What do you think?
Rate this book
Days Without End #1
Days Without End
After signing up for the US army in the 1850s, barely seventeen, Thomas McNulty and his brother-in-arms, John Cole, fight in the Indian Wars and the Civil War. Having both fled terrible hardships, their days are now vivid and filled with wonder, despite the horrors they both see and are complicit in. But when a young Indian girl crosses their path, Thomas and John must decide on the best way of life for them all in the face of dangerous odds.
301 pages, Paperback
First published October 20, 2016
About the author
Sebastian Barry
51 books1,952 followersSebastian Barry is an Irish playwright, novelist and poet. He is noted for his dense literary writing style and is considered one of Ireland's finest writers
Barry's literary career began in poetry before he began writing plays and novels. In recent years his fiction writing has surpassed his work in the theatre in terms of success, having once been considered a playwright who wrote occasional novels.
He has twice been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for his novels A Long Long Way (2005) and The Secret Scripture (2008), the latter of which won the 2008 Costa Book of the Year and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. His 2011 novel On Canaan's Side was long-listed for the Booker. He won the Costa Book of the Year again - in 2017 for Days Without End.
Barry's literary career began in poetry before he began writing plays and novels. In recent years his fiction writing has surpassed his work in the theatre in terms of success, having once been considered a playwright who wrote occasional novels.
He has twice been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for his novels A Long Long Way (2005) and The Secret Scripture (2008), the latter of which won the 2008 Costa Book of the Year and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. His 2011 novel On Canaan's Side was long-listed for the Booker. He won the Costa Book of the Year again - in 2017 for Days Without End.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,508 reviews
November 16, 2017
Sebastian Barry is not a writer. He is an alchemist who turns what is base and depressing and disastrous into gold that sparkles with exuberance, a sense of adventure, and hope. And a vein of optimistic and wide-eyed wonder runs through the gold like silver.
This novel tells the story of two young orphaned boys who happen to take shelter beneath the same shrub in a rainstorm and become fast friends. They experience hardship together where hunger and lack of decent clothing and no shelter is hard to bear, but they do survive and find ways to ensure their basic needs are taken care of. They follow what small opportunities knock - right into the army out west. They grow in love with each other and they adopt as their own a little orphaned Sioux girl to love and take care of.
There is far more in this story to discover as their adventures also include a ferocious stint in the Union army during the Civil War – until they are captured.
The time frame of this story has to have been one of the most brutal in the history of the United States. Persecution of different races was everywhere; immigrants of all kinds were at risk no matter where they found themselves. There was always someone meaner, more filled with hatred, and/or more desperate who was willing to put their own life on the line to take the life and possessions of another.
For the narrator Thomas McNulty and his partner John Cole, this was their way of life and they learned to take care of themselves – and each other – because that was part of their way of life as well. This was also a time when some people started questioning this life and lifestyle, and Thomas and John were two of those people. They didn’t put themselves in jeopardy if they could help it, but they also did what they could - whenever they could - to right the wrongs they encountered.
The writing. Oh my, the magic of it. There may have been five sentences in the entire book that weren’t quote-worthy. If so, I didn’t find them.
Then the rain began to fall in an extravagant tantrum. High up in mountain country though we were, every little river became a huge muscled snake, and the water wanted to find out everything, the meaning of our sad roofs for instance, the meaning of our bunk beds beginning to take on the character of little barks, the sure calculation that if it fell day and night no human man was going to get his uniform dry. We was wet to the ribs.
This story, the way it was presented, and the way it flows on the page are an ultimate gift. Despite the discomfort I felt reading of the brutality of the time, this is one of the best novels I have read this year. It is also the best writing I have ever encountered. This book is going straight onto my all-time Favorites bookshelf and I would give it 10 Stars if it were possible.
This novel tells the story of two young orphaned boys who happen to take shelter beneath the same shrub in a rainstorm and become fast friends. They experience hardship together where hunger and lack of decent clothing and no shelter is hard to bear, but they do survive and find ways to ensure their basic needs are taken care of. They follow what small opportunities knock - right into the army out west. They grow in love with each other and they adopt as their own a little orphaned Sioux girl to love and take care of.
There is far more in this story to discover as their adventures also include a ferocious stint in the Union army during the Civil War – until they are captured.
The time frame of this story has to have been one of the most brutal in the history of the United States. Persecution of different races was everywhere; immigrants of all kinds were at risk no matter where they found themselves. There was always someone meaner, more filled with hatred, and/or more desperate who was willing to put their own life on the line to take the life and possessions of another.
For the narrator Thomas McNulty and his partner John Cole, this was their way of life and they learned to take care of themselves – and each other – because that was part of their way of life as well. This was also a time when some people started questioning this life and lifestyle, and Thomas and John were two of those people. They didn’t put themselves in jeopardy if they could help it, but they also did what they could - whenever they could - to right the wrongs they encountered.
The writing. Oh my, the magic of it. There may have been five sentences in the entire book that weren’t quote-worthy. If so, I didn’t find them.
Then the rain began to fall in an extravagant tantrum. High up in mountain country though we were, every little river became a huge muscled snake, and the water wanted to find out everything, the meaning of our sad roofs for instance, the meaning of our bunk beds beginning to take on the character of little barks, the sure calculation that if it fell day and night no human man was going to get his uniform dry. We was wet to the ribs.
This story, the way it was presented, and the way it flows on the page are an ultimate gift. Despite the discomfort I felt reading of the brutality of the time, this is one of the best novels I have read this year. It is also the best writing I have ever encountered. This book is going straight onto my all-time Favorites bookshelf and I would give it 10 Stars if it were possible.
November 6, 2017
Wow.....I admit to staying away from this book — and then I read Jaline’s review.
I don’t think I really knew what to expect...but whatever it was - it wasn’t this!
Jaline’s review was a clear punch in the stomach - I felt an urgency to read it. I finished it seconds ago. Since there are already many wonderful reviews on Goodreads ....
I’m only going to add a few things:
I’m glad I read it.
The Indian Wars and Civil Wars were horrific — brutal!.....with no real heroes or villains. Too many lives were lost for anyone to feel good.
But two young men looked back on their youth —
Sebastian Barry deserves all the attention he is getting for this book. His writing is brilliant, beautiful, educational, humorous, gut-wrenching, intimate, gripping, poetic, and raw,
This is also a deeply felt love story between two men — it would be hard-nose for anyone not to fall in love with both of them and their love for their daughter.
There are a zillion quotes worthy to read and re-read.....
But I’ll post one that resonates so profoundly with me ...it hurts just knowing War continues in our world.
“Killing hurts the heart, and soils the soul”.
I don’t think I really knew what to expect...but whatever it was - it wasn’t this!
Jaline’s review was a clear punch in the stomach - I felt an urgency to read it. I finished it seconds ago. Since there are already many wonderful reviews on Goodreads ....
I’m only going to add a few things:
I’m glad I read it.
The Indian Wars and Civil Wars were horrific — brutal!.....with no real heroes or villains. Too many lives were lost for anyone to feel good.
But two young men looked back on their youth —
Sebastian Barry deserves all the attention he is getting for this book. His writing is brilliant, beautiful, educational, humorous, gut-wrenching, intimate, gripping, poetic, and raw,
This is also a deeply felt love story between two men — it would be hard-nose for anyone not to fall in love with both of them and their love for their daughter.
There are a zillion quotes worthy to read and re-read.....
But I’ll post one that resonates so profoundly with me ...it hurts just knowing War continues in our world.
“Killing hurts the heart, and soils the soul”.
October 24, 2019
A wonderfully poetic book, about a violent period in America's history. I would compare it to McCarthy's Blood Meridian although different in style. But both bloody stories, told in the poetic voice of two different authors. A contradiction of poetry and bloody war which in a weird way works, delivering a heartfelt book.
Not an easy read for me, but beautifully written... Focus was essential for me to really appreciate the story. Because of study and work, I wasn't able to do so at first, and oh, the book I had was so tiny and the pages crammed with text. But once past this barrier, the story came alive and the reading needs to be slow to really appreciate this story. Four poetic stars....
Not an easy read for me, but beautifully written... Focus was essential for me to really appreciate the story. Because of study and work, I wasn't able to do so at first, and oh, the book I had was so tiny and the pages crammed with text. But once past this barrier, the story came alive and the reading needs to be slow to really appreciate this story. Four poetic stars....
