The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien

Imagine a combination of Alice in Wonderland and the inspired silliness of Monty Python, with some bits of the TV show Lost thrown in for good measure, narrated with an Irish lilt. The result is The Third Policeman.

The outstanding first sentence tells how the story all begins: "Not everybody knows how I killed old Phillip Mathers, smashing his jaw in with my spade...." This leads to a quest story as the narrator (who soon forgets his own name) tries to locate the missing black box containing Mathers' treasure. The ensuing zaniness includes such a hodge-podge of fanciful happenings that the plot is impossible to summarize.

One central feature of the story is the "Atomic Theory," whereby atoms of people can become mixed with the atoms of objects they are often in contact with, so that "...people who spent most of their natural lives riding iron bicycles over the rocky roadsteads of this parish get their personalities mixed up with the personalities of their bicycle as a result of the interchanging of the atoms of each of them...." That's the kind of skewed, almost plausible logic that reigns supreme here. You will never look at bicycles in the same way again, and you will begin to wonder what object is becoming part of your personality.

The humor comes not only from the situations, but also from the dialogue, which is laugh-out-loud funny. I can't imagine why a film has not been made of this novel.

Here's something important to know: The edition I read included a "Publisher's Note" at the end. If you have an edition with this note, DO NOT READ IT BEFORE READING THE BOOK. It spoils the ending, and you will be deprived of part of your reading pleasure--figuring out what's really going on.

O'Brien's novel At Swim Two-Birds is the funniest book I have ever read. This is maybe not second (there's always Catch 22), but it is right up there.