Books: Irish Stew

THE HARD LIFE (179 pp.)—Flann O'Brien—Pantheon ($3.50).

Dog-eared formula for Irish comic fiction: to one seedy slice of life from an impoverished Irish boyhood add one outrageous old character who swears a blue streak, acts like a freak, and is lovable as all get out. Stir in plenty of Irish whisky, a peck of troubles, assorted downtrodden womenfolk, a hard-drinking priest, plenty of disputatious talk about the church.

Sprinkle liberally with unintelligible Irish words ("boxty," "plawmaus," "looderamawn"*)—and don't forget to lam into Ireland as you go along.

In The Hard Life, Flann O'Brien, a lionized Dublin novelist, columnist and licensed literary legpuller,...