I was epecting something a little more politically polemic or bleak, but this account is hysterically funny and inspired. Behan's writing is always vital, his grasp of dialogue perfect, but this novel enjoys a pacing brilliance I dared not hope from a playwright. Most dramatists have trouble with narrative prose because the rhythms are different, but not so with this account of his jail time as an adolescent in England.

I'm an avid reader and can't believe I overlooked this book for so long. Perhaps I dismissed Behan as a professional Irishman, known more for his carousing than for his writing. What a mistake! This memoir is profound, profane, funny and, ultimately, humane. Read this book now; you're in for a treat.

Borstal Boy makes me laugh out loud and also reminds me of my time in the British Royal Navy. One of the young Brendan Behan's fellow prisoners in the English young peoples' prison is a sailor named Charlie. The book shows some of the horrors of prison life but also a lot of the camaraderie that goes on whenever boys get together. Brendan Behan is very humorous, especially when writing about his court appearances, and when he's singing in prison. His descriptive language is brilliant, this from the first page, "A young one, with a blonde, Herrenvolk head and a B.B.C. accent shouted, 'I say, greb him, the bestud.' I have read this book at least four times, and will continue to be entertained by the wit and skill of the author. GREAT READ!!!

After The Wake is absolutely one of my favorite books; the stories are by turns poignant, hilarious, sad and knowing. This truly is Behan at his best, writing with the rhythmic language of the working class and with insight into human character few authors can equal. In addition, Behan's knack for setting a scene or introducting a character in very few words is in full flourish; I truly felt as if I KNEW the characters (their facial expressions, histories, bad luck - all of it) in a few short sentences. In short, After The Wake is excellent on all counts and is recommended not only as a stellar work of fiction, but also as a perfect introduction to the work of Brendan Behan.

Behan's collection of shorts, including the title story, evokes the richness of Irish language and humour that made Wilde, Shaw, and Behan such legends, without resorting to the didacticism of Swift and Beckett. By turns heartbreaking, hilarious, and downright scandalous, Behan's vigniettes never fail to give what Joyce's Dubliners only suggested: the warm-blooded humanity of Ireland, including its heartbreak and petty follies.

Brendan Behan: A Life chronicles a talented writer's near-legendary life and illustrates why Behan became one of Ireland's most celebrated artists. Compiled from a wide variety of sources which included prison documents, interviews with family and friends, editors and contemporaries, biographer Michael O'Sullivan was able to present a lucid and vivid introduction to the complex personal world of a genuine literary genius. Brendan Behan: A Life is a "must" for those who appreciate the contributions, influence and work of this unusual and gifted literary figure of modern Irish literature.

Boyle's book is an important work for understanding Brendan Behan . I'm studying Irish lit, Yeats , Wilde and Behan. Boyle quotes Wilde in this book. Wilde and Behan both died young and both were imprisoned Behan for IRA activities, Wilde for sex . Its interesting how each handled it and what resulted from it. Boyle does not include analyses of Confessions of an Irish rebel.

This book is a real gem! Part crime novel, part picaresque, part slapstick, "The Scarperer" is a great introduction to Brendan Behan. All of his major themes and running jokes are distilled here into one very funny, very readable package. This is a wicked and wildly comic book whose humor and brisk pace mask serious moral and political themes. This is a great book. If you like Frank or Malachai McCourt, this book is for you. I cannot reccomend it more highly!

This little volume includes Behan's Irish-language writings: the poems and the original Irish-language version of The Hostage. Declan Kiberd tells about the background of Behan's Irish-language work in an introductory essay in English, parts of which later found their way into Kiberd's great analysis of modern Irish literature, Inventing Ireland.

The Irish text has NOT been annotated or explained in any way. This might disappoint the learner who - seeing the English-only cover - buys the book expecting an annotated "easy-reader". One poem is in two languages, though.

Behan's poems are not always excellent Irish; many are, though; and in the play, he shows amazing mastery of many nuances dificult for a learner.

Brendan Behan was no literary giant, but he deserves better than this -- poorly and pompously written, indifferently edited, riddled with factual errors (outrageous, considering the research), and lacking in perception and depth. In addition, the author's obsession with Behan's supposed homosexuality is wearisome. Behan isn't important enough to be on the receiving end of a top-flight definitive biography, but it's too damned bad that this is as close as he'll come.

The particular achievement of this fine book, is to extractBrendan Behan from the mire of mythology in which he has been sofirmly placed since his death in 1964 at the age of 41. No easy task for any author given Behan's own willful contribution to the process. It deals fairly and honestly with Behan's homosexual leanings and does so in a non judgemental way using the evidence available rather than mere speculation. It is perceptive and the writing is as, Jack Helbig describes it in Booklist, 'graceful and forceful'. Behan was long over due such a biography.

Peter Arthurs was a proverbial hanger-on to the point he must be considered an ungrateful parasite. The book is a libel against
Brendan Behan who was the source of many funds for this unemployed and uneducated merchant seaman. Behan, no doubt, had his problems but Arthurs capitalized on them.Without Behan, there
would be no author Peter Arthurs.