No Laughing Matter: The Life and Times of Flann O'Brien

by Anthony Cronin

Presents the life and career of the Irish novelist, including his childhood, his days as a newspaper columnist, his marriage, and his final days

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Irish Literature, Literature, Art, Ireland

260 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Anthony Cronin was an Irish poet, novelist, biographer, literary critic, commentator and arts activist.

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flanneurs are familiar with this word—disappointment. One pioneering metafictional text, becoming more esoteric as time passes, but no less pleasurable, one darkly hilarious and disturbing comedy of footnoted lunacy, one perfect Gaeltacht parody, and one collection of uproariously inventive newspaper columns bursting with influential surrealism and satire. The rest—disappointing. SO WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED? In his absolutely wonderful bio, Cronin reveals the sources of the sunken Flann. Firstly, Brian O’Nolan had zero of the artistic integrity of Joyce and deliberately shunned the artist label, adopting a hack mentality instead that led to his output of mediocre columns, abysmal stage and teleplays, and crummy leftovers. Secondly, as most people know, he was a chronic alcoholic for the last twenty years of his short life, which obviously stunted his imagination, making him sullen, sour and needy. Thirdly, his many pseudonymous personalities and identities lead to a complete lack of focus in his life, as he struggled away in the civil service (and took a wife—quelle surprise, although he remains sexless in my eyes) and became desperate in finding ways to support himself and his family. Flann’s talent simply evaporated along with his youth. Cronin’s lean mean bio serves up unsentimentally the facts and peels away plenty of the mystery, revealing . . . disappointment. More from Coe.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let me say two things. First: If you have never read Flann O'Brien's novels, I highly suggest that you do so right now. He is the most superlative and unsung 20th century among authors you've probably never heard of. Second: Don't read this biography. For all of my admiration and love of Flann's works, indeed, he is probably one of the most profound influences on my own novels, this biography is one of the dullest slogs I've made in recent memory. This really surprised me considering my Flannophilia and the fact that the author actually knew O'Brien personally.
One of the problems is, like, say, Wallace Stevens, O'Brien's life wasn't very interesting. He worked as a civil servant in the Irish bureaucracy and wrote some funny newspaper columns under various names. His family life was unremarkable and he had a very bad drinking problem, rendering him incoherent by early afternoon. Not really interesting material for a biography. Sure, his astounding literary talent and sense of humor warrant something, but another problem here might be that the writing is so ploddingly dull here and the "insights" into Flann's writings so subjective, that it comes across more as insider smarm than anything else.
There are some interesting bits. The whole Gaeltacht thing and Flann's fluency in Irish and the role the Irish language played in his work will be interesting...to those interested in such things. There's some baffling discursions into Irish politics, especially what Flann did day-to-day but this is mostly eye-glazing material.

[Uvrón · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a biography of a difficult man to talk about, since he was born Brian, wrote novels as Flann, and was best known during his lifetime as Myles, the humor column writer for The Irish Times. Myles is obviously a comedic persona, but one that often delivers rants on Brian’s behalf, and later in life Myles became Brian’s most common name in real life as well. I find this blurring of identity both amusing and disturbing (that I’m named after the penname doesn’t help).

But the subtitle is “The Life and Times of Flann O’Brien”, and the biographer writes in 1989 for an audience who knew him mostly as a novelist. As a reference guide to a factual timeline about his life and work, this is very useful. But even though the biographer knew the writer personally, he is stuck writing about Flann the great avant-garde novelist. Frequently he expresses surprise or disappointment: at Brian’s acquiescence to publisher feedback, at his lack of faith in his own work, at his eager efforts to make a television programme instead of finishing a play. But all of this is entirely in character with a shy man, stressed over money, alcoholic, whose books had no commercial success during his lifetime. Maybe Cronin was too enamoured with the man’s column and Dublin pub talk, or too affected by his posthumous reputation, but his belief in the man’s greatness often gets in the way of the real person.

He does give a good summary of Brian’s childhood and student days, and toward the end as Brian’s life becomes more and more dominated by health issues we get some look at him in daily life. But if Cronin had deeper insights into Brian’s psyche and relationships, he hid them thoroughly in a removed, factual biographer’s tone. Why did Brian and Evelyn marry? What was the nature of their oddly stable marriage as he descended into severe alcoholism? Why do we hear almost nothing from most of his siblings?

