Puckoon (Spike Milligan)

Spike Milligan
Puckoon

Having read The Third Policeman and reading a review that compared Puckoon to that strange tale I decide to reread the first time being decades ago. Puckoon is a series of weird passages threaded somewhat into the same story of an Irish village being divided by the Ulster / Free Republic border line. Although readable and at times funny there's too much gratuitous racism which may have been "acceptable" (i.e. published and reviewed in mainstream press) when written (early 1960s) but I don't think would get past the Penguin editorial board now and quite rightly. Milligan may have thought that he was treating everyone equally as he was half Irish but that is beside the point. Misogynist too despite much of the humour being aimed at males. I read this in the middle of Thérèse Raquin as light relief although at times I was more depressed by Milligan's language than Zola's.