The Third Policeman tells the story of a young man who murders a wealthy farmer in order to get funding to print a book he has written on an obscure philosopher/scientist called DeSelby. Kickstarter wasn't around back then! It's surreal, hilarious, and unsettling, and you really should read it. Written by Flann O'Brien [aka Brian O'Nolan] in 1939, it sadly wasn't published until almost 3 decades later.
Brian O'Nolan pokes fun at wide range of targets including science, academia, bureaucrats, and of course, Irishness. While this might sound like it makes for difficulty reading, it's a short book, and you'll breeze through it. It's incredibly well written and one of the most bizarrely funny books I've ever read. If you'd like to read a section where O'Nolan pokes fun at atomic theory, you can find a small section of the book
here.
Opening line: Not everybody knows how I killed old Phillip Mathers, smashing his jaw in with a 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.
