A book about a book about a book
Anthony Burgess describing At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien: "It owes a great deal to Joyce, but it is not massive and its touch is light; it even approaches the whimsical. The narrator is an Irish student who, in the intervals of lying in bed and pub-crawling, is writing a novel about a man named Trellis who is writing a book about his enemies who, in revenge, are writing a book about a man named Trellis. In a way, then, the book is a book about writing a book about writing a book."
Reviewing Darconville's Cat by Alexander Theroux, Burgess noted: "There is also a strong reek of the dictionary, which may be no bad thing in an age when much fiction has a painfully pared vocabulary. Open arbitrarily and you find on one page: feebs-in overalls; donkeyphuckers; gnoofes; sowskins; ferox-faced oaves; bungpegs; low venereals; pioneeriana.... A word drunk book, but one needs an occasional break from fictional sobriety."
"a strong reek of the dictionary"... Delightful. The reviews are from the Burgess classic: "99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939.
