Grattan Fletcher and Suck Ryle, a mismatched pair of Irish government officials, set off on a high-minded but quite undefined crusade. Grattan has been seized by a sudden craving to be needed, a desire to do what he can for the country and is considering running for president. Ryle, his fixer, is of unclear provenance, practical rather than idealistic, with unofficial access to the OPW van they commandeer to travel the country. The story is rich in incident, opulently so, with fistfuls of crude language and overwrought situations – a melange of Don Quixote, Flann O’Brien and Baron Munchausen. Tommy Nail, the self-confessed unreliable narrator, is joined in the general melee by a foreword writer and editors who chime in regularly, so the reader must cling to the story as it capers along. O’Neill creates an irreverent, absurdist and highly sympathetic story of people trying to balance getting through life with getting the better of others; quintessentially Irish and a spectacular riot of a read.