Brian was too good at hiding in Myles, and his ghost is too good at hiding in Flann.

[Max Nemtsov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Превосходная био одного из самых протейских писателей на свете — в меру субъективная, с широким и глубоким контекстом, без которого ничего не имеет смысла, с анекдотами, фактами, фактоидами и личными воспоминаниями (но последних тут — в меру). Кронин явно разъясняет некоторые темные места в биографии ФОБ, намеченные в его первом жизнеописании на английском (о котором далее), одновременно — и это видно — оберегая ФОБ от опасности поспешных суждений. Но самое поразительное в его книге то, что от такого бесконтактного (хоть и глубоко личного) описания ФОБ как человек все равно не проглядывает — он ускользнул даже от своего приятеля и собутыльника.
Утешает же то, что здесь я нашел подтверждение некоторым нашим собственным выводам, к которым мы пришли, читая непосредственно тексты Джойса, Бекетта и самого ФОБ: об их отношениях с родиной и между собой, о духе эпохи в стране, о которой в ХХ веке мы знали до обидного мало, о творческой жизни Дублина. В смысле лучшего понимания этого книга Кронина оказалась просто бесценна. Ну и дополнительная приятность в том, что, читая ее, я не просто «тупил в названия», а реально понимал (в топонимическом смысле), где что происходило, потому что мы сами недавно ходили по тем же самым улицам.

[Hobart Mariner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Biography of the novelist and columnist Brian O’Nolan written by a friend and drinking companion, himself a distinguished writer, with whom O’Nolan founded the “Bloomsday” Joyce event in Dublin.

Found this book utterly devastating, got me in tears by the end. Cronin had a front row seat to the ruination of one of the 20th century’s greatest literary minds. He is affectionate but never sentimental, he is critical, even judgmental sometimes. He knew the precise contours of Flann’s provincialness and philistinism, his unexamined dogmatism and consevatism. But he is also alive to the early good: young Flann’s hatred of the Blue Shirts, his distaste for hypocrisy. More than anyone else Cronin knows the lies Flann told himself and others, his inability to take a positive stand, his fear of the Joycean artistic path, and how he wasted his abilities chasing after paydays that never came. In this he resembled many of his characters.

Very good “and times” elements, talking about the militarization of Ireland under British rule, the role of plum civil service jobs in the public imagination, etc.

[Jacob Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

the opening section about his childhood didnt really grip me but the rest is great, nice succinct look into his life from a friend of his in his latter days. really makes you sad flann didnt write much

[Bro_Pair أعرف · Rating 5 out of 5]

*This* is how you write a biography. I can't help but think of an execrable biography of Malcolm Lowry I read last year, "Pursued by Furies," written by some Oxbridge don who bragged on the dust jacket of teaching "biographical technique." Well, the gimmick of stuffing a biography full of factual minutiae, hanging every life event upon some risible, unifying notion (Lowry is "pursued by furies!" His dark angels overtake his better angels!), and displaying a bizarre unwillingness to explore surprising personal facets (Lowry's sudden homosexual experimentation is shunted aside as quickly as the author can manage) - these are the methods of a hack.

Biography tends to give is a sense of the biographer - how does one approach the task of measuring somebody else's entire life? In this, I can tell, where the aforementioned scribbler is haughty and not clever by half, Anthony Cronin is an intelligent, modest, honest and decent man. And he has produced a fine book about an author I admire greatly, Brian O'Nolan, AKA Myles na cGopaleen, AKA Flann O'Brien.

Perhaps part of the book's strength is derived from the rather shabby circumstances of O'Nolan's life. The temptation to flights of fancy or hagiography in profiling O'Nolan's bete noir, Joyce, would be strong; the romance of the Lost Generation, the overweening break from the Church and Ireland, the familial tragedy, etc etc. There is little romance in the facts of Brian O'Nolan's life, and, indeed, in his work.

And so the facts, as we hear them, are of squandered talent, his best work produced early, and followed by a long, ugly slide into alchoholism, and the work of a poetaster. But Cronin is too good a man to ever delight in this decline. He is admirably even in puncturing O'Nolan's pretensions and, often, lies, but always as the friend in the barroom. There are many riddles that Cronin does not and cannot solve. His relations (or lack thereof) with women, as well as his late marriage, are an enormous mystery.

