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The Informer
A tale of temptation, betrayal, and reprisal, this powerful novel is set in the aftermath of the Irish Civil War. It tells of Gypo Nolan, who informs on a wanted comrade. The source of the Academy Award-winning film directed by John Ford. Preface by Denis Donoghue.
182 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1925
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About the author
Liam O'Flaherty
124 books74 followersPeople know Irish writer Liam O'Flaherty especially for his short stories, collected in
Two Lovely Beasts
(1948) and
The Pedlar's Revenge
(1976).
This significant novelist, a major figure in the literary renaissance, also wrote short stories. Left-wing politics involved him as was his brother Tom Maidhc O'Flaherty (also a writer), and their father, Maidhc Ó Flaithearta, for a time.
This significant novelist, a major figure in the literary renaissance, also wrote short stories. Left-wing politics involved him as was his brother Tom Maidhc O'Flaherty (also a writer), and their father, Maidhc Ó Flaithearta, for a time.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews
September 26, 2020
Es una lectura interesante para conocer el Dublín de los años 20 y sus circunstancias históricas: la Guerra Civil, Organizaciones Revolucionarias, pobreza, muerte de los jóvenes, paro,...
A través de los ojos de Gypo Nolan recorremos las calles de Dublín con sus calles oscuras, sus burdeles y su eterna llovizna. Gypo es un delator que se enfrenta a su conciencia y a sus miedos.
La narración no es muy ágil. Hay muchos adjetivos para describir las cosas cuando, con uno, es suficiente. Por ejemplo: el ambiente era sórdido, lúgubre, tétrico y tenebroso.
Hay bastantes monólogos interiores.
Aún así, está bien escrito y ha resultado una lectura curiosa. Un escritor irlandés desconocido para mi.
It's an interesting reading to get to know the Dublin of the 1920s and its historical circumstances: the civil war, revolutionary organizations, poverty, death of young people, unemployment,...
Through the eyes of Gypo Nolan, we walk through the streets of Dublin with its dark streets, its brothels and its eternal drizzle. Gypo is an informer who confronts his conscience and fears.
The narration is not very agile. There are many adjectives to describe things when one is enough. For example: the atmosphere was dull, gloomy, dismal and dark.
There are quite a few internal monologues.
Even so, it is well written and has turned out to be a curious read. An Irish writer unknown to me.
A través de los ojos de Gypo Nolan recorremos las calles de Dublín con sus calles oscuras, sus burdeles y su eterna llovizna. Gypo es un delator que se enfrenta a su conciencia y a sus miedos.
La narración no es muy ágil. Hay muchos adjetivos para describir las cosas cuando, con uno, es suficiente. Por ejemplo: el ambiente era sórdido, lúgubre, tétrico y tenebroso.
Hay bastantes monólogos interiores.
Aún así, está bien escrito y ha resultado una lectura curiosa. Un escritor irlandés desconocido para mi.
It's an interesting reading to get to know the Dublin of the 1920s and its historical circumstances: the civil war, revolutionary organizations, poverty, death of young people, unemployment,...
Through the eyes of Gypo Nolan, we walk through the streets of Dublin with its dark streets, its brothels and its eternal drizzle. Gypo is an informer who confronts his conscience and fears.
The narration is not very agile. There are many adjectives to describe things when one is enough. For example: the atmosphere was dull, gloomy, dismal and dark.
There are quite a few internal monologues.
Even so, it is well written and has turned out to be a curious read. An Irish writer unknown to me.
June 15, 2024
En este libro podemos distinguir todos los elementos que forman parte de la identidad de Irlanda, teniendo como fondo el Dublín de los pobres y desposeídos, somos testigos de momentos dramáticos en la vida de dos amigos unidos y separados por un acontecimiento social que los marca de por vida.
La historia comienza con la aparición de Francis McPhillip, un fugitivo de la justicia que busca contactar a su amigo Gypo, para preguntar por sus padres y saber cómo están las cosas.
La literatura irlandesa ha contribuido como pocas en la literatura universal, una inmensa mayoría de sus escritores comparten características como una honestidad brutal, sin decoro a la hora de esbozar personajes, y acontecimientos sociales.
Irlanda como protagonista siempre nos muestra una cara feroz, ansiosa y sobre todo alerta, ante un mundo despiadado donde la pobreza, el hacinamiento, la escasez, la brutalidad, el alcoholismo, la prostitucion, los ideales, y la política conjugan un amasijo radiactivo y latente que siempre está a punto de implosionar.
“El romanticismo glorioso de los barrios bajos es el sentimiento de odio intenso contra la mano opresiva de la ley, que a veces se extiende para golpear a alguien, durante un alboroto callejero, durante un conflicto industrial, durante un levantamiento nacionalista. Es un toque de clarín a todas las emociones espirituales que no encuentran otro medio de expresión en aquel sórdido ambiente, ni en el arte, ni en la industria, ni en las empresas comerciales, ni en la más razonable búsqueda de una interpretación religiosa de la creación universal.”
Sobre todo en esta historia está presente el odio, porque como odian los irlandeses, lo hacen como ninguna otra nación, con desmedida, intensamente, sin inhibiciones, sin contención, odian a su país, a sus iguales, a los contrarios, sobre todo odian a muerte lo que aman, a su pareja, hijos, padres, tanto es el odio que suele ser liberador y casi roza el amor, y esta novela es prueba de ello, los personajes hacen daño sobre todo a lo que aman, lo que aman es un objeto de deseo, pero también algo que debilita, que enloquece y que duele, y no hay mejor antídoto que destruirlo antes de que nos destruya a nosotros.