March 22, 2017
My friend Wyndy recommended this book to me, and in her own review said that she didn't write well enough to do justice to this book. The truth is that no one does. It contains worlds, but at it's heart is the story of 3 people coming together to make a family. It is told through the eyes and in the words of Thomas McNulty, and his language carries you away like a river. I give you some of his words:
"We were two wood-shavings of humanity in a rough world."
" Man, we was so clean and nice, I wished I could have met myself. "
"A man's memory might have only a hundred clear days in it and he has lived thousands. Can't do much about that. We have our store of days and we spend them like forgetful drunkards. I ain't got no argument with it, just saying it is so."
" There's old sorrow in your blood like second nature and new sorrow that maddens the halls of sense. Causes an uproar there. "
"Killing hurts the heart and soils the soul."
"In my exaltation I forget I ain't got a bean of money but it don't concern me and I know I can rely on the kindness of folk along the way. The ones that don't try to rob me will feed me. That's how it is in America. I never felt such joy of heart as in those days traipsing southward. "
I could give you many more because honestly, every sentence in this novel sparkles with beauty at the same time it grabs you by the throat. An unbelievable tale of the building of America, and how, in the end, love really is the only thing that matters.
"We were two wood-shavings of humanity in a rough world."
" Man, we was so clean and nice, I wished I could have met myself. "
"A man's memory might have only a hundred clear days in it and he has lived thousands. Can't do much about that. We have our store of days and we spend them like forgetful drunkards. I ain't got no argument with it, just saying it is so."
" There's old sorrow in your blood like second nature and new sorrow that maddens the halls of sense. Causes an uproar there. "
"Killing hurts the heart and soils the soul."
"In my exaltation I forget I ain't got a bean of money but it don't concern me and I know I can rely on the kindness of folk along the way. The ones that don't try to rob me will feed me. That's how it is in America. I never felt such joy of heart as in those days traipsing southward. "
I could give you many more because honestly, every sentence in this novel sparkles with beauty at the same time it grabs you by the throat. An unbelievable tale of the building of America, and how, in the end, love really is the only thing that matters.
September 28, 2017
Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.
A heartrending, vivid retelling of the Indian Wars, recounted by a protagonist with a distinct and memorable narrative voice. Days Without End being absent from the 2017 Man Booker shortlist is a travesty.
A heartrending, vivid retelling of the Indian Wars, recounted by a protagonist with a distinct and memorable narrative voice. Days Without End being absent from the 2017 Man Booker shortlist is a travesty.
July 30, 2021
Revised review on 7/30/21
If it weren’t for the glowing reviews of some trusted Goodreads friends I may have skipped this, and I’m so glad I didn’t because this book works so well on so many levels. First and foremost it was the writing with language that soars in its simplicity. Secondly, Barry gives us big slice of American history in such a small volume, which is powerful and painful to read at times. This is not for the faint of heart as there are some vivid descriptions of brutality but if you can get past these there is amidst the violence and brutality, beauty in the love and a sense of family found here .
I’ve read other books by Sebastian Barry but this one was different not focusing on Irish family plights, although our narrator Thomas McNulty has fled the famine in Ireland . It’s impossible to not get connected to Thomas and John Cole , orphaned boys who find each hiding under a bush and find in each other a friend, a partner in survival, a partner in life, in horrendous deeds, in war and their love for a young Sioux girl who becomes their daughter.
I’m not going to rehash the plot here. There are many reviews which will give more detail. I’m not sure I can say anything more than I have, other than highly recommended. I will though, link to two stellar reviews that convinced me to read this.
Jaline’s review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Hugh’s review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
If it weren’t for the glowing reviews of some trusted Goodreads friends I may have skipped this, and I’m so glad I didn’t because this book works so well on so many levels. First and foremost it was the writing with language that soars in its simplicity. Secondly, Barry gives us big slice of American history in such a small volume, which is powerful and painful to read at times. This is not for the faint of heart as there are some vivid descriptions of brutality but if you can get past these there is amidst the violence and brutality, beauty in the love and a sense of family found here .
I’ve read other books by Sebastian Barry but this one was different not focusing on Irish family plights, although our narrator Thomas McNulty has fled the famine in Ireland . It’s impossible to not get connected to Thomas and John Cole , orphaned boys who find each hiding under a bush and find in each other a friend, a partner in survival, a partner in life, in horrendous deeds, in war and their love for a young Sioux girl who becomes their daughter.
I’m not going to rehash the plot here. There are many reviews which will give more detail. I’m not sure I can say anything more than I have, other than highly recommended. I will though, link to two stellar reviews that convinced me to read this.
Jaline’s review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Hugh’s review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
April 13, 2018
You know what's tragic? When you find a book that seems tailor made for you, and then you end up not clicking with it at all. If we're going down a checklist, Days Without End is everything I should love: contemporary Irish lit, LGBT protagonist(s), a blend of literary and historical fiction, depressing, lyrical prose; hell, my copy even has a quote from Kazuo Ishiguro (one of my all-time favorite writers) on the cover.
No one is more surprised than I am that I hated it so much.
First, I want to make this clear - Days Without End is not a bad book. I don't think the Man Booker panel or the myriad of reviewers who gave this 5 stars are crazy at all. My one-star rating is very much on me.
My main problem with this book is that I found the narrative voice almost impossible to follow. The fusion of dialect and lyricism didn't add up for me - the protagonist, Thomas McNulty, is an uneducated young man, which is reflected in the improper grammar used by Sebastian Barry in his first-person narration... but then you'd also have sentences like "Empurpled rapturous hills I guess and the long day brushstroke by brushstroke enfeebling into darkness and then the fires blooming on the pitch plains." If you're committing to capturing an authentic voice to such an extent that you're writing your entire book in dialect, how is this level of poetic imagery consistent with that? I thought the internal logic of Thomas's narration was filled to the brim with contradictions, and it pulled me out of the story again and again. I also couldn't reconcile the fact that this character was raised in Ireland, and he was talking like he was straight out of a John Wayne western. My brain just had the hardest time following this prose. I'd only be able to read 5 or 10 pages at a time before I started to zone out (which is why I'd been reading this since November).
This kind of goes hand in hand, but as for the story itself, I was bored out of my mind. There was little to no emotional depth here - this was a very monotonous account of the Indian Wars and the Civil War. Brutality is relayed with dispassionate narration (I realize this is The Point, but it did not work for me); characters had indistinct personalities; I still don't feel like I know the first thing about Thomas or the great love of his life, John Cole. This is one of those books where I could have read the first and last chapter and skipped everything in between, and I would have had the exact same experience with it. Well, I actually would have had a better experience with it, if I'd only had to read Barry's lifeless prose for 20 pages rather than 250. But as for the plot, I don't think I would have missed much.
Ultimately, I didn't get anything out of Days Without End besides frustration. Emotionally this book left me cold and intellectually I failed to engage with it. But again, I am in the clear minority... if you're curious about picking this up, go for it. You'll know by the second page whether the narrative voice works for you. I should have trusted my gut and dropped it then and there.
No one is more surprised than I am that I hated it so much.
First, I want to make this clear - Days Without End is not a bad book. I don't think the Man Booker panel or the myriad of reviewers who gave this 5 stars are crazy at all. My one-star rating is very much on me.
My main problem with this book is that I found the narrative voice almost impossible to follow. The fusion of dialect and lyricism didn't add up for me - the protagonist, Thomas McNulty, is an uneducated young man, which is reflected in the improper grammar used by Sebastian Barry in his first-person narration... but then you'd also have sentences like "Empurpled rapturous hills I guess and the long day brushstroke by brushstroke enfeebling into darkness and then the fires blooming on the pitch plains." If you're committing to capturing an authentic voice to such an extent that you're writing your entire book in dialect, how is this level of poetic imagery consistent with that? I thought the internal logic of Thomas's narration was filled to the brim with contradictions, and it pulled me out of the story again and again. I also couldn't reconcile the fact that this character was raised in Ireland, and he was talking like he was straight out of a John Wayne western. My brain just had the hardest time following this prose. I'd only be able to read 5 or 10 pages at a time before I started to zone out (which is why I'd been reading this since November).
