Ireland's very own Dirty Harry, Pat Coyne is 'reminiscent of a (slightly) more well-adjusted Ignatius Reilly from A Confederacy of Dunces, as Roddy Doyle might have imagined him,' according to one reader's review, while in the Times Antonia Logue reckoned that, "If Flann O'Brien's lunatic Professor De Selby had genetically engineered a cross between the novels of Raymond Chandler and those of Patrick McCabe, this is what the progeny might well have looked like.' Stirring stuff, indeed, so it's a crying shame that Hugo Hamilton seems to have deserted crime fiction for autobiography. Boo, etc. Come back, Hugo - we'll find something to forgive!
Friday, May 4, 2007
Lost Classics # 297: Sad Bastard, Hugo Hamilton
Ireland's very own Dirty Harry, Pat Coyne is 'reminiscent of a (slightly) more well-adjusted Ignatius Reilly from A Confederacy of Dunces, as Roddy Doyle might have imagined him,' according to one reader's review, while in the Times Antonia Logue reckoned that, "If Flann O'Brien's lunatic Professor De Selby had genetically engineered a cross between the novels of Raymond Chandler and those of Patrick McCabe, this is what the progeny might well have looked like.' Stirring stuff, indeed, so it's a crying shame that Hugo Hamilton seems to have deserted crime fiction for autobiography. Boo, etc. Come back, Hugo - we'll find something to forgive!
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Declan Burke has published a number of novels, the most recent of which is ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL. As a journalist and critic, he writes and broadcasts on books and film for a variety of media outlets, including the Irish Times, RTE, the Irish Examiner and the Sunday Independent. He has an unfortunate habit of speaking about himself in the third person. All views expressed here are his own and are very likely to be contrary.
Definitely going to check this one out. I always imagined Ignatius Reilly would have worked brilliantly in a yarn set in Vico Road by Flann.
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