“Ella le amaba a su manera. Los últimos residuos de su femineidad le querían como habrían podido querer a un camarada. Pero aquellos pingajos de amor se escondían cautelosamente en medio de la espesa maleza del vicio que brotaba a su alrededor.”
Es una historia que se va cociendo a fuego lento, pero la intensidad aumenta cada capítulo, cada persecución, cada borrachera, cada pelea, hasta llegar a un punto de redención casi falso.
“ Pero no era la exaltación del amor. Se trataba de una lánguida tristeza hija del dolor. El dolor de dos almas humanas que se unen en busca de consuelo. Aquella exaltación era bella y pura como el amor, hija del miedo y de la eterna melancolía de la compleja alma irlandesa, que lucha esclava”
La historia comienza con la aparición de Francis McPhillip, un fugitivo de la justicia que busca contactar a su amigo Gypo, para preguntar por sus padres y saber cómo están las cosas.
La literatura irlandesa ha contribuido como pocas en la literatura universal, una inmensa mayoría de sus escritores comparten características como una honestidad brutal, sin decoro a la hora de esbozar personajes, y acontecimientos sociales.
Irlanda como protagonista siempre nos muestra una cara feroz, ansiosa y sobre todo alerta, ante un mundo despiadado donde la pobreza, el hacinamiento, la escasez, la brutalidad, el alcoholismo, la prostitucion, los ideales, y la política conjugan un amasijo radiactivo y latente que siempre está a punto de implosionar.
“El romanticismo glorioso de los barrios bajos es el sentimiento de odio intenso contra la mano opresiva de la ley, que a veces se extiende para golpear a alguien, durante un alboroto callejero, durante un conflicto industrial, durante un levantamiento nacionalista. Es un toque de clarín a todas las emociones espirituales que no encuentran otro medio de expresión en aquel sórdido ambiente, ni en el arte, ni en la industria, ni en las empresas comerciales, ni en la más razonable búsqueda de una interpretación religiosa de la creación universal.”
Sobre todo en esta historia está presente el odio, porque como odian los irlandeses, lo hacen como ninguna otra nación, con desmedida, intensamente, sin inhibiciones, sin contención, odian a su país, a sus iguales, a los contrarios, sobre todo odian a muerte lo que aman, a su pareja, hijos, padres, tanto es el odio que suele ser liberador y casi roza el amor, y esta novela es prueba de ello, los personajes hacen daño sobre todo a lo que aman, lo que aman es un objeto de deseo, pero también algo que debilita, que enloquece y que duele, y no hay mejor antídoto que destruirlo antes de que nos destruya a nosotros.
“Ella le amaba a su manera. Los últimos residuos de su femineidad le querían como habrían podido querer a un camarada. Pero aquellos pingajos de amor se escondían cautelosamente en medio de la espesa maleza del vicio que brotaba a su alrededor.”
Es una historia que se va cociendo a fuego lento, pero la intensidad aumenta cada capítulo, cada persecución, cada borrachera, cada pelea, hasta llegar a un punto de redención casi falso.
“ Pero no era la exaltación del amor. Se trataba de una lánguida tristeza hija del dolor. El dolor de dos almas humanas que se unen en busca de consuelo. Aquella exaltación era bella y pura como el amor, hija del miedo y de la eterna melancolía de la compleja alma irlandesa, que lucha esclava”
June 21, 2020
I don't know when Irish literature took a somber, negative, depressing turn, but "The Infomer" is a classic of that genre. Brilliantly written, the story of big, clumsy, Gypo Nolan who "informs" on his best childhood and adult pal and the consequences of this horrible act of betrayal. That's all I can say without giving up the story. By the way, I believe that "Gypo" is short for Gypsy, or a disreputable person, so probably pronounced like "Jippo." It s a short read and well worth the small but emotional effort it takes to read. It has to be one of the great novels of Irish, and English, literature. After reading some of the reviews it is possible that you have to be Irish to understand the book; others seem to think it unreal. It was, and is, real! Get used to it!
May 28, 2008
My favorite character name in all literature: Gypo.
We Irish do not like to forgive. It is our constant undoing.
We Irish do not like to forgive. It is our constant undoing.
June 15, 2020
Ernest Hemingway aseguraba que la valía de un escritor se manifestaba en la forma en que se enfrentaba con y dejaba registro de la muerte. En este sentido puedo asegurar que el irlandés Liam O’Flaherty es un escritor invaluable.
«El delator» inicia con el regreso de Frankie McPhillip a Dublín. Ha estado fugitivo en las montanas por casi seis meses. Se le acusa de haber asesinado a un síndico del movimiento agrario irlandés de los veinte.
Su compinche, Gypo Nolan, un exterrorista duro y no muy listo, duerme algunas noches en un albergue de asistencia. Él ha sido el enlace entre Frankie y su familia durante los últimos meses; sin embargo, las cosas no han sido fáciles para nadie. Después de entrevistarse con Frankie, se percata de que no tiene ni en qué caerse muerto, y que además existe una recompensa de £ 20 por información que conduzca a la captura de Frankie McPhillip.
