“Declan Burke is his own genre. The Lammisters dazzles, beguiles and transcends. Virtuoso from start to finish.” – Eoin McNamee “This bourbon-smooth riot of jazz-age excess, high satire and Wodehouse flamboyance is a pitch-perfect bullseye of comic brilliance.” – Irish Independent Books of the Year 2019 “This rapid-fire novel deserves a place on any bookshelf that grants asylum to PG Wodehouse, Flann O’Brien or Kyril Bonfiglioli.” – Eoin Colfer, Guardian Best Books of the Year 2019 “The funniest book of the year.” – Sunday Independent “Declan Burke is one funny bastard. The Lammisters ... conducts a forensic analysis on the anatomy of a story.” – Liz Nugent “Burke’s exuberant prose takes centre stage … He plays with language like a jazz soloist stretching the boundaries of musical theory.” – Totally Dublin “A mega-meta smorgasbord of inventive language ... linguistic verve not just on every page but every line.Irish Times “Above all, The Lammisters gives the impression of a writer enjoying himself. And so, dear reader, should you.” – Sunday Times “A triumph of absurdity, which burlesques the literary canon from Shakespeare, Pope and Austen to Flann O’Brien … The Lammisters is very clever indeed.” – The Guardian

Sunday, July 1, 2007

The Embiggened O # 998: Bee, Where Is Thy Sting? Oh, There It Is …

We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. There we were, scrolling down through a very enjoyable John Connolly interview in the Sacramento Bee, when we stumbled upon this:
Q: Until recent years, Ireland hadn’t produced many crime novelists. Now there seems to be a surge, led by Declan Burke [right], Ken Bruen and Adrian McKinty. What’s changed to allow that?
A: Ireland’s (historic) genre fiction was fantasy. We were predominantly a rural society, while crime fiction is about urban life …
Erm, exqueeze us? There’s a surge now? And we’re leading it? Is it dangerous? Will there be pints of Pimms? And how come we’re always, always the last to know? Grumble, rhubarb, etc.

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