This comment was tricky to write. Usually my book blogs come
pouring out, since I only write about books that I enjoyed. I did enjoy Days
Without End, but this is a complicated one for me. I bought this book because I
think that Irish author Sebastian Barry is one of the finest living wordsmiths
in the English language. Please see my post On Canaan's Side. But, I had two hesitations.
The book is written in "cowboy dialect", for lack
of a better word. I have difficulty reading novels in any sort of dialect. Second,
much of the book is set during the American-Indian Wars and the Civil War, and
neither is my cuppa java. But, Barry did not disappoint. The dialect prose was
often wonderful, without being over-written. I was struck that Barry's use of
this language also gives the reader great insight into the mind of the mid-19th
century immigrant, regarding nature, friendship, and the manner in which people
related to one another. This aspect was often quite striking. The voice of the
novel is in the first person of immigrant Thomas McNulty.
The novel opens as Thomas, a young, starving, illiterate Irish orphan,
and a new friend, John Cole, find refuge in a minstrel show in a mining town.
The hook is that Thomas is dressed as a girl, a theme that recurs throughout
the book. Thomas and John Cole become lovers and life long friends. This is
slowly revealed in the story, concealed there as they concealed it in their
lives. Their time in the army, another way to avoid starving, occurs first in
the far west. The military's treatment of native Americans is frankly
described, without being gratuitously violent. This was a hard life, often
cold, still hungry, and frequently not quite sure about what they were ordered
to do.
The Civil War brings them back into the Army, and again, a brutal life. The plot loops back to their Indian days, in a terrible, but
believable twist. The aftermath of this brings Thomas to an unfair judgement.
The resolution of this incident left me with a deep exhale. Barry is not just a
great wordsmith, he spins deeply human stories.