A partir de aquí se desarrollará un drama humano de proporciones épicas, cuyo escenario es el bajo mundo del Dublín. La novela de O’Flaherty es un documento vívido y pulsante de las pasiones más bajas (y quizás por ello, las más humanas) que impulsan a hombres y mujeres a comportarse de maneras que poco tienen de edificantes.
Un libro muy recomendable para todo aquel que quiera acercarse a la narrativa irlandesa del s. XX.
«El delator» inicia con el regreso de Frankie McPhillip a Dublín. Ha estado fugitivo en las montanas por casi seis meses. Se le acusa de haber asesinado a un síndico del movimiento agrario irlandés de los veinte.
Su compinche, Gypo Nolan, un exterrorista duro y no muy listo, duerme algunas noches en un albergue de asistencia. Él ha sido el enlace entre Frankie y su familia durante los últimos meses; sin embargo, las cosas no han sido fáciles para nadie. Después de entrevistarse con Frankie, se percata de que no tiene ni en qué caerse muerto, y que además existe una recompensa de £ 20 por información que conduzca a la captura de Frankie McPhillip.
A partir de aquí se desarrollará un drama humano de proporciones épicas, cuyo escenario es el bajo mundo del Dublín. La novela de O’Flaherty es un documento vívido y pulsante de las pasiones más bajas (y quizás por ello, las más humanas) que impulsan a hombres y mujeres a comportarse de maneras que poco tienen de edificantes.
Un libro muy recomendable para todo aquel que quiera acercarse a la narrativa irlandesa del s. XX.
August 26, 2020
In 1971 my future wife spent an afternoon in Greenwich Village with her dad, who bought her a handsome paperback copy of The Informer in the Sheridan Square Bookstore. Almost 50 years later it was still on our shelves, if a bit yellow and tattered. I had just finished two fine books about The Troubles of the 1970s–1990s—Patrick Keefe's Say Nothing and Anna Burns's The Milkman—and my wife suggested I might want to read this, too. I'm so glad she did! O'Flaherty's novel is a masterpiece of realism. He has an extraordinary ability to convey character through physical description, and while the plot drives downward in a predictable way, the people who populate the story are incredibly drawn. The first extended scene in which Gypo Nolan, the informer, unexpectedly meets the man he will go on to betray, his old friend Frankie McPhillip, in a men's hostel in a Dublin slum, would turn Balzac or Zola green with envy. And the women in the novel are as powerful and complex as the men. I was blown away.
Enough so that I decided to watch John ford's 1935 film adaptation of the novel, which everyone seemed to feel was also incredible. It's not. It rehearses the broad plot of the book without catching any of the nuance O'Flaherty lends his characters.
Enough so that I decided to watch John ford's 1935 film adaptation of the novel, which everyone seemed to feel was also incredible. It's not. It rehearses the broad plot of the book without catching any of the nuance O'Flaherty lends his characters.
December 20, 2024
This is the story of a man living in the slums of Dublin's inner city who informs the police about a murder committed by his friend. Although the man, Gypo Nolan, lacks the awareness of Raskolnakov in Crime and Punishment, there are definite echoes of him in his character and it is no surprise that Dostoevsky was one of the writers who influenced O'Flaherty. The struggle that Gypo experienced is the reason I say that although he did not seem to be aware of it on a conscious level- of course he was drunk throughout most of the novel.
Having collected the reward for snitching on his friend, he begins a drunken journey which leads to his downfall. Instead of collecting the money and keeping quiet about it, he buys drinks all around and then treats everyone to fish and chips at the local chipper. Since it was well known that he had no money, it was only a matter of time before the organization that he and his friend had previously part of, put the pieces together.
The tension builds slowly until the final moments when Gypo finds redemption. This is a brilliant book that should be better known.
Having collected the reward for snitching on his friend, he begins a drunken journey which leads to his downfall. Instead of collecting the money and keeping quiet about it, he buys drinks all around and then treats everyone to fish and chips at the local chipper. Since it was well known that he had no money, it was only a matter of time before the organization that he and his friend had previously part of, put the pieces together.
The tension builds slowly until the final moments when Gypo finds redemption. This is a brilliant book that should be better known.
January 2, 2018
Fenian Hulk Finks on Friend, Fatally Fails to Flee
In the confused political situation in Ireland between 1916 and 1925, all kinds of ideologies competed, common criminals took up party work only to revert to their original callings. Leaders were betrayed, assassinated, jailed. The long dream of independence came to life, but in a fog of disappointment and disillusion. When the dust settled, all the brilliant men lay dead. O'Flaherty has set his novel in the politico-criminal underworld of this period, with a large dollop of that disillusion. Nobody comes out smelling like a rose. Gypo Nolan, the main character, harbors great physical strength, but little brain. Unlike most protagonists, he thinks little. The author describes his feelings or changes of mood, an interesting tack to take. Gypo informs on a former colleague in the Party, who is promptly surrounded by the police and gets shot dead during the standoff. With his 20 pound reward burning a hole in his pocket ( it might have been equivalent to about 20 weeks pay for a worker), Gypo treats a crowd to fish and chips, then drinks, fights, and whores, giving a big part of his loot away to a sad woman he meets by chance. The Party suspects Gypo, who fingers an innocent man. At the subsequent "trial", the truth comes out. Gypo is locked up, but escapes. The denouement is not long in coming.