But Cronin is a perceptive critic of the work! The work is to be celebrated, and Cronin celebrates it. If O'Nolan was a man wracked with self-doubt, Cronin provides ample evidence of the baselessness of this anxiety, second only to reading "At Swim-Two-Birds" itself.

[Thomas Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was an awfully good biography, especially since it brought to life a subject that was a fairly minor and largely unknown writer. It also brought to life the times he lived in (Dublin, early to mid-20th century). It was intriguing to think about how he and his compatriots had to write in the bright light of James Joyce's works, and how frustrating it must have been (Beckett decided to be a minimalist because of JJ). This i a wonderful book for writers who are struggling. O'Brien was a strange guy - when one publisher turned down The Third Policeman (his first novel), he put it away and told his friends he'd lost it. He never attempted to have it published again (was published shortly after his death). I congratulate this biographer for having written a compelling book - never a lull, never boring details, always alive to the life and times of FO. Bravo!

[Michael D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cronin as usual writes with absolute icy clarity about the life and works of one of Ireland's most notable 'genius failures'. Well-researched, highly amusing and a rollicking good read, O'Brien comes across as a bit of a sad case, all-too-much a product of his place and time but one that still managed to produce two of the finest Irish novels of the 20th century.



Pass the porter like a good lad...

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished No Laughing Matter: The Life and Times of Flann O'Brien, and it's great! It's called the life "and times" of Flann O'Brien, because it goes into plenty of detail on what Ireland was like during Flann's life, including the Irish declaration of independence, the formation of the Irish Free State and then the Republic of Ireland. Oh, and WWII. This is a great book for anyone who loves Flann O'Brien. If you don't love Flann O'Brien, then it's only because you haven't read him yet. Start with The Third Policeman, which is one of my favourite books of all time. Creepy, funny, fantastic, deep, it's got it all (including a love affair with a bicycle)

[Chris Leathley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that is full of anecdote, usually whiskey drenched anecdote at that (and much of it informed by the biographer’s own interactions with Brian/Flann/Myles), that is part comic but also tragic in many different dimensions. I struggled at times with the pompous certitude of the author; his long-winded dismissal of The Dalkey Archive (which I really enjoyed); and the fact that the book ends at his death but fails to assess O’Brien’s legacy or impact. It was certainly informative and fascinating but, ultimately, it felt mean-spirited and narrow in focus.

[Conor Tuohy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another biography where incomparable genius meets unimaginable drinking in mid century Ireland. A perfect tragicomedy. Every Irish secondary school should spend a month on At Swim Two Birds, it'll have to be read again.

[Martin Raybould · Rating 4 out of 5]

Revealing and honest biography of a funny writer who lived a less than funny life.

[Just This · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting & informative

[Eva M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent.

[Rafael · Rating 4 out of 5]

san o'brien patrón de los genios literatos: una sola obra maestra que detestaba y una vida mediocre de funcionario alcohólico. de eso va el asunto, y cronin lo escribe entretenido y bien.

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

With a panel on Flann O'Brien's masterpiece, The Third Policeman, reeling drunkenly towards me, I decided that the time had come to finally properly acquaint myself with the life and times with that gentleman scribbler. The definitive Dubliner, hailing as he did from Strabane, his most endearing acheivement, in the eyes of his compatriots, was, apparently, that he squandered the talent of his youth and pretty much killed himself with drink. What I didn;t a[reciate was, that even though the rejection of The Third Policeman discouraged him from further novels for far too long, his work ethic was pretty extraordinary, but any sort of breakthrough popular international success eluded him, though At Swim-Two-Birds was just beginning to receive the sort of acclaim and sales that might have lead to a different career had it come sooner. Cronin is an affectionate and merciful biographer, not hiding his many faults but treating them with gentleness and sympathy. It's a brilliant evocation of Ireland in first two-thrids of the twentieth century, the same milieu that produced exiles Joyce and Beckett, but it was Miles who stayed, diligently providing daily entertainments in his newspaper column for the people of Dublin in much the same way he provided support for his large family when his father died, a wholly different sort of artistic life and outlook.

