modern masterpiece
influenced by Joyce (who praised him), O'Brien's work is more accessible and more weighted toward the comic. This is unquestionably his masterpiece, though that doesn't mean to put it on a stodgy pedestal. It's literate but loopy, fun in the rich pile-on of authorial devices that anticipated and influenced what has come to be known as metafiction. I confess to having read it 3 times in the past 40 years; in my case a poor memory enabled me to enjoy it all over again.
