Ah, the sheer pleasure of reading humanity’s tragedy and joy in the perfect words of Sebastian Barry. His novel DAYS WITHOUT END (Faber and Faber 2016) is a glittering gem: a gritty and visceral war story, a tender and wise love story. The novel explores physical and emotional conflict, parenting, sacrifice, loyalty, courage, prejudice, survival, racism and genocide, set in the mid 1850’s of an America divided first by the ongoing intrusion of colonisers decimating the indigenous population, and then by Civil War.
Thomas McNulty, a 17-year-old Irish immigrant, has seen his share of trauma in his home country and even more on the ocean bound journey west. But he and his close companion John Cole, not much older, hard scrabble to make ends meet as they do every kind of work imaginable, including dressing as girls and dancing with lonely miners in isolated towns starved of women. Ever innovative, ever ready to take a chance, the two sign up for the US army, first to fight the Indians and then to take on the southern rebels in the Civil War. They are kids trying to survive any way they can.
Childhood and adolescence are difficult for them both and they witness many terrible and unseeable atrocities. As young men, they meet an Indian girl who captures both their hearts, and they raise her as their own daughter. Their days are intermittently filled with wonder and joy, and the prospect of happiness. But America is constantly in a state of conflict and both men do their duty. Even after the fighting, working the land is hard going, and they suffer prejudice and judgment for their relationship, their lifestyle choices, the family they choose and the life they want.
Set in the mid-west and the south, this incredible story of two men’s shared lives is rich, poignant, challenging, warm and heartbreaking. They are resilient and tender, they are good men who’ve been dealt a bad hand but are doing their best not only for themselves but for others. The question of the novel is whether the consequences of their decisions will bring harm to their door, or whether they will finally find comfort and peace.
Atmospheric, evocative and lush, DAYS WITHOUT END is a masterpiece of literary writing. Every sentence sings. The plot is unpredictable and terrifying. We hold the lives of these boys in our hearts, dreading what might go wrong, hoping for safety and compassion and love.
There is so much wrongdoing in this book, against so many groups, including the indigenous Indians, the black slaves, and men who feel more like women but don’t have the language or societal support to articulate their feelings. Both Thomas and John are complicit in some of this terror, because they are forced to make difficult choices. They work and fight alongside hard men who are every bit the cliched Western cowboys of the period. There is torture, murder, blood and agony, death and destruction. But amidst all that, there is hope, and love, and friendship, and tenderness and compassion and small, slim days of belonging. Narrated by Thomas as an older man, this recount of his younger life is extraordinarily well crafted, endearing, captivating and thought-provoking. His voice is unique, his tale unforgettable. What a remarkable achievement from this talented and much awarded author.