Flann O'Brien

[Andrew Clarke Walser]

	Besides AT SWIM-TWO-BIRDS and THE THIRD POLICEMAN, Flann O'Brien
wrote THE DALKEY ARCHIVE, in which James Joyce appears as a major
character.  Unlike Samuel Beckett, O'Brien never quite escaped from
Joyce's influence:  I would dismiss AT SWIM-TWO-BIRDS as an epigonic
variation on ULYSSES and FINNEGANS WAKE, if I were in a dismissive mood.
 	Someone brought up Harry Mathews, another neglected writer.  I recommend
TLOOTH, his first novel, and THE SINKING OF THE ODRADEK STADIUM, an odd
epistolary novel whose title (if nothing else) recalls THE CRYING OF LOT
49.

					Andrew Walser
					Arlington Heights, IL

P.S. (to HAG) -- I will send that essay on Soyinka as soon as possible.