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Ryan's review

At Swim-Two-Birds (John F. Byrne Irish Literature Series)
by Flann O'Brien

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/97333.At_Swim_Two_Birds?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="At Swim-Two-Birds (John F. Byrne Irish Literature Series)" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1171375312m/97333.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/97333.At_Swim_Two_Birds?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">At Swim-Two-Birds</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15248.Flann_O_Brien">Flann O'Brien</a><br/><br/>
  <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/14464119?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
  rating: 3 of 5 stars<br/>This is a very fun book. Do you know that MC Escher picture "Drawing Hands"? Stop - Escher time. Anyway, this book makes me think of that picture. It's written by a guy who tells the story of a student writing a story about a tavern owner writing a story about all kinds of people. This last writer, the tavern owner, falls in love with one of his female characters and they literarily beget another writer. It's a good read, though I remember liking it a lot more when I read it in college. I seem to remember certain parts of the book being more developed (the character's revolt) and other sections being less so (Sweeny's poems). I'm reading the same copy that I read 5 or 6 years ago, so I know it's my own mind misremembering, but I did think that maybe the magic of the meta-fiction was working on me. 
<br/>
<br/>One last thing: I remember reading an article about the influence of "art" on our world. You may blanch at my suggestion that the television show "Lost" is art, but maybe you'd accept pop-art? Anyway, this show is known for the little clues that are littered throughout the question driven plotline. At one point, I think in the first season, a book by Flann O'Brian was shown (I don't even think it was mentioned). The book was "The Third Policeman". The article I read noted the hugely increased sales of O'Brian's work on Amazon.com after that episode. It's really wild, and I wish I had the actual facts about what I'm remembering, but the idea that something in a work of "art" can directly influence something in another, more real world, is kind of at the heart of At-Swim-Two Birds. Dig it.  
  <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/137356?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Ryan's review
rating:
recommended for: overlooked Irish Lit. lovers

This is a very fun book. Do you know that MC Escher picture "Drawing Hands"? Stop - Escher time. Anyway, this book makes me think of that picture. It's written by a guy who tells the story of a student writing a story about a tavern owner writing a story about all kinds of people. This last writer, the tavern owner, falls in love with one of his female characters and they literarily beget another writer. It's a good read, though I remember liking it a lot more when I read it in college. I seem to remember certain parts of the book being more developed (the character's revolt) and other sections being less so (Sweeny's poems). I'm reading the same copy that I read 5 or 6 years ago, so I know it's my own mind misremembering, but I did think that maybe the magic of the meta-fiction was working on me.

One last thing: I remember reading an article about the influence of "art" on our world. You may blanch at my suggestion that the television show "Lost" is a...more

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