In this darkly mischievous first novel by Irish comedian Ardal O'Hanlon, youthful rage and rebellion are up front, but far off-center-a Catcher in the Rye for the modern set. Patrick Scully, the nineteen-year-old narrator of this brilliantly observed tale of frustrations and dreams, is stuck in a dead-end job in Dublin while his friends pursue useless degrees at the university. Needing a break from Dublin and from his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Francesca Kelly, he escapes for a weekend to his hometown where he hooks up with his childhood chum, Xavier "Balls" O'Reilly. The two of them embark on a two-day spree of drinking and depravity that comes to a sobering end when Scully returns to Francesca's empty apartment. There he finds that she, as we learn in chapters from her diary, is more interested in Balls than she would want anyone-especially Scully-to know. Laced with hilarious small-town wit, this gripping first novel builds to a shocking climax as Scully's insight into the duplicity of his so-called friends becomes more than he can bear. Disturbingly funny, Knick Knack Paddy Whack places Ardal O'Hanlon among the best of the new breed of Irish writers.