THE INFORMER is fast paced, highly descriptive. I felt that sometimes the urge to describe everyone and everything in detail got the better of the author, his descriptive style began to resemble a Thomas Hart Benton mural, with each individual a caricature of a `type' or a `stock character'. The "firm jaws", the "mouths belonging to an average Irishwoman of the middle class", "he looked like a waiter thrown out of employment through old age".....very graphic, colorful, but somehow cartoonish. Anyway, little gripes aside, this is a novel that will hold your attention. It hangs together very well, connecting Irish history and society with a film-noir atmosphere of suspense, action, and intrigue. It catches the Dublin and the Ireland of the time, now changed out of all recognition by prosperity and respectability. And more luck to Ireland for that.
In the confused political situation in Ireland between 1916 and 1925, all kinds of ideologies competed, common criminals took up party work only to revert to their original callings. Leaders were betrayed, assassinated, jailed. The long dream of independence came to life, but in a fog of disappointment and disillusion. When the dust settled, all the brilliant men lay dead. O'Flaherty has set his novel in the politico-criminal underworld of this period, with a large dollop of that disillusion. Nobody comes out smelling like a rose. Gypo Nolan, the main character, harbors great physical strength, but little brain. Unlike most protagonists, he thinks little. The author describes his feelings or changes of mood, an interesting tack to take. Gypo informs on a former colleague in the Party, who is promptly surrounded by the police and gets shot dead during the standoff. With his 20 pound reward burning a hole in his pocket ( it might have been equivalent to about 20 weeks pay for a worker), Gypo treats a crowd to fish and chips, then drinks, fights, and whores, giving a big part of his loot away to a sad woman he meets by chance. The Party suspects Gypo, who fingers an innocent man. At the subsequent "trial", the truth comes out. Gypo is locked up, but escapes. The denouement is not long in coming.
THE INFORMER is fast paced, highly descriptive. I felt that sometimes the urge to describe everyone and everything in detail got the better of the author, his descriptive style began to resemble a Thomas Hart Benton mural, with each individual a caricature of a `type' or a `stock character'. The "firm jaws", the "mouths belonging to an average Irishwoman of the middle class", "he looked like a waiter thrown out of employment through old age".....very graphic, colorful, but somehow cartoonish. Anyway, little gripes aside, this is a novel that will hold your attention. It hangs together very well, connecting Irish history and society with a film-noir atmosphere of suspense, action, and intrigue. It catches the Dublin and the Ireland of the time, now changed out of all recognition by prosperity and respectability. And more luck to Ireland for that.
September 16, 2011
Starting on this one for a Modern Irish Novel course. Funnily enough, a good friend of mine lent it to me out of the blue just before the semester started, saying merely that it read quickly and well. Next thing I know it's the lead off book for the course! Irish kismet, there it is.
Looking forward to it. Comments to follow.
June 7, 2017
A procession of events dragged down by themselves. The Informer ultimately fails due to the weight it fails to convey, the tension it ultimately cannot produce. Beautiful passages are wasted by unnatural characters; multifaceted motivation and political ambiguity are possessed not by humans, but by the shades of their actions, dooming this novel to the cardboard-depth of these characters.
August 15, 2015
Turbulent, sad, paranoid, the tensión is always in crescendo. The narrator can focus whether the action or the psychological state of the characters and it all adds up to the plot, making it very entertaining. It takes you back to those pre-Republican days of Ireland,everything in this story is gloomy, harsh, there is an air of hopelessness and almost all the characters share despair.
I liked how the autor uses some of the characters to make political and philosophical reflections that sometimes sounds as an essay, but it never becomes heavy. I think he often adds too much descriptions but not to the point of making them unbearable. I can relate this novel to the film Works of Mike Leigh or Ken Loach, although its style is "softer" than them. I can also see some naturalistic features on the plot (I can think of Zola and The Mysteries of Marseille) but also, by the way some characters drift away it is not completely fit to that tag. From the very beginning the author leads you to the main and sole purpose of the plot and you know what will happen throughout the story, but still is very exciting. I would like to relate this with the Judas Iscariot figure, however I can't, Gypo, it's a unique ítem, so primal so contradictory.
Memorable characters like Gypo, Mrs. McPhillip, Katie Fox, Connemara Maggie, it's worth the read, even several times.
I enjoyed it very much.
I liked how the autor uses some of the characters to make political and philosophical reflections that sometimes sounds as an essay, but it never becomes heavy. I think he often adds too much descriptions but not to the point of making them unbearable. I can relate this novel to the film Works of Mike Leigh or Ken Loach, although its style is "softer" than them. I can also see some naturalistic features on the plot (I can think of Zola and The Mysteries of Marseille) but also, by the way some characters drift away it is not completely fit to that tag. From the very beginning the author leads you to the main and sole purpose of the plot and you know what will happen throughout the story, but still is very exciting. I would like to relate this with the Judas Iscariot figure, however I can't, Gypo, it's a unique ítem, so primal so contradictory.
Memorable characters like Gypo, Mrs. McPhillip, Katie Fox, Connemara Maggie, it's worth the read, even several times.
I enjoyed it very much.
Read
April 8, 2023Not the biography of the rapper Snow, this Irish novel from the 1920s is about Gypo Nolan, a former Irish rebel, who informs on his neighbor as the culprit in a well-known murder of a public official. In the next scene, the murderer is tracked down and killed by the police. For his services, Gypo is paid 20 pounds.