This kind of goes hand in hand, but as for the story itself, I was bored out of my mind. There was little to no emotional depth here - this was a very monotonous account of the Indian Wars and the Civil War. Brutality is relayed with dispassionate narration (I realize this is The Point, but it did not work for me); characters had indistinct personalities; I still don't feel like I know the first thing about Thomas or the great love of his life, John Cole. This is one of those books where I could have read the first and last chapter and skipped everything in between, and I would have had the exact same experience with it. Well, I actually would have had a better experience with it, if I'd only had to read Barry's lifeless prose for 20 pages rather than 250. But as for the plot, I don't think I would have missed much.
Ultimately, I didn't get anything out of Days Without End besides frustration. Emotionally this book left me cold and intellectually I failed to engage with it. But again, I am in the clear minority... if you're curious about picking this up, go for it. You'll know by the second page whether the narrative voice works for you. I should have trusted my gut and dropped it then and there.
September 18, 2017
Sebastian Barry’s “Days Without End” was a bit reminiscent to me of the strange travels in “News of the World” with writing that reminded me of my grandfather’s reading to me of Walt Whitman. Not that I haven’t read Whitman on my own, but I only hear it anymore in my grandfather’s voice.
There’s a lovely, if somber, touch to the writing, with prose that sings the song of every man.
“We were two wood-shavings of humanity in a rough world.”
This story is narrated by a young Thomas McNulty, a youth who fled Ireland during the time of the Great Famine, came to America, and after many years surviving as a dancer in a saloon along with his then new-found friend John Cole, they volunteered and joined the Army when he was seventeen, or thereabouts, in Missouri.
”If you had all your limbs they took you. If you were a one-eyed boy they might take you too even so. The only pay worse than the worst pay in America was army pay.”
“ Yes, the army took me, I’m proud to say. Thank God John Cole was my first friend in America and so in the army too and the last friend for that matter. He was with me nearly all through this exceeding surprising Yankee sort of life which was good going in every way. No more than a boy like me but even at sixteen years old he looked like a man right enough. I first saw him when he was fourteen or so, very different. That’s what the saloon owner said too.”
They go off, at first, to fight the Indian Wars against the Sioux and the Yurok, and then later, the Civil War. Between those two wars, they bring an eight year-old Sioux girl to live with them. A girl that Mrs. Neale, the Major’s wife, had been teaching, she had learned English and her letters and numbers, along with some cooking skills. Still, Mrs. Neale only agrees to allow this after Thomas assures her that they only want this girl for a servant and not for “their own solace,” and he promises to protect her as his own child. They call her Winona, and from thereon she is known as John Cole’s daughter in a legal sense, but in reality they view her as nothing less than their daughter.
” I guess it’s long ago now. Seems to sit right up in front of my eyes just now though.”
Time. The passage of time is one of the details of life he often reflects on.
”Time was not something then we thought of as an item that possessed an ending, but something that would go on forever, all rested and stopped in that moment. Hard to say what I mean by that. You look back at all the endless years when you never had that thought. I am doing that now as I write these words in Tennessee. I am thinking of the days without end of my life.”
Nature is another object of his reflections. Life in the war and after, the endless nights of sleeping in cold so bitter and deep it could take your life. Days and nights so hot you could barely breathe. The land. The sky viewed as if it were a painting.
”Now in these different districts, the sun came up that bit earlier, more eagerly, more like the baker putting fire into his bread oven, in the small hours, so the women in the town would have bread bright early. Lord, that sun rose regular and sere, he didn’t care who saw him, naked and round and white. Then the rains came walking over the land, as exciting the new grasses, thundering down, hammering like fearsome little bullets, making the shards and dusts of the earth dance a violent jig. Making the grass seeds drunk with ambition. Then the sun pouring in after the rain, and the wide endless prairie steaming, a vast and endless vista of white steam rising, and the flocks of birds wheeling and turning, a million birds to one cloud, we’d a needed a blunderbuss to harvest them, small black fleet wondrous birds.”
Life, what comprises a life at the end of it, the things we recall when stripped down to the days when our breaths can be counted.
”A man’s memory might have only a hundred clear days in it and he has lived thousands. Can’t do much about that. We have our store of days and we spend them like forgetful drunkards.”
War is brutal, gloomy, dark and disturbing, and yet this book couldn’t be more poetic, more powerful, more remarkable, more captivating, more of a pleasure to read, or just plain lovelier.
Many thanks to my good Goodreads friend Gearóid for recommending Sebastian Barry to me (for some time now), and now that I’ve finally read this one, I intend to read them all! Gearóid’s review of Days Without End: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Recommended
There’s a lovely, if somber, touch to the writing, with prose that sings the song of every man.
“We were two wood-shavings of humanity in a rough world.”
This story is narrated by a young Thomas McNulty, a youth who fled Ireland during the time of the Great Famine, came to America, and after many years surviving as a dancer in a saloon along with his then new-found friend John Cole, they volunteered and joined the Army when he was seventeen, or thereabouts, in Missouri.
”If you had all your limbs they took you. If you were a one-eyed boy they might take you too even so. The only pay worse than the worst pay in America was army pay.”
“ Yes, the army took me, I’m proud to say. Thank God John Cole was my first friend in America and so in the army too and the last friend for that matter. He was with me nearly all through this exceeding surprising Yankee sort of life which was good going in every way. No more than a boy like me but even at sixteen years old he looked like a man right enough. I first saw him when he was fourteen or so, very different. That’s what the saloon owner said too.”
They go off, at first, to fight the Indian Wars against the Sioux and the Yurok, and then later, the Civil War. Between those two wars, they bring an eight year-old Sioux girl to live with them. A girl that Mrs. Neale, the Major’s wife, had been teaching, she had learned English and her letters and numbers, along with some cooking skills. Still, Mrs. Neale only agrees to allow this after Thomas assures her that they only want this girl for a servant and not for “their own solace,” and he promises to protect her as his own child. They call her Winona, and from thereon she is known as John Cole’s daughter in a legal sense, but in reality they view her as nothing less than their daughter.
” I guess it’s long ago now. Seems to sit right up in front of my eyes just now though.”
Time. The passage of time is one of the details of life he often reflects on.
”Time was not something then we thought of as an item that possessed an ending, but something that would go on forever, all rested and stopped in that moment. Hard to say what I mean by that. You look back at all the endless years when you never had that thought. I am doing that now as I write these words in Tennessee. I am thinking of the days without end of my life.”
Nature is another object of his reflections. Life in the war and after, the endless nights of sleeping in cold so bitter and deep it could take your life. Days and nights so hot you could barely breathe. The land. The sky viewed as if it were a painting.
”Now in these different districts, the sun came up that bit earlier, more eagerly, more like the baker putting fire into his bread oven, in the small hours, so the women in the town would have bread bright early. Lord, that sun rose regular and sere, he didn’t care who saw him, naked and round and white. Then the rains came walking over the land, as exciting the new grasses, thundering down, hammering like fearsome little bullets, making the shards and dusts of the earth dance a violent jig. Making the grass seeds drunk with ambition. Then the sun pouring in after the rain, and the wide endless prairie steaming, a vast and endless vista of white steam rising, and the flocks of birds wheeling and turning, a million birds to one cloud, we’d a needed a blunderbuss to harvest them, small black fleet wondrous birds.”
Life, what comprises a life at the end of it, the things we recall when stripped down to the days when our breaths can be counted.
”A man’s memory might have only a hundred clear days in it and he has lived thousands. Can’t do much about that. We have our store of days and we spend them like forgetful drunkards.”
War is brutal, gloomy, dark and disturbing, and yet this book couldn’t be more poetic, more powerful, more remarkable, more captivating, more of a pleasure to read, or just plain lovelier.
Many thanks to my good Goodreads friend Gearóid for recommending Sebastian Barry to me (for some time now), and now that I’ve finally read this one, I intend to read them all! Gearóid’s review of Days Without End: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Recommended
December 3, 2017
Fabulous storytelling and narrative voice. The excitement of this novel told in feverish lyrical prose is unrelenting. We get an intimate first-hand account of the plains wars with the Sioux, the civil war and the lawlessness of the settler towns in the wild west. There’s barely a page in this novel where you’re not fearing for the lives of the novel’s three central characters who form a misfit family – two male lovers and their adopted Indian child. The surface of this novel is dazzling.
