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Book Review of The Best of Myles

The Best of Myles
reviewed Irish Comedy at its Best on


From the back cover: "Myles na Gopaleen displayed his comic invention and verbal dexterity in the pages of The Irish Times from 1939 until his death in 1966. Here are the best of his colums, presenting these immportal inventions:

The brother, a man with a solution to eveything from the common cold to the economic crisis;

The Plain People of Ireland, a breed distinguished for their love of a well-turned cliche and a drop of the hard stuff;

Keats and Chapman, tow absurdly erudite poets who will stoop to any adventure so long as it ends in an epigram;

The Myles na Gopaleen Central Research Bureau, with such boons to manking as alcoholic ink, bogus telephones, and midnight oil for the late worker, made from "turf, whiskey, offals and cider."

Myles na Gopaleen casts his sardonic eye on humanity, Irish and otherwise, in an uproarious whirligig of fancy and commentary."