Flann O'Brien: One of the Most Brilliant Irish Writers of All Time
The Various Lives Of Keats And Chapman
(including The Brother)
by Flann O'Brien
St. Martin's Press
ISBN 1-903-65060-7
Reviewed by Sharon Greer
I never thought I would get the opportunity to review a book of my favourite Irish writer, Flann O’Brien, since the author died in 1966.
Recently published for the first time in the United States, The Various Lives of Keats and Chapman (and The Brother) is a collection of pieces from O’Brien’s column in The Irish Times written in the Dublin of the 1940s and 1950s.
For anyone not familiar with one of the most brilliant Irish writers of all time, Flann O’Brien and Myles na Gopaleen were just two of the many pseudonyms for Brian O’Nolan who wrote hilarious articles and books mocking the absurdities of the world around him.
Keats (the poet) and Chapman are a rather highly suspect pair of friends who find themselves involved in all manner of hare-brain schemes. These short pieces, written in the Forties and Fifties, are intended as puns. However, in the Twenty-First Century they fall rather flat, coming across as basically very corny.
Nevertheless, the longer piece at the end of the book entitled, The Brother, is from a character who appeared in Myles na Gopaleen’s column, The Cruiskeen Lawn, as well as from O’Brien’s various published novels and is hilarious. It’s adapted by playwright Eamon Morrissey from Myles na Gopaleen’s writings and was originally staged at the Peacock Theatre in Dublin in 1974. It really is quite brilliant.
The introduction of the book is appropriately enough by Jamie O’Neill (Irish author of At Swim, Two Boys) who writes a glowing and well-deserved tribute to one of the best authors out of Ireland.
Flann O’Brien’s novels include At Swim-Two Birds, his masterpiece, The Third Policeman (published 26 years after it was written – originally rejected by a London publisher and languished for years in O’Brien’s home) and The Poor Mouth. He was born in Strabane, Northern Ireland; died in Dublin.
Recommended reading: Flann O’Brien: An Illustrated Biography by Peter Costello and Peter Van De Kamp. No Laughing Matter: The Life and Times of Flann O’Brien by Anthony Cronin.
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