Beneath the surface it wasn’t perhaps quite so successful. There’s so much action in this novel that the characters barely have time to talk to each other which means we don’t get to know them very well. And the narrator doesn’t do nuance where his friends are concerned. He’s unremittingly generous. Therefore, we learn little about his companions except that they are flawless human beings, deserving of our full sympathy. In this respect I couldn’t help comparing it a little unfavorably with Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang – another novel narrated lyrically by a semi-educated outcast with lots of exciting plot but also with some great character development – something this novel does lack. For example, the Sioux girl the two men adopt has little more personality than a domestic pet. She adapts to her new life like a domestic pet as well, as if she has no long-term memory. She’s there to make us feel more protective of the characters and though this works as a device one never really sees her or believes much in her. The depiction of the Sioux in general was rather lazy, expedient and erroneously cliched. Barry invents a chief who behaves how the plot needs him to behave. (I’ve read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and watched the excellent TV series Into the West and as far as I recall the real chief at that time would have been Red Cloud who was a lot more savvy and honorable than Barry’s rather slapstick Caught-His-Horse-First.
However, these are small gripes as Days Without End is a riveting read from start to finish. For those who’ve already read and loved this I’d recommend True History of the Kelly Gang.
Beneath the surface it wasn’t perhaps quite so successful. There’s so much action in this novel that the characters barely have time to talk to each other which means we don’t get to know them very well. And the narrator doesn’t do nuance where his friends are concerned. He’s unremittingly generous. Therefore, we learn little about his companions except that they are flawless human beings, deserving of our full sympathy. In this respect I couldn’t help comparing it a little unfavorably with Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang – another novel narrated lyrically by a semi-educated outcast with lots of exciting plot but also with some great character development – something this novel does lack. For example, the Sioux girl the two men adopt has little more personality than a domestic pet. She adapts to her new life like a domestic pet as well, as if she has no long-term memory. She’s there to make us feel more protective of the characters and though this works as a device one never really sees her or believes much in her. The depiction of the Sioux in general was rather lazy, expedient and erroneously cliched. Barry invents a chief who behaves how the plot needs him to behave. (I’ve read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and watched the excellent TV series Into the West and as far as I recall the real chief at that time would have been Red Cloud who was a lot more savvy and honorable than Barry’s rather slapstick Caught-His-Horse-First.
However, these are small gripes as Days Without End is a riveting read from start to finish. For those who’ve already read and loved this I’d recommend True History of the Kelly Gang.
February 7, 2017
Sometimes you know you ain't a clever man. But likewise sometimes the fog of usual thoughts clears off in a sudden breeze of sense and you see things clear a moment like a clearing country. We blunder through and call it wisdom but it ain't. They say we be Christians and suchlike but we ain't. They say we are creatures raised by God above the animals but any man that has lived knows that's damned lies.
Days Without End is extremely well-written historical fiction that overall left me admiring the prose and language far more than enjoying the somewhat improbable circumstances and unfolding events of the novel. This was my first time reading Sebastian Barry, and his talent to turn a phrase and paint with words vivid descriptions all in the voice of a singular character is incredible. I felt a bit removed though from the proceedings: even though I believed the emotions and ideas described, I myself was not invested in the outcome, mainly because the ending felt inevitable and a bit predictable (if not also sentimental and satisfying). But I thoroughly loved the writing: the descriptions, dialogue, and reflections on war and brutality and suffering and friendship were so grounded in reality and yet elevated to almost poetry in terms of the beauty. I'd probably give this 3.5 stars, but rounded up to 4 for its overall literary excellence, even if I wasn't emotionally connected or drawn into the characters and events to the same extent as I was hooked on the craft.
I may continue to flesh out this review as I let this full story digest with me, but for now, I would recommend this to readers of literary and historical fiction with interest in the American West and Civil War, who embrace a somewhat slow tale in which the writing holds more attention than the events.
-received ARC on edelweiss thanks to Viking and Penguin Random House
Days Without End is extremely well-written historical fiction that overall left me admiring the prose and language far more than enjoying the somewhat improbable circumstances and unfolding events of the novel. This was my first time reading Sebastian Barry, and his talent to turn a phrase and paint with words vivid descriptions all in the voice of a singular character is incredible. I felt a bit removed though from the proceedings: even though I believed the emotions and ideas described, I myself was not invested in the outcome, mainly because the ending felt inevitable and a bit predictable (if not also sentimental and satisfying). But I thoroughly loved the writing: the descriptions, dialogue, and reflections on war and brutality and suffering and friendship were so grounded in reality and yet elevated to almost poetry in terms of the beauty. I'd probably give this 3.5 stars, but rounded up to 4 for its overall literary excellence, even if I wasn't emotionally connected or drawn into the characters and events to the same extent as I was hooked on the craft.
I may continue to flesh out this review as I let this full story digest with me, but for now, I would recommend this to readers of literary and historical fiction with interest in the American West and Civil War, who embrace a somewhat slow tale in which the writing holds more attention than the events.
-received ARC on edelweiss thanks to Viking and Penguin Random House
November 27, 2017
I loved, loved this book! Days Without End is one of the finest books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. (I’ve luckily been able to say this twice this year!)
Winner of the Costa Book Award, this historical fiction is about two young Irish men leaving the great famine behind to come to America. Thomas McNulty, in the first narrative, takes us through American history with his best friend and partner, John Cole, by joining the Army to make a living. A violently written novel, the author, Sebastian Barry, vividly portrays the US Indian wars and the Civil War. His two main characters are the finest of mankind. Two people you would love to count as friends. Fighting men as brave as they come, but also fiercely loyal and kind-hearted.
What a joy to listen to the Irish brogue of Aidan Kelly. I am thankful to have decided on the audiobook. The writing had me looking through the eyes of McNulty like I was there throughout their hardships and adventures.
Unbeknownst to me, Sebastian Barry is an Irish poet, playwright, and novelist. Days Without End shows his poetic influence. Just beautifully written. I will most certainly be reading more of his books.
Highly recommend.
5 out of 5 stars.
Winner of the Costa Book Award, this historical fiction is about two young Irish men leaving the great famine behind to come to America. Thomas McNulty, in the first narrative, takes us through American history with his best friend and partner, John Cole, by joining the Army to make a living. A violently written novel, the author, Sebastian Barry, vividly portrays the US Indian wars and the Civil War. His two main characters are the finest of mankind. Two people you would love to count as friends. Fighting men as brave as they come, but also fiercely loyal and kind-hearted.
What a joy to listen to the Irish brogue of Aidan Kelly. I am thankful to have decided on the audiobook. The writing had me looking through the eyes of McNulty like I was there throughout their hardships and adventures.
Unbeknownst to me, Sebastian Barry is an Irish poet, playwright, and novelist. Days Without End shows his poetic influence. Just beautifully written. I will most certainly be reading more of his books.
Highly recommend.
5 out of 5 stars.
September 5, 2022
Brilliant. Very violent. The closest American parallel I can think of would be Michael Punkes’ The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge. Days Without End is unsummarizable, but here goes. In terms of its invented argot, the novel is reminiscent of True History of the Kelly Gang and The North Water. The trick apparently is to have just enough dialect, but not so much that it slows the reader down. The touch in all of these books, the artistry, I mean, is deft.
The novel starts as a story of aboriginal genocide, as such it is essentially American. The narrator is a young Irishman, McNulty, a homosexual fleeing the Irish famine who comes to America with John Cole, his lover, and after a brief cross-dressing episode in Daggsville, a mining town, joins the army of that time which was barely kept fed and clothed. So far the Indians are matching their army pursuers slaughter for slaughter. One harrowing massacre of Sioux Indians takes place in the beautiful Black Hills, sacred ground in what is now South Dakota. I like how the narrator speaks for his fellow soldiers, as if he were a one-man Greek chorus of lamentation. But don’t be misled; for the most part the action is vibrant and the narrative moves at an intoxicating pace.
Then John Cole’s hitch is not renewed, due to some recurring illness, and McNulty joins him on leaving the army. They are joined by the 9 year old Winona, an Indian, as housekeeper. She becomes their de facto adopted daughter, taking Cole’s surname. They reconnect with Mr. Noone from Daggsville days whose now a swell in Rapid City and he engages them for another bit of cross-dressing tomfoolery at his saloon. Their act seems to consist of nothing more than McNulty dressing superbly as a woman and going onstage to be deeply kissed by Cole as the swain. The gypsum miners go quiet with awe then they’re wildly applauding in tears. Mr Noone is over the moon. I was reminded of how men used to play women in Elizabethan times, and still, I believe, in some traditional forms of Japanese theater.
