The Celtic Connection book review

BOOKKEEPING by Mary McWay Seaman
BUTTERFLY by Clare Austin, (The Wild Rose Press, Adams Basin, NY, 2009, 256 pages, paperback, $12.99)

It’s been almost 165 years since the Great Famine began fueling the Irish Diaspora and its legendary literature, but Clare Austin’s new novel, BUTTERFLY, mirrors many of those historic refugee sagas even though it is set in twenty-first-century Boston.  The Sloane siblings, Tynan, Kerry and Flannery, left Dublin after the deaths of their parents.  They are traditional Irish musicians performing in a saloon by night and working other jobs by day.  Flannery is the fiddler, and her day job is busking on city streets.  She was not “aware of the moment, the magical instant, when human and violin became one being.  She simply accepted . . . the morphing of nature that allowed for the extension of her hands, arms, and body to include bits of spruce, maple, poplar, and pear wood.”  At age 23, Flannery eludes many responsibilities and refuses the shackles of schedules – behavior that sets up tension with her employer, siblings and sweetheart.

Flannery and her man are opposites in background, education, personality, culture, and financial circumstances.  She has no interest in acquiring stuff, but her guy has lots of stuff and likes it. That said, the freewheeling fiddler and the methodical, disciplined Hunter Kincade share several similarities:  artistic careers, mother issues, deceased fathers, and significant differences with siblings.  They are both devoted to their work, but aside from that singular discipline, one’s routine is as chaotic as the other’s is regimental. Their opposing characteristics are magnets that drive their likenesses to interlock even more fiercely.  The relationship accelerates to the speed of Flannery’s signature fiddle tune as the pair proceeds through misunderstandings, rifts, crises, and a climactic near-miss – much of it propelled by career demands and interfering relatives. The tension and fun in this spirited romance dwell in a chase supported by solid character development, multiple intrigues, and touches of mystery.

Thirty-year-old Hunter Kincade may be a trust-funder, but he is also a serious businessman:  “Time was precious and he was never late.”  He is a builder with a house on Nantucket Island who “thrived on precision, each fine line in its place.  Every tile, beam, and baseboard in his house was perfect.  His wiring was up to code.  Nothing was left to chance.  He could not tolerate slapdash.”  Kincade is an investor in a recording studio that is sizing up the Sloane trio, called Fadó.  At a Red Sox game, Flannery sizes up another form of entertainment:  “. . . baseball made absolutely no sense.  Long pauses were interspersed with flashes of action following a small white ball as it sped across the field at ninety-five miles an hour.  Men ran or walked, as the rules dictated, while all the American fans cheered or sneered, depending on who was “up.”

Kincade and Flannery take pains to regard their situation as just “a casual and transient affair” as they literally fall all over each other with declarations of non-commitment. Flannery’s run-in with Kincade’s mother is a stunner.  The bullying Beacon Hill socialite lashes out at the fiddler’s “poorly educated speech and outrageous clothes,” asking, “my God, Hunter, are blind?  Are you doing this to spite me?”

A vivid scene relating the Sloane trio’s mechanics for well-ordered performances is especially well done:  “The first set was always a raucous one.”  Drinking songs and jokes were reeled out to lift spirits.  Later the music would morph into lyricism and sentimentality with short tales or poetry.  When interpreting Irish traditional music for a music producer who fails to feel the love (her main concern is paperwork), Flannery lets loose:  “We’re not the bloody Celtic Woman here, and if you’re looking for Plastic Paddy, you got the wrong musicians.”  The Sloanes don’t do sheet music:  “We play from our hearts, our memories, and centuries of tradition.”

A job opportunity arrives from Ireland, and a turning point approaches at the same time numerous family secrets on all sides come to the fore.  The narrative shifts into high gear with blistering scenes of dissention, turmoil, and surprises all around. Since BUTTERFLY is the first volume of Austin’s trilogy, we must wait to see what’s next.  It’s America, it’s Ireland - anything can happen!