another grade-a firsty

Not everybody knows how I killed old Phillip Mathers, smashing his jaw in with my spade; but first it is better to speak of my friendship with John Divney because it was he who first knocked old Mathers down by giving him a great blow in the neck with a special bicycle-pump which he manufactured himself out of a hollow iron bar.

from the third policeman by flann o’brien (written in 1940 but published posthumously in 1967).

a word of warning: when reading the denis donoghue edition, SKIP donoghue’s introduction, he assumes that you have already read the book 100 times and therefore spoils the novel by nonchalantly revealing its choicest parts (ie. that the main character is ACTUALLY keyser söze).