Soon Lincoln’s president and it’s time to muster for the Civil War. Winona is left in Rapid City with the elderly Mr. Beulah McSweny, a freeman. McNulty and Cole go to Boston. They join their units and march to Washington D.C. They march south into old Virginny. They march to abolish slavery. John Keegan has called the American Civil War, for its use of artillery, the true antecedent of World War I, and you can see that in Barry’s descriptions.
“Now we know there be a huge force of them approaching up the right bank of the river. Ten miles off a blind man can see the dust and ruckus of men. Must be ten-thousand. At least a division of those hole-in-the-trousers boys. We are only four-thousand but we’re dug in like prairie dogs. Rifle pits galore a mile wide and all set in devious vees and on each flank full batteries and we got so much shells they rival the pyramids of Egypt.” (p. 138)
About the last half, I’ll say only this: What a marvel of mayhem. McNulty’s cross-dressing saves his life. The whole thing is both preposterous (as all good literary fiction must to some extent be) and moving. Please read it. It’s the truth.
The novel starts as a story of aboriginal genocide, as such it is essentially American. The narrator is a young Irishman, McNulty, a homosexual fleeing the Irish famine who comes to America with John Cole, his lover, and after a brief cross-dressing episode in Daggsville, a mining town, joins the army of that time which was barely kept fed and clothed. So far the Indians are matching their army pursuers slaughter for slaughter. One harrowing massacre of Sioux Indians takes place in the beautiful Black Hills, sacred ground in what is now South Dakota. I like how the narrator speaks for his fellow soldiers, as if he were a one-man Greek chorus of lamentation. But don’t be misled; for the most part the action is vibrant and the narrative moves at an intoxicating pace.
Then John Cole’s hitch is not renewed, due to some recurring illness, and McNulty joins him on leaving the army. They are joined by the 9 year old Winona, an Indian, as housekeeper. She becomes their de facto adopted daughter, taking Cole’s surname. They reconnect with Mr. Noone from Daggsville days whose now a swell in Rapid City and he engages them for another bit of cross-dressing tomfoolery at his saloon. Their act seems to consist of nothing more than McNulty dressing superbly as a woman and going onstage to be deeply kissed by Cole as the swain. The gypsum miners go quiet with awe then they’re wildly applauding in tears. Mr Noone is over the moon. I was reminded of how men used to play women in Elizabethan times, and still, I believe, in some traditional forms of Japanese theater.
Soon Lincoln’s president and it’s time to muster for the Civil War. Winona is left in Rapid City with the elderly Mr. Beulah McSweny, a freeman. McNulty and Cole go to Boston. They join their units and march to Washington D.C. They march south into old Virginny. They march to abolish slavery. John Keegan has called the American Civil War, for its use of artillery, the true antecedent of World War I, and you can see that in Barry’s descriptions.
“Now we know there be a huge force of them approaching up the right bank of the river. Ten miles off a blind man can see the dust and ruckus of men. Must be ten-thousand. At least a division of those hole-in-the-trousers boys. We are only four-thousand but we’re dug in like prairie dogs. Rifle pits galore a mile wide and all set in devious vees and on each flank full batteries and we got so much shells they rival the pyramids of Egypt.” (p. 138)
About the last half, I’ll say only this: What a marvel of mayhem. McNulty’s cross-dressing saves his life. The whole thing is both preposterous (as all good literary fiction must to some extent be) and moving. Please read it. It’s the truth.
July 13, 2017
This is the first book I have read that is new enough to qualify for this year's Booker prize, and it sets the bar pretty high. This is a wild picaresque fantasy set in nineteenth century America, and is very different to any of Barry's previous novels, all of which are much closer to modern Ireland. This time the narrator Thomas, another member of the Sligo McNulty family, is a poor Irish boy who has lost his family to the potato famine and has found his way across the Atlantic.
Thomas meets John Cole, a slightly older American born drifter when they are sheltering from rain under a hedge. It soon becomes clear that this is more than just a simple friendship. Their first job is dressing up as girls to act as hired dancers in a mid-Western town. When this work reaches its natural end because John is too big, they enlist in the army and are involved in various skirmishes with the local Indians (it seems wrong to use the term native Americans in this 19th century context). After one of these, Thomas and John find themselves adopting a girl who was the niece of the local chief, and they leave the army to start a new life as entertainers in Grand Rapids, a mining town, but are soon persuaded to rejoin the Army when the civil war breaks out. The remainder of the book follows their escapades after the war.
As in his earlier book A Long Long Way, Barry describes war in chaotic and unsentimental detail, but the farcical elements of this story are never far from the surface. McNulty's voice is a wonderful hybrid, probably too literate to be plausible, but that seems a necessary artifice and makes the story much more readable. The plot stretches credulity at times, but has some lovely twists, and this makes for a very satisfying read. This might just be Barry's best book yet, and is certainly the most audacious.
Thomas meets John Cole, a slightly older American born drifter when they are sheltering from rain under a hedge. It soon becomes clear that this is more than just a simple friendship. Their first job is dressing up as girls to act as hired dancers in a mid-Western town. When this work reaches its natural end because John is too big, they enlist in the army and are involved in various skirmishes with the local Indians (it seems wrong to use the term native Americans in this 19th century context). After one of these, Thomas and John find themselves adopting a girl who was the niece of the local chief, and they leave the army to start a new life as entertainers in Grand Rapids, a mining town, but are soon persuaded to rejoin the Army when the civil war breaks out. The remainder of the book follows their escapades after the war.
As in his earlier book A Long Long Way, Barry describes war in chaotic and unsentimental detail, but the farcical elements of this story are never far from the surface. McNulty's voice is a wonderful hybrid, probably too literate to be plausible, but that seems a necessary artifice and makes the story much more readable. The plot stretches credulity at times, but has some lovely twists, and this makes for a very satisfying read. This might just be Barry's best book yet, and is certainly the most audacious.
August 2, 2017
"Things just go on. Lot of life is just like that. I look back over fifty years of life and I wonder where the years went. I guess they went like that, without me noticing much. A man’s memory might have only a hundred clear days in it and he has lived thousands. Can’t do much about that. We have our store of days and we spend them like forgetful drunkards. I ain’t got no argument with it, just saying it is so."
What an absolutely beautiful story. And believe me, I never thought I'd find myself saying that about a Civil War-era novel. I'm not particularly one for war stories in general. If I read one I'm much more interested in looking at how civilian life is affected by war and the ways in which people cope with that disruption of everyday life, so I usually stay away from battlefront narratives.
But this book is so much more than a war story.
First and foremost, it's about a man named Thomas McNulty who's emigrated from Ireland and made his way to the U.S. during the American Indian wars, especially ones on the Great Plains. Then it moves into the Civil War-era where he finds himself once again at war fighting for the Union. Along the way he's accompanied by John Cole, his best friend and secret lover. (The blurb doesn't really highlight their romance, but it's very clear in the story, though not really a main plot—just a fact.) Later on they take in a young Native American girl who becomes like their daughter. The three of them go through many adventures over the span of many years.
Things I loved about this book:
-The writing style: It took a bit of getting used to because it's written in a very conversational style, often with improper grammar. But wow. Barry is a master at this style. After a while I barely noticed it, and instead felt like Thomas was speaking directly to me.
-The characters: Though I do wish we had gotten to see a bit more of John, overall all the characters were extremely realistic, even the side characters in the army that we only saw for bits and pieces of the story. I was completely invested in their lives, and it was really this that kept me reading when the plot wasn't as exciting.
-The length: This isn't a long book, and I feel like Barry could've made it twice as long, filled it with even more events over the years, and probably could've gotten away with it. But it's brevity serves the story well. It was amazing what he could do to emotionally stir up the reader in such a short span of time.
Though you can see I thought this book was phenomenal, I am positive there will be people who read this and go..."huh?" It's not for every reader. But it was perfect for me. And again, I'm thankful that books like this were put on the Man Booker longlist because I might otherwise never gotten around to reading it.
January 27, 2023
2 "ambivalent and mildly disappointing " stars !!
