Is it about a bicycle? The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien

[Feliks Ulvåen Isaksen]

This is just a short musing for those of you on here interested in literature and good reads while out on your bicycle. 

I recently re-read an all time favorite book of mine, The Third Policeman by Irish modernist writer Flann O'Brien (often overlooked in the company of Beckett and Joyce), and while I certainly remembered that bicycles and the talk of bicycles are very present in the book, it seemed to harmonize with me and strike a much stronger tone this time around than it has before. I have over the past few years become increasingly fond of riding bikes, and having acquired my first Rivendell and experienced the best rides of my life on my Clem, this time I guess I was primed for a stronger experience. 

This is just to really wholeheartedly recommend this book to those of you who enjoy a humorous and beautifully written book. It's short, strange and funny, but also incredibly beautiful and warm. And, for some reason, bicycles appear to be an intrinsic part of the universe in this absurd tale, like a constant of nature and science. Not having arrived to somewhere from somewhere else on a bicycle, is simply something that cannot be understood or comprehended. 

I'll leave you with a funny quote from the book, where our protagonist learns about the dangers of riding your bike too much.  

If you like fun books (this one is quite a quick read!) and bicycles… You'll like this one, and if you prefer audiobooks, the one narrated by Jim Norton is an absolute gem. 

Cheers!

Feliks from Oslo (Clem Smith Jr.)

"The gross and net result of it is that people who spent most of their natural lives riding iron bicycles over the rocky roadsteads of this parish get their personalities mixed up with the personalities of their bicycle as a result of the interchanging of the atoms of each of them and you would be surprised at the number of people in these parts who are nearly half people and half bicycles...when a man lets things go so far that he is more than half a bicycle, you will not see him so much because he spends a lot of his time leaning with one elbow on walls or standing propped by one foot at kerbstones.”

[Tom Goodmann]

This is to second your recommendation, Feliks, of The Third Policeman and anything by Flann O'Brien (pen name for Brian O'Nolan), and to ask for others' suggestions of good writing that includes bicycles. O'Brien's novel is a favorite of mine, too. 

Some years ago I taught a course on bicycles and motorcycles in culture; great fun to mix fiction, nonfiction, feature films, documentaries; history, technology, aesthetics, style, cultures, etc. Lots of films available, including feature films of course but also documentaries; in this category, there are more and better feature films, in my opinion. But in literary sources I think there are better nonfiction books than there are novels or short stories. Jerome's Three Men on the Bummel; Krabbe's The Rider; Hurne's The Yellow Jersey (pretty dated); what others?  Here are two lists, shorter and longer--anyone read into these?

Tom

Atlanta, GA

[Bob Walicki]

This is Happiness (Niall Williams)

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