Roundup of the latest and greatest Irish books

TOM DEIGNAN,

Irish America Magazine Columnist

Published Thursday, July 30, 2009, 3:16 PM

Updated Friday, August 7, 2009, 1:53 PM

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Cover of "A Saint on Death Row," featuring the subject of the book, Dominique Green

RECOMMENDED

"Byron in Love" by Edna O'Brien

Edna O’Brien is best known for her provocative novels which, over a span of nearly five decades, have broken daring ground all across the world, but particularly in Ireland, where she was banned before she was beloved.

But O’Brien’s latest book is not another novel. Instead, it is a second short biography of a radical artist. This, naturally, is a good fit for O’Brien.

A few years ago, O’Brien wrote a biography of James Joyce, a writer she has said she still reads every day. It is understandable why O’Brien would see Joyce as an interesting subject. Not only was Joyce the most influential writer of the 20th century, he was also censored in his homeland – just like O’Brien.

O’Brien’s latest venture into biography is a powerful exploration of the life and times of the Romantic British poet Lord Byron entitled “Byron in Love: A Short Daring Life.” This might not seem as natural a fit as Joyce for O’Brien. That is, until you look at the details of Byron’s life a little more closely.

Thomas Cahill, author of "A Saint on Death Row."

Seen by some as the world’s first literary rock star, “Byron in Love” focuses closely on his hedonistic side, particularly his seemingly endless appetite for sex. He grew up in London with an ill mother and absent father. He shot to literary fame at the age of 24. As O’Brien makes clear, Byron had, to say the least, a lust for life. He continued writing, but also participated in wars of revolution in Greece and Italy. He was also a notorious lover (and not only of women). Given all of this, it’s easy to forget Byron was also one of the great poets of the 18th century Romantic movement that produced the likes of Shelley, Keats, Blake and Wordsworth.

Readers of “Byron in Love” will come away understanding that Byron was a figure who captured his era’s political, sexual and artistic currents. In a way, he sounds like a character out of an O’Brien novel.

Of course, like many a rock star, part of Byron’s long-lasting appeal rests in the fact that he died young. He died when he was just 36, after becoming ill while fighting in Greece.

O’Brien has clearly found a kindred spirit in Lord Byron. “Byron in Love” shows that O’Brien is not only a great novelist, but also a brilliant interpreter of literary life.

$24.95 / 240 pages / W.W. Norton