I am so thankful that this was a shorter novel and even more thankful that I completed this book with my wits intact
I can fully understand all the four and five star reviews but I was left underwhelmed, frustrated, often ambivalent although at times I was mildly entertained. Although I did not want to abandon this story I certainly admit to mostly skimming the second half of the novel.
The writing is vivid and cinematic but also overly processed, overly clever and glib. The folksy poetic purply writing left me feeling like I was watching a Western musical with superficial characterizations, too much gore and plenty of overly histrionic scenes that felt more contrived and convenient and lacking in emotional depth. The queer love story felt ever so gratuitous and I did not really buy into the genderbending. In the end I could not connect to Mr. Barry's literary vision.
I have the sequel but I am in no rush to read....
I am so thankful that this was a shorter novel and even more thankful that I completed this book with my wits intact
I can fully understand all the four and five star reviews but I was left underwhelmed, frustrated, often ambivalent although at times I was mildly entertained. Although I did not want to abandon this story I certainly admit to mostly skimming the second half of the novel.
The writing is vivid and cinematic but also overly processed, overly clever and glib. The folksy poetic purply writing left me feeling like I was watching a Western musical with superficial characterizations, too much gore and plenty of overly histrionic scenes that felt more contrived and convenient and lacking in emotional depth. The queer love story felt ever so gratuitous and I did not really buy into the genderbending. In the end I could not connect to Mr. Barry's literary vision.
I have the sequel but I am in no rush to read....
August 1, 2017
Whatever it was that I was expecting from this novel, it's not what I got. It was more bloody, more beautiful, more affecting than anything I had imagined. Even if sometimes I felt like it lost itself within its own cleverness, this did not detract from the overall power of the story and the narrator. If anything the dissonance between the voice and the character of Thomas McNulty is what makes his piercing perceptiveness so effective- he is talking about more than his own story, he reflects the greater story of contemporary America as a whole. But if that sounds just too grand, it is again the common man narrator that ensures the book is entirely readable, funny, and one in which you lose yourself, heart and mind.
Many thanks to Sebastian Barry, Faber and Faber, and Netgalley for the chance to read this in exchange for an honest review.
Many thanks to Sebastian Barry, Faber and Faber, and Netgalley for the chance to read this in exchange for an honest review.
February 3, 2018
A flow a perfectly placed words.
Warning: do not expect Gunsmoke’s Miss Kitty and the Long Branch Saloon.
Do expect the inglorious destruction of the California Indians that escalated with the Gold Rush, a Union Army in which less than half of the troops were native-born white men, and a flourishing climate for cross-dressing and pleasure from other men.
Warning: do not expect Gunsmoke’s Miss Kitty and the Long Branch Saloon.
Do expect the inglorious destruction of the California Indians that escalated with the Gold Rush, a Union Army in which less than half of the troops were native-born white men, and a flourishing climate for cross-dressing and pleasure from other men.
August 15, 2021
Winner of the Costa Book Award 2016
Winner of the Walter Scott Prize 2017
Nominated for the Booker Prize 2017
From all books on the Booker list that I have read, this has the most beautiful prose – more beautiful even than the writing of George Saunders and Ali Smith. There are two main threads in this novel: The love story between the protagonists Thomas McNulty and John Cole, and the establishment of America, where the frontier myth is intertwined with the Indian Wars, and the fight for the abolition of slavery almost tore the union apart.
The story is told from the perspective of Thomas McNulty who left his native Ireland when he was a teenager in order to escape the Great Famine to which the rest of his family has succumbed. After his arrival, he accidently meets and falls in love with John Cole. Thomas and John fight in the Indian Wars on the side of the settlers, but later, they take on a young Native American girl as their daughter and try to build a domestic life. When the Civil War erupts, they become soldiers again and fight for the North. Barry does an amazing job when it comes to describing what these wars meant for the people actually fighting them and what life at the frontier was like. The way he describes the attraction of violence and what it does to people exercising it and to people who fall victim to it is both scary and stunning.
Beyond that, Barry (who dedicated this book to his gay son Toby) tells the beautiful love story between Thomas and John, who want to live as a family with their adopted daughter Winona, but poverty and historical turmoil take their toll. Thomas likes to wear dresses and even publicly performs in them in two different contexts. He sees himself as John’s wife and Winona’s mother, and he is clearly happiest when he can fulfill these roles. At the same time, he is a very good soldier who successfully takes part in many battles. Barry created a Western with a gay couple at its center, zero clichés and a lot of complex patterns of action and reaction - wow.
On a more basic level, one could say that “Days Without End” meditates about the question what makes us human. Thomas takes a clear stance: If you can feel love, you are human, if you can’t, you are a mere ghost. About the death of his father (who starved), he says: “I loved my father when I was a human person, formerly. Then he died and I was hungry and then the ship. Then nothing. Then America. Then John Cole. John Cole was my love, all my love.” … and in this context: “Gives an idea of the victory meeting John Cole. First time I felt like a human person again.”
The word ghost reappears from time to time, always referring to people who are showing or are connected to a lack of humanity. Re-telling a massacre against Native American women and children in which he took part (they had expected to fight male warriors), Thomas explains: “There didn’t seem to be anything alive, including ourselves. We were dislocated, we were not there, now we were ghosts.” About the soldiers fighting for the South, he says: “Maybe they all ghosts and don’t need nourishment.” …and when facing them in battle: “Other things I see are how thin these boys are, how strange, like ghosts, like ghouls.”
The gruesome battles, the frontier as a place of violence, the evocative description of nature as a force to be reckoned with, and the mystical aspect of the ghosts – all this turns “Days Without End” into a piece of “Southern Gothic”. It reminded me of Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece “Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West”, which also tells the story of a young fighter in the Indian Wars, but from an even grimmer, darker and more brutal angle. Although I am a huge fan of McCarthy, I liked that Barry combined the war stories with Thomas’ and John’s love story and, by doing that, made a point that when there is the possibility of inhumanity, there also must be the possibility of humanity.
There are some books on the Man Booker longlist that are current in a more in-your-face kind of way (like “Exit West” which is about migration, or “Home Fire” which talks about terrorism and racism), but Barry writes about how the United States were founded on immigration, the connection between the mythic frontier and the Native American genocide, racism and how it persisted after the North won the Civil War, and about the importance of love -all kinds of love- for the human soul.
“My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too”, Obama said in one of his speeches, and about race: “I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.” “Days Without End” makes you want to take a copy of the book and hit Trump over the head with it, again, again, and again.
You can learn more about the German translation Tage ohne Ende in our latest podcast episode.
Winner of the Walter Scott Prize 2017
Nominated for the Booker Prize 2017
From all books on the Booker list that I have read, this has the most beautiful prose – more beautiful even than the writing of George Saunders and Ali Smith. There are two main threads in this novel: The love story between the protagonists Thomas McNulty and John Cole, and the establishment of America, where the frontier myth is intertwined with the Indian Wars, and the fight for the abolition of slavery almost tore the union apart.
The story is told from the perspective of Thomas McNulty who left his native Ireland when he was a teenager in order to escape the Great Famine to which the rest of his family has succumbed. After his arrival, he accidently meets and falls in love with John Cole. Thomas and John fight in the Indian Wars on the side of the settlers, but later, they take on a young Native American girl as their daughter and try to build a domestic life. When the Civil War erupts, they become soldiers again and fight for the North. Barry does an amazing job when it comes to describing what these wars meant for the people actually fighting them and what life at the frontier was like. The way he describes the attraction of violence and what it does to people exercising it and to people who fall victim to it is both scary and stunning.
Beyond that, Barry (who dedicated this book to his gay son Toby) tells the beautiful love story between Thomas and John, who want to live as a family with their adopted daughter Winona, but poverty and historical turmoil take their toll. Thomas likes to wear dresses and even publicly performs in them in two different contexts. He sees himself as John’s wife and Winona’s mother, and he is clearly happiest when he can fulfill these roles. At the same time, he is a very good soldier who successfully takes part in many battles. Barry created a Western with a gay couple at its center, zero clichés and a lot of complex patterns of action and reaction - wow.
