Ireland in the 5th Dimension: Review of Arthur Broomfield's An Ireland of Snakes and Bollards
In the grand tradition of experimental novels, Broomfield has outdone himself and rightfully belongs in the illustrious company of Pynchon, Celine, Genet, Beckett, Fosse, and Mabanckou. This novel is one big package of irreverent, outrageous, and funny storytelling. Broomfield has a flair for eccentric characters and absurdist situations. He blends surrealism, wit, and satire, pushing the boundaries of conventional narrative to their limits. Broomfield's writing style reminded this reader of the narratives by the playwright Enda Walsh. Broomfield constructs an "imagined Ireland somewhere in an elsewhere," a landscape that resembles the real country but is warped into a carnival sideshow of oddities - bog entrails, croquet clubs on the Aran Islands, buttered scones at dawn, and vaccines packed in beet-pulp sacks. These details create a world that is both ridiculous and strangely recognizable. At the center of this novel is a bizarre philosopher whose quest to discover ...