At Swim Two Birds, which I have read, and The Third Policeman, which I have not, are his most significant works and John Updike talks about them and the authore wonderfully here. Well versed in Irish, French, German, Latin and Greek, O’Nolan was extremely aware of how the right brain, the spiritual, big picture side, processed and understood language and used this to play humorous games with his writing. (Chris Onstad who writes Achewood uses rhythym and syntax in a similiar way with crazy idiom filled American English) It is this amazing ability to create non-linear humor that really draws me to O’Nolan.

His use of the English language verges on the edge of nonsense. His baffling use of noms de plume numbering many more beyond the three I mention above absolutely seems nonsensical. His work has been almost impossible to track down and study, depriving many young writers, critics and artists the benefit of his “contrarian instincts and bristling erudition”. There are potential explanations for why he did so – worked for the Civil Service and couldn’t express political views openly – but I believe he was strongly afflicted with modernism or even postmodernism at a time when the disillusionment from WWII hadn’t even set in yet. The pen names are metafiction and because they carry his hint of rebellion and definite non-conformity, dare I say, protopunk?

Thanks Brian, Flann, Miles and Richard Hell.