On a more basic level, one could say that “Days Without End” meditates about the question what makes us human. Thomas takes a clear stance: If you can feel love, you are human, if you can’t, you are a mere ghost. About the death of his father (who starved), he says: “I loved my father when I was a human person, formerly. Then he died and I was hungry and then the ship. Then nothing. Then America. Then John Cole. John Cole was my love, all my love.” … and in this context: “Gives an idea of the victory meeting John Cole. First time I felt like a human person again.”
The word ghost reappears from time to time, always referring to people who are showing or are connected to a lack of humanity. Re-telling a massacre against Native American women and children in which he took part (they had expected to fight male warriors), Thomas explains: “There didn’t seem to be anything alive, including ourselves. We were dislocated, we were not there, now we were ghosts.” About the soldiers fighting for the South, he says: “Maybe they all ghosts and don’t need nourishment.” …and when facing them in battle: “Other things I see are how thin these boys are, how strange, like ghosts, like ghouls.”
The gruesome battles, the frontier as a place of violence, the evocative description of nature as a force to be reckoned with, and the mystical aspect of the ghosts – all this turns “Days Without End” into a piece of “Southern Gothic”. It reminded me of Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece “Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West”, which also tells the story of a young fighter in the Indian Wars, but from an even grimmer, darker and more brutal angle. Although I am a huge fan of McCarthy, I liked that Barry combined the war stories with Thomas’ and John’s love story and, by doing that, made a point that when there is the possibility of inhumanity, there also must be the possibility of humanity.
There are some books on the Man Booker longlist that are current in a more in-your-face kind of way (like “Exit West” which is about migration, or “Home Fire” which talks about terrorism and racism), but Barry writes about how the United States were founded on immigration, the connection between the mythic frontier and the Native American genocide, racism and how it persisted after the North won the Civil War, and about the importance of love -all kinds of love- for the human soul.
“My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too”, Obama said in one of his speeches, and about race: “I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.” “Days Without End” makes you want to take a copy of the book and hit Trump over the head with it, again, again, and again.
You can learn more about the German translation Tage ohne Ende in our latest podcast episode.
October 23, 2019
Πόσο σε αγάπησα Sebastian Barry, γενικά και ειδικά, με έναν δικό μου αναγνωστικό τρόπο αγάπης, που ανιχνεύει λυρική ομορφιά και χαρίζει γαλήνια αίσθηση,
μέσα απο τις πιο σκοτεινές καταστάσεις που ραγίζουν και σπάνε καρδιές.
Όποιος μπορεί να δημιουργήσει μία τέτοια
λογοτεχνική εμπειρία, μια πλοκή συνυφασμένη
με τρεις δεκατίες αμερικανικής λαογραφίας και πολιτισμού, μια τοσο πανοραμική, βάναυση,
χονδροειδή, βάρβαρη, ασυνήθιστη,
βαθιά συναισθηματική και αντιπολεμική λιτανεία, πνιγμένη στο αίμα, μέσα στον πυρήνα των σφαγών, του μακελειού και της αδιάκοπης μάχης,
τότε σίγουρα δεν υπάρχει κάτι που να μην μπορεί να γράψει.
Η αριστουργηματική πεζογραφία σε πρωτοπρόσωπη αφήγηση, ζωντανεύει περιγράφοντας υποβλητικά και ατμοσφαιρικά μία ιστορία τεράστια και οικεία, τρομακτική και τρυφερή.
Απεικονίζει την ανθρωπιά, την αφοσίωση, την πίστη και την ανθεκτικότητα των απλών αυθεντικών ανθρώπων.
Οι «μέρες δίχως τέλος» είναι άγριες, ατέλειωτες,
τσακισμένες, απο τα ηθικά βάρη των στρατιωτών
και στολισμένες με πτώματα, ανθρώπινα παγωμένα τραύματα εσωτερικά και εξωτερικά,
κακουχίες, βρομιά, αρρώστειες,
κατάρες και προσευχές σε μια ξέφρενη μέθεξη δηλητηριασμένη απο ερείπια,
μνήματα βαθιά με λασπωμένες προθέσεις,
αθώα και αναίσχυντα εθελοντικά εγκλήματα.
Η αιματοχυσία για το μίσος που προκαλεί
το διαφορετικό παγιδεύει και φυλακίζει
σε έναν παραδομό στην κόλαση
των ηθικών αποφάσεων που ξέφυγαν
απο τον Θεό.
Η υποταγή και η παρανοϊκή ευσυνειδησία σε αιτίες και αποτελέσματα μάχιμης τραγωδίας,
μπλέκονται σε έναν ανθρώπινο ιστό που σφίγγει και παραλύει την ενέργεια τόσο εύκολα όσο την εμπνέει.
Πρόκειται για μία ιστορία αγάπης ανάμεσα σε δυο αγόρια.
Ανάμεσα σε δυο πολέμους.
Ανάμεσα σε μια επαγγελματική παράδοξη τέχνη μεταμόρφωσης και πολεμικές σαρκοβόρες πράξεις.
Πριν παρουσιαστούν στον στρατό,
πριν σκοτώσουν εκατοντάδες ιθαγενείς της Αμερικής.
Πριν καταταγούν υπέρ των ενωτικών στον εμφύλιο πόλεμο των ΗΠΑ
και πριν συνηθίσουν τη σαπίλα του θανάτου,
τα ερωτευμένα αγόρια κάνουν Ντράγκ Κουίν σόου σε κάποιο μίζερο, επαρχιακό μπαρ.
Καλλιτέχνες που
υποδύονται τα όνειρα τους μπροστά σε εξαχρειωμένους και παρακμιακούς θεατές.
Ο αφηγητής μας,είναι ένας νεαρός Ιρλανδός μετανάστης όπου την δεκαετία του 1840 χάνει τα πάντα. Λίγο πριν χάσει την ψυχή του ή λίγο μετα,
φτάνει στην αμερικανική Δύση, ερωτεύεται έναν αμερικανό έφηβο και ξεκινούν μια κοινή ζωή.
Εκτίμησα πραγματικά την ανατρεπτική πλοκή που τολμάει ο Barry, βάζοντας εύλογα στον στρατό
κατά την διάρκεια του 19ου αιώνα δυο άνδρες που αγαπιούνται, που ενώνονται σαρκικά
και παραμένουν δια βίου παρέα
με κάθε μορφή σύμβασης μιας σύγχρονης οικογένειας, και συντροφιά με την υιοθετημένη ινδιάνα κόρη τους.
Κάπου εδώ και κάπως έτσι, θαύμασα, σοκαρίστηκα και αγάπησα τον Sebastian Barry..διότι με έκανε υποχείριο του, μου πέρασε τρυφερά και βίαια αισθήσεις και γεγονότα που συναντήθηκαν και μου έδειξαν όλες τις ζωές της ζωής.
Θεωρώ πως αν κάποιος άλλος συγγραφέας είχε γράψει ακριβώς την ίδια ιστορία δεν θα με είχε ακουμπήσει στο ελάχιστο.
💥💥💥💥💥
✍🏻💜💜💜💜
Καλή ανάγνωση.
Πολλούς ασπασμούς.
μέσα απο τις πιο σκοτεινές καταστάσεις που ραγίζουν και σπάνε καρδιές.
Όποιος μπορεί να δημιουργήσει μία τέτοια
λογοτεχνική εμπειρία, μια πλοκή συνυφασμένη
με τρεις δεκατίες αμερικανικής λαογραφίας και πολιτισμού, μια τοσο πανοραμική, βάναυση,
χονδροειδή, βάρβαρη, ασυνήθιστη,
βαθιά συναισθηματική και αντιπολεμική λιτανεία, πνιγμένη στο αίμα, μέσα στον πυρήνα των σφαγών, του μακελειού και της αδιάκοπης μάχης,
τότε σίγουρα δεν υπάρχει κάτι που να μην μπορεί να γράψει.
Η αριστουργηματική πεζογραφία σε πρωτοπρόσωπη αφήγηση, ζωντανεύει περιγράφοντας υποβλητικά και ατμοσφαιρικά μία ιστορία τεράστια και οικεία, τρομακτική και τρυφερή.
Απεικονίζει την ανθρωπιά, την αφοσίωση, την πίστη και την ανθεκτικότητα των απλών αυθεντικών ανθρώπων.
