Curious Pancakes

Up to 76/1001 to date!

A coworker (or...boss, maybe? I'm not quite sure at this point) of mine gave me The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien to read a few weeks back in E-book format.  I've taken longer than appropriate to get through it, but that was owing, I think, to the fact that it was being displayed to me in digital (laptop) format on a free Kindle app. It's probably different to actually be reading off of a real Kindle as opposed to the way I was doing it, but I found myself greatly missing paper (and page numbers) and the naturalness of rolling around in bed with a book.

For the duration of the story I was feeling a bit confused and disoriented...a little like being left behind.  I found this review on GoodReads among a bunch of raves and chuckled at how accurately it seemed to describe how I was feeling.

"Aug 17, 2010

Paul rated it

Shelves: novels

If you ever want to find out what it's like being the only sober person in a room full of professors telling each other jokes in Latin and heffing and hawing and pulling each others' beards, here's a good place to start.

Otherwise not."

I read this review 2 chapters from the book's end.  After those 2 chapters were finished, I now disagree, as the conclusion was a very satisfying and resolute one...but I still stand by the way I felt for most of the adventure.

The story is very darkly curious.  The benefactor who supplied the novel to me prefaced it as something along the lines of one of the funniest books ever (I may be putting words in his mouth but I am just going to roll with it). I was questioning this the entire time, as I couldn't quite shake the uneasy feeling that I was getting from every circumstance that the protagonist encountered.  It was a bit like Alice in Wonderland but with a weird old man blindly traipsing about...but at least he had the comfort of a friend in his own soul - he was a bit like Pantalaimon from His Dark Materials in the way he was so endearing.  It's nice to know that even in Hell (?) your soul is there to guide you.

I was charmed by the idea of a two-dimensional house, as well as the police station within the walls of Mathers' home.  Something about hiding places and curiosities of that kind appeals to me.  In that way, I love the tiny door that looks into the Queen of Hearts' garden in Alice.  Heck, while we're at it, the unattainable light in Mathers' window had me thinking of her Looking Glass.

Also,  Joe's fancy of becoming a flower's scent in another life is very pleasantly beautiful in it's simply stated form.

So what happens now that Divney has now joined the wanderer?  Will they just be redirected to Fox's station again, or will they, this time, be hanged?  And then where from there?

My Kindle app came with Pride and Prejudice and Treasure Island already downloaded into it.  Though I don't much like the digital format, I'll take what I can get - I'm a sucker for freebies.  Lucky me that those two are surely on the list.  Perhaps I'll read one digitally while simultaneously working on another of Colleen's books to balance my insatiable need for rolling.  Lazy.