For the rest of the novel, his shame and guilt is made real as he grapples with the moral weight of his difficult choice. He is tracked down by the Irish officials who would like to remind the Informer of their code of silence, he is reminded of the family that has now lost somebody, and he is reminded of his own actions in the rebellion and how they certainly suggest his lawful act is not exactly honorable. And of course he’s haunted by himself.
This is an interesting novel in a lot of ways. In one sense it directly grapples with the disconnect between morality and lawfulness, and asks the question of what happens when those might not be on the same side. It also presents the careful logic of colonialism in inexact terms. It’s an early example of colonized people talking back.
It’s also a suspense novel, and one that is more interesting in concept than in reading. I was curious about this one for a long time, and while I like the moral complexities of the novel, I am not so impressed by the actual writing.
For the rest of the novel, his shame and guilt is made real as he grapples with the moral weight of his difficult choice. He is tracked down by the Irish officials who would like to remind the Informer of their code of silence, he is reminded of the family that has now lost somebody, and he is reminded of his own actions in the rebellion and how they certainly suggest his lawful act is not exactly honorable. And of course he’s haunted by himself.
This is an interesting novel in a lot of ways. In one sense it directly grapples with the disconnect between morality and lawfulness, and asks the question of what happens when those might not be on the same side. It also presents the careful logic of colonialism in inexact terms. It’s an early example of colonized people talking back.
It’s also a suspense novel, and one that is more interesting in concept than in reading. I was curious about this one for a long time, and while I like the moral complexities of the novel, I am not so impressed by the actual writing.
December 17, 2011
This is the story about betraying in the relationship and its consequences. But eventually, truth wins. The most visible think in this story is how much fragile can the relationship only be as for money. All the story seems like really dark, gloomy and melancholic. The thoughts of characters are described in detail so one may say that it is one half of a book which describes characters’ thoughts. The gratest part of it presents Gypo’s thinking due to such a nervousness and constant stress what only will happen. In that is the author’s power to grab readers’ attention because they are kept in constant tension and suspense.
I was amused by Gypo when he searched his conscience and spent those blood money for example to help that girl in whorehouse who actually wasn't a prostitute or when he bought the food for many poeple in buffet.
Another point which grabed me was just at the end when Gypo plead for Mrs. McPhillip's forgiveness. It showed that Gypo felt really sorry about what he did.
I was forced to think more deeply many times during the reading. It wasn't difficult. Difficult was to stop reading and just to think for a while.
I was amused by Gypo when he searched his conscience and spent those blood money for example to help that girl in whorehouse who actually wasn't a prostitute or when he bought the food for many poeple in buffet.
Another point which grabed me was just at the end when Gypo plead for Mrs. McPhillip's forgiveness. It showed that Gypo felt really sorry about what he did.
I was forced to think more deeply many times during the reading. It wasn't difficult. Difficult was to stop reading and just to think for a while.
January 17, 2009
Gypo Nolan is the informer of the title. Following the Irish Civil War, Gypo betrays his friend Frankie and turns him in to the police for a murder Frankie committed. Gypo's life is then at risk and he must protect himself from his former comrades, all of whom are pretty teed of at what he did.
There's a John Ford-directed movie of this book that I'd be curious to see. The story was fine, but I have a feeling the movie (particularly directed by Ford) would be better. And I'm curious to see if the ending will remain the same. In any case, I've been sort of neglectful of Irish authors as many of them have disappointed me - most recently Donleavy's The Ginger Man. Surely they're not all so craptastic.
There's a John Ford-directed movie of this book that I'd be curious to see. The story was fine, but I have a feeling the movie (particularly directed by Ford) would be better. And I'm curious to see if the ending will remain the same. In any case, I've been sort of neglectful of Irish authors as many of them have disappointed me - most recently Donleavy's The Ginger Man. Surely they're not all so craptastic.
November 24, 2013
A simpleton led by impulse... I imagine it would have come about him by the poverty of the time... The end of this book is indeed a scene to make you cry... I enjoyed this book!
Forgiveness abd redemption...by a loving mother... And grace bestowed... Enjoy it if you ever choose to read this book!
James 5:19-20 NASB
My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, [20] let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
Forgiveness abd redemption...by a loving mother... And grace bestowed... Enjoy it if you ever choose to read this book!
James 5:19-20 NASB
My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, [20] let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
February 23, 2020
A tale of temptation, betrayal, and reprisal, this powerful novel is set in the aftermath of the Irish Civil War. It tells of Gypo Nolan, who informs on a wanted comrade. The author portrays Gyppo as a character who seems all body, instinct, and appetite, and he sets him up in contrast to Dan Gallagher, the rebel commander, who is all mind and intellect. Both are concerned with power, but Gyppo's is brute strength, and Dan's has to do with keeping his comrades in line by virtue of his capacity for cold-blooded scheming.
July 18, 2009
A good companion to "The Conformist". Getting by in the real, practical, possibly dangerous world, versus ethical, moral choices, and the consequences of these choices. Rationalizing the short term ease of a compromise. Suffering more, because others fall victim to these choices. Others that never had the opportunity to choose for themselves. Just people in the wrong place and time. Gives the reader a good grasp of "the Irish problem", while making it a human problem of wider scope.
