When The Third Policeman Tells You About a Bicycle
The Third Policeman: A Novel by Flann O’Brien
There are books that exist to confuse and bemuse and I find it a treat whenever I encounter just such a book. The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien was not at all what I had expected and I mean that in a good way…I think.
The first thing – if you read the synopsis for this novel, which I did, it leaves you with a sense that you are about to read a very Irish mystery novel. I was ready for murder. I was ready for policemen, witnesses, false confessions. I mean basically anything that would be tied to a typical police mystery story. What this book gives instead is a hyper weird romp through one man’s inner thoughts. And he may or may not be experiencing reality. Because if he is, he’s the only one that finds it weird, but definitely not weird enough to question it.
This book is enjoyable. You stay with the MC throughout the entirety of his story, which starts a little slow but gradually picks up. The beginning drags, but the pace picks up when the stakes become – questionable. From there, you’ll easily find yourself sprinting to the finish. It’s hard to understand what the heck is happening to the MC. And why won’t he ask more questions about what is going on!?
More than anything O’Brien takes you on a philosophical trek that is sprinkled with characters that have their own views on the matter. As the reader, you get to delight in hearing each view as the MC and then sit in puzzled confusion as you try to understand just what these policemen are talking about. Oh yes, I failed to mention that these characters are specifically the aforementioned three policemen that the title alludes to.
As you read you encounter the dizzying work of a man obsessed with building smaller and smaller boxes that all fit inside one another until you need a magnifying glass to see the very last one. You also witness the bizarre and oddly sexualized tension between a man and his bicycle as they both escape the prison in which the three policemen are keeping them.
This is a divinely dark comedy of a novel. Making you laugh and scratch your head at the same time. Basically, this book has the power to leave you, dear reader, with some conflicting emotions. I honestly finished this book not knowing whether I should just smirk, shrug my shoulders, and call it a day. Or if I should sit and think about what exactly I had just let my brain ingest.
I guess I will end in saying that this book may not be for everyone and so I can’t say that I would recommend it for – everyone. However, there are some great story beats that I will admit that I enjoyed. And there are lessons one can take away if one lives their life a certain way. No Judgement!
The ending can be a bit surprising if you haven’t been paying attention to the MC’s journey. Even still there were things that I found shocking for lack of a better word. This book doesn’t set out to be scary. However, if I were to designate a genre just on the ending of this book alone, it would definitely have to be horror. It really doesn’t matter from what perspective you watch the ending unfold in. Because either way, it’s a downright surrealistic nightmare.
I would say that I enjoyed this, with my favorite bit certainly being the horror-filled ending.
3.5 Out Of 5*
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