The Prophetic Voice: Jean Sulivan’s Ongoing Relevance in France and Ireland Author: Eamon MaherISBN-13: 978-1803748573Publisher: Peter LangGuideline Price: £40; 256pp. There is a long line of French Marxists and Existentialists who have written novels about the human condition. There is an equally long line of writers who have tried to describe what it is to be a good Christian and Catholic. Jean Sulivan was one of the latter. He was a priest who became a successful writer. He wrote novels about outsiders, thieves, crooks, prostitutes – as well as priests like himself – and the struggle to live a good life. Eamon Maher has been a passionate advocate of the writings of John McGahern, who shone an important light on the interests, desires and motivations of Irish people in their struggle to live a good life. Now he turns to Jean Sulivan, his other literary prophet about whom he has already written extensive articles and essays. To help us understand and appreciate Sulivan, Maher provides a synopsis of his novels and memoir and then compares and contrasts him with other Catholic writers, principally François Muriac and Georges Bernanos. Maher’s comparative approach is informative and insightful and the writing is crisp, clear and engaging. We get a real sense of Sulivan without any opaque prose or theory. In the final part of the book, Maher crosses over to Ireland and looks at the similarities between the concerns of Sulivan and those of Canon Sheehan (a eulogist for the Catholic Church), William King (whose novels provide a searingly honest portrayal of the contemporary lives of priests), Colum McCann (who has written about the power of forgiveness), John McGahern (who provided unforgiving but compassionate insights into the legacies of Catholic colonisation) and, finally, Tony Flannery (who, unlike Sulivan, was ruthlessly silenced and ostracised by the Irish hierarchy).Sulivan comes across as a quiet, humble, albeit deeply intellectual writer who lived the last years of his life anonymously in Paris. He was a rebel and dressed like one. He was proud to be a Catholic priest who cared for the marginalised and oppressed. One wonders what might have been if there had been more writers like him in Ireland, but in a world in which nothing was allowed to offend, that was never likely to happen.Tom Inglis’s latest book is Unbecoming Catholic