In our morning reading: new Dambudzo Marechera-inspired nonfiction from Scott Cheshire, John Banville on Flann O’Brien, fiction from Chelsea Hickock, and more.
Flann O’Brien’s Odds & Sods
Do I like the work of Flann O’Brien? I do indeed. The Third Policeman is a head-spinning work, nightmarish and philosophical all at once; At Swim-Two-Birds is irreverent metafiction, where the fraught relationship between an author and his characters blends with mythology, drunkenness, and bleak humor to create something punch-drunk and technically brilliant.
Morning Bites: Coney Island Murals, Soccer Books, Jem Cohen and Guy Picciotto at BAM, Neko Case Covers Iron Maiden, and More
Our morning reading features Flann O’Brien; murals on Coney Island; a member of Fugazi at BAM; an Ethan Coen play; and a selection of books about soccer.
Poetry in Motion: Sympathy for Notre Dame Football from Great Irish Writers
This week, Notre Dame woefully dongs its bell tower, with each member of the proud college’s football phalanx feeling like a true Quasimodo. A crushing 42-14 defeat in Monday’s bowl-game-of-all-bowl-games to Forrest Gump’s alma mater inspired many an armchair Lombardi nationwide to – in ways both fair and callous – damn the Fighting Irish as faux-contenders. “Unfit to the cleats of several squads arguably more deserving of BCS title game contention,” says some easily imagined surly grump.