May 27, 2014
Read this as high school required --- given it was a school full of Irish-Catholic descendants it made sense. A sad and haunting (to me) story
of temptation, loyalty, betrayal and redemption set in 1920's post -Civil
War Dublin. An enduring lamentation of The Troubles. "Gypo" Nolan,
ex-policeman, rebel, judas is one of the truly tragic characters in
literature. An important book for me. Finds itself in my rotation of re-reads.
of temptation, loyalty, betrayal and redemption set in 1920's post -Civil
War Dublin. An enduring lamentation of The Troubles. "Gypo" Nolan,
ex-policeman, rebel, judas is one of the truly tragic characters in
literature. An important book for me. Finds itself in my rotation of re-reads.
September 27, 2025
This felt a lot like Crime & Punishment…if it were set in Ireland during “the troubles” and the protagonist was a brutish moron instead of a sensitive, philosophical type. We get to watch the mental torment of an oaf who betrays his friend as the vengeance-seeking revolutionary party plays a game of cat and mouse with him. The plot crawls through the seedy underbelly of Dublin and was surprisingly deeper/better than I expected.
November 27, 2019
This was a sad tale of treachery and revenge set during the civil war. There is a sort of stream of consciousness occasionally appearing and a nod to Joyce without the full commitment of a modernist style.
February 25, 2008
While a not a well-known masterpiece, and somewhat of a corny ending, O'Flaherty has really interesting characters in this book and I really liked it
March 12, 2025
4.5 stars, rounded up. Written only a few years after the period in which it is set, O'Flaherty was not looking back with rose-colored glasses on a romantic period in which to set his story. It was in all aspects - plot, characters, setting, atmosphere - lifted straight from the times and places he knew in 1921-22 Dublin, where O'Flaherty himself was a member of the Communist Party of Ireland. While at times this book can superficially appear like a like a hard-boiled crime thriller, O'Flaherty avoids that easy path, focusing less on plot and more on character. The central event of the entire novel, the actual informing by Gypo Nolan, itself takes up a mere two paragraphs, while the processes running through his head up until that moment are explored at length. O'Flaherty spends longer describing the characters of the three men assigned to the firing squad, which helps build the tension over those events.
A few of the scenes of dialogue aren't entirely successful, such as between Gallagher and McPhillip's sister, though even there O'Flaherty does a very interesting job portraying the pseudo-intellectual posturing of leaders who think they are erudite philosophers with grand integrated world-views, but yet are constantly "still working that part out." One wonders how the novel was received amongst his earlier comrades in the Communist Party, and how many thought they might have been the model for Gallagher. I, for one, could have done with somewhat briefer physical sketches of every character, which O'Flaherty seems to go on with at length; for me, at least, physical descriptions so often struggle to paint a truly realistic picture of a human image.
But when so many novels that are set in Ireland during that period, especially those written much later, are all about painting heroes to the cause and their brave deaths, it is such a pleasure to read something that was not merely of the time itself, but also painting a harsher, grittier tale where few, if any, are actual heroes, and many quite the opposite.
This review was of the Standard Ebook edition, which at the time of this writing has not yet been added to the Goodreads database.
A few of the scenes of dialogue aren't entirely successful, such as between Gallagher and McPhillip's sister, though even there O'Flaherty does a very interesting job portraying the pseudo-intellectual posturing of leaders who think they are erudite philosophers with grand integrated world-views, but yet are constantly "still working that part out." One wonders how the novel was received amongst his earlier comrades in the Communist Party, and how many thought they might have been the model for Gallagher. I, for one, could have done with somewhat briefer physical sketches of every character, which O'Flaherty seems to go on with at length; for me, at least, physical descriptions so often struggle to paint a truly realistic picture of a human image.
But when so many novels that are set in Ireland during that period, especially those written much later, are all about painting heroes to the cause and their brave deaths, it is such a pleasure to read something that was not merely of the time itself, but also painting a harsher, grittier tale where few, if any, are actual heroes, and many quite the opposite.
This review was of the Standard Ebook edition, which at the time of this writing has not yet been added to the Goodreads database.
June 12, 2024
Wow! I struggled to keep my momentum at the beginning but that third act really brought the story to new heights. O’Flaherty can do physical, bodily description so vividly, and Gypo is such a stark character. I’m a fool for always making the comparison but gypo must be inspired by Nietzsche.
There is always a subtle comment on the Irish psyche, its wounds and passions misdirected. In a world of chaos such leaps for integrity and justice always lose their quixotic, romanticised lucidity and make way for the ruthless. Revolution is a bloody business. As always I’m a sucker for Irish writers, maybe I would not have the same time for it otherwise. Blindboy wrote an essay on O’Flaherty recently that I need to find.
I’d like to watch Ford’s adaptation. Although it casts a load of stupid yanks so the essence of the story was almost certainly misunderstood. I’m sure it will disappoint me. Someone should write a screenplay and send it to the new big cheese Pat Collins. There is so much this story has to say…
There is always a subtle comment on the Irish psyche, its wounds and passions misdirected. In a world of chaos such leaps for integrity and justice always lose their quixotic, romanticised lucidity and make way for the ruthless. Revolution is a bloody business. As always I’m a sucker for Irish writers, maybe I would not have the same time for it otherwise. Blindboy wrote an essay on O’Flaherty recently that I need to find.
