Poor Mouth: A Bad Story about the Hard Life

Lighten up guys. This is satire. Flan O'Brien is satirising those - like Yeats - who mythologised a Celtic and Gaelic past that never existed. The spirit is like Paddy Kananagh - but it's satire rather than gritty realism. Understand?

This book is an inside joke, and a classic at that. It is a grand send up of professional Irish (both at home and abroad). As example, consider a book written in Gaelic making sport of the Gaelic movement by means of a Gaelic festival. ( In ourland of the professional ethnic festival, this might serve as an effective antidote to "Irish" nights and "Scots weekends.") If you are inclined to romanticize villages of the old sod dominated by pigs, mud, rain and potatos, avoid this work. If you want a great classic of the jaundiced eye school of literature, read this book. By the way, some of the fun lies in the many parodies of Irish literary works in the assorted chapters; knowledge of the genre helps.

I hurt myself laughing about Ambrose the foul smelling pig. An earlier reviewer noted that knowledge of gaelic liturature and Irish folklore is important in understanding the puns and satires and that is true BUT not prerequisite to enjoying this very funny story.

1. You read it in Irish. (OK, fat chance, but...) There are puns "as gaeilge" that don't translate into English. 2. You've read other Irish books about the hard life. "Peig" (shudder!) as an example. This book used to be on the curriculum for the Leaving Cert. exam in Irish (double shudder!). Read that and then "An tOileanach." You begin to see, after a while, that the "Hard Life" books are a kind of genre in Irish, which makes the skewering all the more delightful. 3. You've read some Irish mythology. Stories like the entrance test for the Fianna. Wait. You can read that in "At Swim-Two-Birds." Now *there's* a book to puzzle over. And by Myles as well.

Flann O'Brian is one of those writers who never really leaves your imagination. It is some time since I have read the Poor Mouth but I have no hesitation to recommend it to anyone. It is difficult to describe the book. It leaves a sensation of extraordinary humour. O'Brian brings amazing colour in his portrayal of life during the Irish famine, and a warmth which makes you want to travel to Ireland immediately just in case some of the stories, sometimes bleak, but always sharp and very funny happen to you.Also read The Third Policeman which will appeal if you have any sense of the absurd, and look out for his anthology of columns written for the Irish Times under the name of Miles Nagopoleen(Spelling?). O'Brian deserves cult status because of his enviable use of language and nuace without being worthy.Buy 2 copies and give one to a friend.