Customer Reviews

The Poor Mouth: A Bad Story About the Hard Life (Irish Literature Series)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

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?

A joy to read, it completely sucked me in within the first five pages. The story meanders through the countryside between the Gaeltachts, and at every turn there is a snide joke aimed at the traditional Gaelic writing style, which O'Brien mimics so well. It apparently offended quite a lot of Irish speakers in the 40's - it's easy to understand given its irreverence. For any Irish heads out there, if you were forced into reading Peig and hated it, you should love this book. It's just a marvellously written piss-take. I did however prefer The Third Policeman, due largely to his amazing imagination being put to better use there. Read them both.

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.

The bleak atmosphere and the beautiful, flowing prose in "The Poor Mouth" are completely at odds, which is what makes this novel so hilarious. O'Coonassa has no idea what's happening to him much of the time, but he dutifully records it as best he can, with amazingly comical results.

The concept here is much like a Buster Keaton film, in that the protagonist is presumably ignorant, but he keeps a sharp eye on events, and he's basically good-hearted (except when he has to resort to stealing a pig or a chicken or some silverware, just to stay alive).

a book hasn't made me laugh like this since A Confederacy of Dunces.

Have you ever had a laughing fit while reading on a bus? It was almost enough to have me committed.Although not personally aware of any Irish in my blood, the way this erupted in me makes it a strong chance.

It has never been better explained why so many Irish ended up in America and elsewhere abroad. A true story!

A son-father, individual-tribe lost and found- only-to-be-lost-again adventure story. Laced with the funniest-wisest types, it'll make you cry with laughter and sadness. A truly cathartic read.