I’d like to watch Ford’s adaptation. Although it casts a load of stupid yanks so the essence of the story was almost certainly misunderstood. I’m sure it will disappoint me. Someone should write a screenplay and send it to the new big cheese Pat Collins. There is so much this story has to say…
September 7, 2023
"Este peligro le había vuelto débil y le había librado de esa espantosa e impenetrable fuerza que le hacía frío y cruel. Si pudiera tenerlo todo para sí, tal y como estaba en este momento, sacrificaría hasta su religión por conseguir su amor. ¡Sí! Renunciaría al mismísimo Dios por tenerlo de este modo"
...
"Para Mary, quizá, aquél era un amor puro, destinado al apareamiento, pues amaba esa voz apacible. el último vestigio de una naturaleza mansa que, al sucumbir en su lucha por la vida, había sido sustituida por una naturaleza fría, insensible y ambiciosa. Estaba enamorada, pero de un espectro, un tímido fantasma que sólo había venido a pasar una hora de la noche y que se iría volando al amanecer"
...
"Para Mary, quizá, aquél era un amor puro, destinado al apareamiento, pues amaba esa voz apacible. el último vestigio de una naturaleza mansa que, al sucumbir en su lucha por la vida, había sido sustituida por una naturaleza fría, insensible y ambiciosa. Estaba enamorada, pero de un espectro, un tímido fantasma que sólo había venido a pasar una hora de la noche y que se iría volando al amanecer"
August 16, 2023
I’ve held onto a copy of this unread book for 30+ years, buying it back in college. I probably bought it for a quarter, simply for the artwork, and a love for old trade paperbacks. Gritty Dublin is the setting, and betrayal the theme. It reads like a old gangster film noir (and apparently there is a film of the same name). Another in my series of “I should probably finally read this book.” There are plenty more unread on my bookshelves for this biblioholic.
July 9, 2024
What a great book about squalor, the brutality of civil conflict, and forgiveness. The dialect of this book is so thick that it took me awhile to read it even though it's pretty short
May 23, 2024
Very very good
March 29, 2019
Come for the tension, the depiction of a city barely rebuilt after war, of organisations plagued by egos and paranoia – stay for the wildly drawn out descriptions of every significant character. It turns out Ireland was not an attractive place in the 1920s.
“He was a man of middle size and slightly built, but his shoulders were broad enough for a giant. His body narrowed down from the shoulders, so that the hips and waist were totally out of proportion to the upper part of his body. His right leg opened outwards in a curve below the knee and he placed the toe of the right foot on the ground before the heel when he walked, so that his walk had the crouching appearance of a wild animal stalking in a forest. His face was thin and sallow. His hair was black and cropped close. His eyebrows were black and bushy. His eyelashes were long and they continually drooped over his eyes. When his eyelashes drooped his eyes were blue, sharp and fierce. But when he raised his lashes for a moment to think of something distant and perhaps imaginary, his eyes were large, wistful and dreamy. They were soft and full of a sorrow that was unfathomable. His jaws were square, sharp and fleshless. His lips were thin and set tightly. This gave the lower part of his face a ferocious appearance. His nose was long and straight. His cheeks were hollow and on the cheekbones a bright flush appeared when he was seized with a fit of hard, dry coughing which he tried to suppress.”
“She was a small, fat woman of middle age, with a huge head of devilishly black hair, arranged in towering fashion, with a glittering black comb stuck in the rear of the pile. Her hair was the last remains of her beauty. The remainder of her head had been coarsened by the odious nature of her pursuits. Her face was blotched, wrinkled and pale. Her eyes were yellow, hard, sunken and bloodshot. Her mouth was drawn together as if some clumsy fellow had tried to stitch the lips and made a bod job of it. She was dressed in a blue skirt and a white blouse. The blouse sleeves were rolled almost up to her shoulders, showing a tremendously fat pair of arms. They called her Aunt Betty, and she was known all over the district for her cunning, her meanness and the peculiar habit she had, perhaps in the middle of a conversation, of suddenly uttering a coarse expression, grasping her breasts and staring about her wild-eyed, as if she were afraid of some dread spectre being in pursuit of her.”
“Biddy Burke was a middle-aged woman with a lowering expression in her black eyes, with puffed-out, sallow cheeks and a swollen throat. She was of the type of Irishwoman that is prone to sudden passions, due to the habit of eating enormous meals and then suffering from digestive disorders. They are tender-hearted people, utterly lacking in an aesthetic sense, violent, quarrelsome, savage, generous, inconsistent. Biddy was dressed in a white blouse and a blue skirt. She wore her greyish hair drawn back to her poll tightly and parted in the middle according to the peasant fashion.”
“He was a man of middle size and slightly built, but his shoulders were broad enough for a giant. His body narrowed down from the shoulders, so that the hips and waist were totally out of proportion to the upper part of his body. His right leg opened outwards in a curve below the knee and he placed the toe of the right foot on the ground before the heel when he walked, so that his walk had the crouching appearance of a wild animal stalking in a forest. His face was thin and sallow. His hair was black and cropped close. His eyebrows were black and bushy. His eyelashes were long and they continually drooped over his eyes. When his eyelashes drooped his eyes were blue, sharp and fierce. But when he raised his lashes for a moment to think of something distant and perhaps imaginary, his eyes were large, wistful and dreamy. They were soft and full of a sorrow that was unfathomable. His jaws were square, sharp and fleshless. His lips were thin and set tightly. This gave the lower part of his face a ferocious appearance. His nose was long and straight. His cheeks were hollow and on the cheekbones a bright flush appeared when he was seized with a fit of hard, dry coughing which he tried to suppress.”