A superb book about a fascinating character.

[Allan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cronin was a contemporary of O'Brien's, coming to know the writer and notorious dipsomaniac in the declining years of his life, so he has a lot to tell about O'Brien's curious existence and career. It's not a pretty story, as you may have guessed from the title. More than James Joyce, who preceded him as a Dublin writer, O'Brien was entrenched in his Irishry. For example, he was thoroughly fluent in the Irish language, producing a large quantity of work in that tongue. He did not obtain nor even seek the exile Joyce found essential for artistic expression, and he sadly fell into a stereotypically and terminally dire state of alcoholism.

Cronin provides all the details of O'Brien's life before and during his dissolution, though he mercifully refrains from too much amateur psychoanalysis. At the same time, it's hard to escape a sense of the distaste he feels as he describes the waste to which he bore witness. It's a depressingly common story that too many friends and relatives of alcoholics know too well. It's painful but illuminating to read about someone so clearly full of brilliance who inexorably walked down a path of lost potential. So read No Laughing Matter, because it's important to understand who O'Brien was, but then read O'Brien--read O'Brien more--to understand why you should care.

[Stephen Hero · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Annotated Wednesday
- or -
Why this shouldn't be underappreciated and certainly isn't

Page 23
As a novel this thing constantly tries to reconcile the duplicates and the opposites while continually dreaming of racing through life at the speed of love.

Page 109
Preparation meets opportunity as tributaries flow into the larger river, sparks add to the fire, and reflections carry to the mirror.

Page 328
One wonders two things: (1) Can the people of Ontario survive the effects of a quasi-socialist government? (2) Is it true that a couple of Tylenol and avoiding any confrontations is probably the best way to deal with it?

Page 328 (continued)
Do only the hyperbolical express humble truths? And is it true that the upward paths may be hardest, but they have the best views?

Page 558
Mathematical equation: The price you pay for knowledge: Innocence + experience = transitional adolescence


** Second-favorite quote: Both fortitude and forbearance are really rather super don't you think?

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A biography of the famous Irish writer Flann O'Brien (to choose one of his many names) by the Irish poet Anthony Cronin. It's a sad tale of a supremely talented writer who produced, in Cronin's estimation, only 2 works worthy of his talents (At Swim Two Birds and The Third Policeman) and who otherwise threw away his gifts on journalism and drink. Cronin was a friend of O'Brien and so can bring a unique perspective written, as it were, from the stool beside him at the bar. The book serves as guide, also, to Dublin in the first half of the last century and a miasma of darkness, failure and oppression hangs over the man and his city. This has come to be such a stereotype of the place at the time that it can't be true or, at least, not the whole story.

Cronin's dead now, but was bitter about Ireland himself so I'm sure that coloured his views. I remember him pontificating on Irish radio at the time of the war in Yugoslavia, spouting on about Allied military strategy, as if he knew the first thing about it.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cronin was a friend of O'Brien and his family which doesn't keep him from discussing how the curse of the Irish--alcohol--affected and finally ruined him. It is a touching look at an author who never wanted to be thought of as following in the footsteps of Beckett and Joyce but judged on his own and who, for all his coruscating talent for pointing out the ridiculous, still wanted to get wealthy from sales of his novels.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biography of Flann O'Brien. Informed and unbiased account from a contemporary. Would have liked more discussion of the novels, but on the whole it is a well-balanced telling of O'Brien's life. PArticularly strong on family background. Ultimately very sad story of how talent can be blocked by rejection and lack of self-confidence.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended for fans of O'Brien/na gCopaleen/O'Nolan, but likely not of interest to those who haven't read any of his work. The book isn't very long, and isn't as detailed as many literary biographies, but then O'Nolan was a difficult and mysterious character.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a tough read. The dislike of the biographer for his subject is palpable. It's also by the end understandable, which was not something I had expected going in, being such a fan of Flann's delightful three out of four novels, and a significant amount of his other work.

[Eoin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A balanced and thorough life story of one the under-rated greats. Not as beautiful as I had hoped, nor as funny. Worth it after you've read all of Flann/Myles/Brian.

[Melissa Powers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good enough, but I would have loved to have heard more actual interactions between Cronin and O'Nolan.