Customer Reviews

The Informer

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a good novel about Ireland's ongoing troubles. It spares us the contrived world of the Clancy brothers and rebel songs. The story is set in the years after the establishment of the Irish Free State. The protagonists, unlike in the movie, are not patriots per se but rather communists or IRA members who wanted complete independence from the United Kingdom. Gypo Nolan and his victim Frankie McPhilip are less than valued members of the organization. The story deals with successful efforts to track down Gypo who informed on Frankie. It is noted that Gypo betrayed Frankie to the police not to the Black and Tans as in the movie. It is a gripping story and it is also a good antidote to stories of the noble Irish and the evil Brits. Please note carefully O'Flaherty's description of the leader of the organization. The author was a member of the Communist Party who had a somewhat different take on the situation in Ireland. If you want an alternative view of the Irish troubles which is also a good read this is the book for you.

In the confused political situation in Ireland between 1916 and 1925, all kinds of ideologies competed, common criminals took up party work only to revert to their original callings. Leaders were betrayed, assassinated, jailed. The long dream of independence came to life, but in a fog of disappointment and disillusion. When the dust settled, all the brilliant men lay dead. O'Flaherty has set his novel in the politico-criminal underworld of this period, with a large dollop of that disillusion. Nobody comes out smelling like a rose. Gypo Nolan, the main character, harbors great physical strength, but little brain. Unlike most protagonists, he thinks little. The author describes his feelings or changes of mood, an interesting tack to take. Gypo informs on a former colleague in the Party, who is promptly surrounded by the police and gets shot dead during the standoff. With his 20 pound reward burning a hole in his pocket ( it might have been equivalent to about 20 weeks pay for a worker), Gypo treats a crowd to fish and chips, then drinks, fights, and whores, giving a big part of his loot away to a sad woman he meets by chance. The Party suspects Gypo, who fingers an innocent man. At the subsequent "trial", the truth comes out. Gypo is locked up, but escapes. The denouement is not long in coming.

THE INFORMER is fast paced, highly descriptive. I felt that sometimes the urge to describe everyone and everything in detail got the better of the author, his descriptive style began to resemble a Thomas Hart Benton mural, with each individual a caricature of a `type' or a `stock character'. The "firm jaws", the "mouths belonging to an average Irishwoman of the middle class", "he looked like a waiter thrown out of employment through old age".....very graphic, colorful, but somehow cartoonish. Anyway, little gripes aside, this is a novel that will hold your attention. It hangs together very well, connecting Irish history and society with a film-noir atmosphere of suspense, action, and intrigue. It catches the Dublin and the Ireland of the time, now changed out of all recognition by prosperity and respectability. And more luck to Ireland for that.

A review of this book is most fair when it is broken into three sections of 60 pages each. The first two sections are fantastic as it takes us through the story of Gipo, a man haunted by informing on his best friend. O'Flaherty does a fantastic job of painting the scene of poverty in Dublin that would lead to someone informing on their buddy... and then we have the pleasure of watching him use the blood money. If it ended on page 120, I would definitely give the book 5 stars.

The last 60 pages are very boring and drawn out. Whereas the story could have been a fascinating tell of the above mentioned material, the last is so obvious, that it is physically painful waiting for the conclusion.

All in all, the book is a great study in the darker side of human behavior. I am glad that I read it for that reason. However, the climax leaves a lot to be desired.

I've read this book twice. It was actually better the second time. The movie adaptation is even better than the book, with the lead actor receiving the Oscar for that year. Whether you watch the movie or read the book, you can't go wrong in my opinion. The struggles of life in Ireland, the betrayal by a friend for money, and the descriptions of the characters and places kept me turning the pages.

This is an absorbing study of life in Ireland in the mid-20s. The struggle for Irish "freedom" is an underlying theme, but the characters are very human. The writing is good but not great. The action moves along so swiftly -- the whole book covers less than 24 hours -- that the reader is swept up in the story, and is not conscious of the writing.

As a reader visualizes the action, it's clear that the book is well-suited to the cinema. Ten years after the book was written it became an award-winning movie, a movie that was quite faithful to the book itself.

this book is great, it deals with a friend who turns on another friend and realizes what he has done right before he dies. a great book for plot summary reports and just for all around reading.

A great book! A twelve hour window into 1920s Dublin, it follows an informer that get tattles and gets his 'friend' killed.

I don't understand what happened in this book. There was hardly any plot line. The characters did not develop well enough either. I wish I could have given this zero stars.