“She was a small, fat woman of middle age, with a huge head of devilishly black hair, arranged in towering fashion, with a glittering black comb stuck in the rear of the pile. Her hair was the last remains of her beauty. The remainder of her head had been coarsened by the odious nature of her pursuits. Her face was blotched, wrinkled and pale. Her eyes were yellow, hard, sunken and bloodshot. Her mouth was drawn together as if some clumsy fellow had tried to stitch the lips and made a bod job of it. She was dressed in a blue skirt and a white blouse. The blouse sleeves were rolled almost up to her shoulders, showing a tremendously fat pair of arms. They called her Aunt Betty, and she was known all over the district for her cunning, her meanness and the peculiar habit she had, perhaps in the middle of a conversation, of suddenly uttering a coarse expression, grasping her breasts and staring about her wild-eyed, as if she were afraid of some dread spectre being in pursuit of her.”
“Biddy Burke was a middle-aged woman with a lowering expression in her black eyes, with puffed-out, sallow cheeks and a swollen throat. She was of the type of Irishwoman that is prone to sudden passions, due to the habit of eating enormous meals and then suffering from digestive disorders. They are tender-hearted people, utterly lacking in an aesthetic sense, violent, quarrelsome, savage, generous, inconsistent. Biddy was dressed in a white blouse and a blue skirt. She wore her greyish hair drawn back to her poll tightly and parted in the middle according to the peasant fashion.”
February 21, 2011
O'Flaherty has a curious "voice" as narrator, but a unique and consistent one. (Last year I read a collection of his short stories printed in the '50s, though I have no idea when they were written.) The style is somewhat stilted to my modern ears, but that may be a result of the time and place. Be that as it may, he certainly captured that time and place, or rather gave it an authenticity and immediacy. The setting is Dublin, c.1923. The Irish Civil War between the forces in favour of the Treaty with Britain and those opposing it has just ended. Those men and women who just a few years prior stood side-by-side as comrades-in-arms fighting the British have turned on each other, and even though open hostilities have ended (badly for the Anti-Treaty side), random acts of violence still occur. The "Organisation" (the Anti-Treaty IRA) have gone to ground.
Gypo Nolan, the eponymous "Informer", reminds me of Lenny in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men; as depicted by O'Flaherty, he's little more than a simpleton, all brawn and passion, unrestrained by logic or even feeling. He has a maudlin sentiment, true, but any real feelings have been purged by the hardships of life. Approached by his former partner, himself on the run, Gypo hardly hesitates a moment to sell the information of his whereabouts to the Free State police, the nascent Garda Síochána, for £20 (easily five-month's wages for a working man in today's terms). He's equally quick to betray a totally innocent man in an ill-advised effort to save himself.
When the Organisation hears of the treachery, they immediately spring to action. If Gypo is all brawn, his opposite number, the Commandant Dan Gallagher, is all brain. Gallagher is similarly bereft of any sentimentality: all is for the preservation of the Organisation, and the Organisation is strictly a tool for the creation of an Irish workers' republic.
Despite the faults of the antagonists, O'Flaherty is remarkably non-judgmental. He portrays the poor workers of Dublin's slums with passive equanimity: the prostitutes and pimps, consumptives and drunkards, con-men and revolutionaries, addicts and usurers are all presented with a casual aplomb that stands in marked contrast to the general perception we have of lace-curtain Irish "propriety".
I'd like to think that the dialog, which is heavily weighted towards phonetic renditions of accent, is genuine, though at this remove (nearly 90-years since it was written) it has a certain "stage Irish" quality. I guess there's no way to know.
Though melodramatic, the novel is also very cinematic. It's easy to see why it made such a memorable film (though John Ford did diddle a bit with the plot to make it more palatable to American sensibilities); if anything, it's a wonder that it has never been remade since 1935.
Gypo Nolan, the eponymous "Informer", reminds me of Lenny in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men; as depicted by O'Flaherty, he's little more than a simpleton, all brawn and passion, unrestrained by logic or even feeling. He has a maudlin sentiment, true, but any real feelings have been purged by the hardships of life. Approached by his former partner, himself on the run, Gypo hardly hesitates a moment to sell the information of his whereabouts to the Free State police, the nascent Garda Síochána, for £20 (easily five-month's wages for a working man in today's terms). He's equally quick to betray a totally innocent man in an ill-advised effort to save himself.
When the Organisation hears of the treachery, they immediately spring to action. If Gypo is all brawn, his opposite number, the Commandant Dan Gallagher, is all brain. Gallagher is similarly bereft of any sentimentality: all is for the preservation of the Organisation, and the Organisation is strictly a tool for the creation of an Irish workers' republic.
Despite the faults of the antagonists, O'Flaherty is remarkably non-judgmental. He portrays the poor workers of Dublin's slums with passive equanimity: the prostitutes and pimps, consumptives and drunkards, con-men and revolutionaries, addicts and usurers are all presented with a casual aplomb that stands in marked contrast to the general perception we have of lace-curtain Irish "propriety".
I'd like to think that the dialog, which is heavily weighted towards phonetic renditions of accent, is genuine, though at this remove (nearly 90-years since it was written) it has a certain "stage Irish" quality. I guess there's no way to know.
Though melodramatic, the novel is also very cinematic. It's easy to see why it made such a memorable film (though John Ford did diddle a bit with the plot to make it more palatable to American sensibilities); if anything, it's a wonder that it has never been remade since 1935.
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