The Poor Mouth

Flann O'Brien's gloriously wicked satire of the traditional Irish peasant novel, 'The Poor Mouth' tells the shamelessly ironic story of Bonaparte O'Coonassa, born in the west of Ireland 'on a terrible winter's night'. A hymn to the world of potatoes, rain and 'excellent poverty', this cruelly funny assault on the fashionable Gaelic Revival of the day brought the wrath of the custodians of national sentiment upon O'Brien's head for many years thereafter.