Independent Spirit: Essays

Collects essays by the Irish writer on such diverse topics as abortion, the liberation of Austrian Jews, Irish literature, and Yugoslavia

Posthumous but prescient historical, autobiographical, and literary essays from an Irish writer only now receiving his due. Uncategorizeable Butler (190191) was a passionate Irish nationalist but also a steadfast Anglo-Irish Protestant, a cosmopolitan who lived in Soviet Russia, pre-Anschluss Austria, and Yugoslavia and wrote with rare insight about these lands yet maintained that everything he wrote was ultimately about Ireland, a vigorous essayist, and a scholar with diverse interests in local history, provincial archaeology, literature, and politics. Butler's penetrating, determinedly nonideological essays on European politics and the complex relationship of Ireland and England earned him a reputation as a writer with an Orwellian political conscience and a Swiftian sense of indignation. But he also had a rare gift for communicating his enthusiasm for Irish history. In reminiscences and essays on his native Kilkenny County, he writes with vigor about the Protestant ``descendancy'' in Ireland following the Easter rebellion and the Irish civil war. Butler never excused his fellow Anglo-Irish for choosing exile in England or insular nostalgia rather than an active involvement in Irish affairs. Butler was deeply involved in Irish affairs, but his most difficult moments were caused by his exposure of the Zagreb Catholic archbishop Stepinac's complicity during WW II with the Croatian war criminal Pavelitch and his regime's bloody attempt to compel Greek Orthodox villagers to convert to the Roman Catholic faith. Butler's efforts to document his charges against a popular church figure, in a fervently Roman Catholic nation, caused a scandal that forced him into private life. Displaying lucidity, incisiveness, and uncompromising ethical sense, these essays demonstrate that Butler, whether he was writing about his own life, recent events, local history, or modern Irish writers, was above all, as Joseph Brodsky described him, a ``dishonesty hunter,'' determined to locate the truth and speak it, without fear or favor. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Although educated at Oxford, widely traveled, and possessing a great facility for languages, Butler chose to live life in the rather sequestered realm of his family's ancestral home in Kilkenny, Ireland, where his Anglo-Protestant heritage most likely set him apart from his compatriots. Still, Butler's keen intellect found expression in numerous essays--remarkable in scope--written for local magazines. Butler appears to be as comfortable writing on Yugoslavian culture and history as on literary topics or matters much more personal, such as a severely retarded granddaughter. His intensely honest voice is perhaps best illustrated in a 1956 essay declaring the Catholic Church's role in forcing Orthodox Serbs living in Croatia to convert. Although Butler experienced repercussions, it never caused him to waver from just causes. Whether writing about the Irish countryside or observing Russia and China, Butler offers literate readers much more than can be readily summarized. Alice Joyce

Perhaps because of his "hiberno-centeredness," Butler (1900-90) is not as well known outside Ireland as he deserves. These insightful essays, originally appearing in Irish publications from 1930 to 1988, cover such topics as literature, life in rural Ireland, and the politics of Russia and Yugoslavia. The common thread, the Anglo-Irish author maintains, is that even when he is writing about the continent, his subject is really the Ireland in which he lived throughout his life. Thus, the Irish countryside becomes a microcosm for the world at large, and parallels are noted?for example, Croatia is called the "Ulster of Yugoslavia." As a teacher of English in eastern Europe in the prewar days, Butler was an eyewitness to events that continue to shape history. Of particular interest are such essays as "Peter's Window," an account of life in Leningrad during the 1930s. His descriptions of everyday life are sometimes reminiscent of J.M. Synge. The volume is well footnoted with explanations of unfamiliar terms and includes cross references to related essays. Highly recommended for academic and larger public libraries.?Denise J. Stankovics, Rockville P.L., Vernon, Ct.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.