Ireland, even though there was a city-wide promotion of O'Brien's first book in Dublin. His books seem to be rarity in second-hand shops.

I'm not sure if this Paladin edition contains Ralph Steadman's pictures as do the original hardback and Picador editions. Do try to get a copy that has them, as Steadman is the perfect complement to O'Brien's prose.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars beyond the pale and round the bend
For one thing, this book was first written in Irish and you can clearly "hear" the original language in the translation, which makes the reading eerily rhythmical and odd, even... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Renata Baraldi

4.0 out of 5 stars Potatoes are not the only food
The Poor Mouth is often hilarious and frequently surreal.

It is not quite as funny as The Third Policeman - this reviewer's favourite book - or even the Dalkey Archives by the... Read more

Published on 19 Feb 2002

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