Bikes in Literature: the Henry Smart Trilogy

"Three years on a stolen bike. Through wind, rain and bullets. Henry Smart struck strange, hard blows for Ireland and disappeared."

It began like that, in A Star Called Henry. It disappeared in Oh, Play That Thing, but then came back in The Dead Republic:

"... She was older than me, I told him.

She cook?

We had a bike, I said.

You ate a fucking bicycle?

No, I said. Listen.

But he obeyed a different voice.

We're ready, Coach.

I didn't see who spoke but Ford stood up.

We'll talk, he said. Stick around a while. Write bicycle, Meta. And give Henry the story..."

Though prominently displayed on one cover, the bicycle plays an insignificant role, it does not tie the three books together, I don't see it used as a metaphor throughout the trilogy, but it is there taking its historical place in these works of fiction. 

If there is a portion of the library that is larger than the cycling section, it would have to be the Irish section. Doyle has been a favored author of mine for a number of years now, in fact probably going back to when ever The Commitments came out as a movie, I just didn't know it back then, because i didn't realize he was the author. That's okay, in fact it's grand, it has meant I could pack eight of his books into the past few years.

One thing to come out of this pandemic has been a little extra reading time, allowing me to finally finish the trilogy. You could read the final book in the story of Henry Smart, The Dead Republic, without reading the others, but you would miss an awful lot of background. The way it weaves the story of the making of John Ford's The Quiet Man into the life of Henry, and all the way up to the final twist decades later is, to quote the author (not to mention, John Ford as well), "fuckin'" brilliant.