Οι «μέρες δίχως τέλος» είναι άγριες, ατέλειωτες,
τσακισμένες, απο τα ηθικά βάρη των στρατιωτών
και στολισμένες με πτώματα, ανθρώπινα παγωμένα τραύματα εσωτερικά και εξωτερικά,
κακουχίες, βρομιά, αρρώστειες,
κατάρες και προσευχές σε μια ξέφρενη μέθεξη δηλητηριασμένη απο ερείπια,
μνήματα βαθιά με λασπωμένες προθέσεις,
αθώα και αναίσχυντα εθελοντικά εγκλήματα.
Η αιματοχυσία για το μίσος που προκαλεί
το διαφορετικό παγιδεύει και φυλακίζει
σε έναν παραδομό στην κόλαση
των ηθικών αποφάσεων που ξέφυγαν
απο τον Θεό.
Η υποταγή και η παρανοϊκή ευσυνειδησία σε αιτίες και αποτελέσματα μάχιμης τραγωδίας,
μπλέκονται σε έναν ανθρώπινο ιστό που σφίγγει και παραλύει την ενέργεια τόσο εύκολα όσο την εμπνέει.
Πρόκειται για μία ιστορία αγάπης ανάμεσα σε δυο αγόρια.
Ανάμεσα σε δυο πολέμους.
Ανάμεσα σε μια επαγγελματική παράδοξη τέχνη μεταμόρφωσης και πολεμικές σαρκοβόρες πράξεις.
Πριν παρουσιαστούν στον στρατό,
πριν σκοτώσουν εκατοντάδες ιθαγενείς της Αμερικής.
Πριν καταταγούν υπέρ των ενωτικών στον εμφύλιο πόλεμο των ΗΠΑ
και πριν συνηθίσουν τη σαπίλα του θανάτου,
τα ερωτευμένα αγόρια κάνουν Ντράγκ Κουίν σόου σε κάποιο μίζερο, επαρχιακό μπαρ.
Καλλιτέχνες που
υποδύονται τα όνειρα τους μπροστά σε εξαχρειωμένους και παρακμιακούς θεατές.
Ο αφηγητής μας,είναι ένας νεαρός Ιρλανδός μετανάστης όπου την δεκαετία του 1840 χάνει τα πάντα. Λίγο πριν χάσει την ψυχή του ή λίγο μετα,
φτάνει στην αμερικανική Δύση, ερωτεύεται έναν αμερικανό έφηβο και ξεκινούν μια κοινή ζωή.
Εκτίμησα πραγματικά την ανατρεπτική πλοκή που τολμάει ο Barry, βάζοντας εύλογα στον στρατό
κατά την διάρκεια του 19ου αιώνα δυο άνδρες που αγαπιούνται, που ενώνονται σαρκικά
και παραμένουν δια βίου παρέα
με κάθε μορφή σύμβασης μιας σύγχρονης οικογένειας, και συντροφιά με την υιοθετημένη ινδιάνα κόρη τους.
Κάπου εδώ και κάπως έτσι, θαύμασα, σοκαρίστηκα και αγάπησα τον Sebastian Barry..διότι με έκανε υποχείριο του, μου πέρασε τρυφερά και βίαια αισθήσεις και γεγονότα που συναντήθηκαν και μου έδειξαν όλες τις ζωές της ζωής.
Θεωρώ πως αν κάποιος άλλος συγγραφέας είχε γράψει ακριβώς την ίδια ιστορία δεν θα με είχε ακουμπήσει στο ελάχιστο.
💥💥💥💥💥
✍🏻💜💜💜💜
Καλή ανάγνωση.
Πολλούς ασπασμούς.
August 27, 2017
Has an Irishman written the Great American Novel? The question is not theoretical; Sebastian Barry’s latest novel is the fourth time he has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The novel is his seventh, but it is Barry’s long experience writing for the theatre—thirteen plays already—that lends excitement to this work. After the years of excellent effort, suddenly Thomas Thomasina McNulty springs full-grown from Barry’s well-tilled field. The extraordinary success of this gem of a novel set in 1850’s America is all about preparedness and inspiration.
The novel is not long but is fluent and unstrained; it makes big statements about human existence, war, love, about what we want, and what we get. It is remarkable how squarely Barry lands in the middle of the American debate so clamorous around us now, about race, diversity, sexuality, what we fight for and who fights for us—questions we’ve never satisfactorily answered, and so they are back again.
Barry gives us humor in a horribly violent world, surprising and delighting us with his deadpan delivery. His diverse cast of characters are reliant on one another, all viewed through the eyes of an Irishman who’d suffered such terrible deprivations as a child that man’s cruelty never surprised him. What did surprise him was that we could find a way to love, to happiness, despite our sorrows.
In the early pages Thomas McNulty meets John Cole under a hedge in a rainstorm. John Cole is a few years older, but both the orphaned young boys is a wild thing, having ‘growed' in the school of hard knocks. Uncanny judges of character, they almost instantly decide they stand a better chance together in the rough-and-tumble than alone and set off on a series of adventures. The pace of the novel is swift. When I go back to find a memorable passage, I am shocked at how quickly events unfolded, and how quickly I am deeply involved.
The language is one of the novel's wonders. Barry doesn’t try to hide his brogue, but uses it: a stranger in a strange land. That distance and perspective allows Thomas to make comment upon what is commonly observed
The most remarkable bits of this novel, the sense of a shared humanity within a wide diversity, seemed so natural and obvious and wonderful we wanted to crawl under that umbrella and shelter there. These fierce fighting men fought for each other rather than for an ideal. Their early lives were so precarious they’d formed alliances across race, religion, national origin when they were treated fair. “Don’t tell me a Irish is an example of civilised humanity…you‘re talking to two when you talk to one Irishman.”
And then there is the notion of time, if it is perceived at all by youth: “Time was not something then we thought of as an item that possessed an ending…” By the end of the novel, the characters do indeed perceive time: “I am doing that now as I write these words in Tennessee. I am thinking of the days without end of my life. And it is not like that now.” We have been changed, too, because we also perceive time, and sorrow and pain and those things that constitute joy. We have lived his life, and ours, too.
Barry gets so much right about the America he describes: the sun coming up earlier and earlier as one travels east, the desert-but-not-desert plains land, the generosity and occasional cooperation between the Indian tribes and the army come to dispatch them, the crazy deep thoughtless racism. But what made me catch my breath with wonder was the naturalness of the union between Thomasina McNulty and John Cole and the fierceness of the love these two army men had for an orphaned, laughing, high-spirited, bright star of an Indian girl they called Winona.
Barry understands absolutely that our diversity makes us stronger, better men. Leave the pinched and hateful exclusion of differentness to sectarian tribes, fighting for the old days. We know what the old days were like. We can do better. I haven’t read all the Man Booker longlist yet, but most, and this is at the top of my list. It is a treasure.
I had access to the Viking Penguin hardcopy of this novel--I'm still surprised at how small it is, given the expansive nature of the story--but I also had the audio from Hoopla. I needed both: the pace of the novel is swift, and may cause us to read faster than we ought. Barry writes poetically, which by rights should slow us down. The Blackstone Audio production, though read quickly by Aidan Kelly, allows us to catch things we will have missed in print and vice versa. At several stages in this novel, crises impel us forward. As we rush to see what happens, we may miss the beauty. Don't miss the beauty. Books like these are so very rare.
The novel is not long but is fluent and unstrained; it makes big statements about human existence, war, love, about what we want, and what we get. It is remarkable how squarely Barry lands in the middle of the American debate so clamorous around us now, about race, diversity, sexuality, what we fight for and who fights for us—questions we’ve never satisfactorily answered, and so they are back again.
Barry gives us humor in a horribly violent world, surprising and delighting us with his deadpan delivery. His diverse cast of characters are reliant on one another, all viewed through the eyes of an Irishman who’d suffered such terrible deprivations as a child that man’s cruelty never surprised him. What did surprise him was that we could find a way to love, to happiness, despite our sorrows.
In the early pages Thomas McNulty meets John Cole under a hedge in a rainstorm. John Cole is a few years older, but both the orphaned young boys is a wild thing, having ‘growed' in the school of hard knocks. Uncanny judges of character, they almost instantly decide they stand a better chance together in the rough-and-tumble than alone and set off on a series of adventures. The pace of the novel is swift. When I go back to find a memorable passage, I am shocked at how quickly events unfolded, and how quickly I am deeply involved.
The language is one of the novel's wonders. Barry doesn’t try to hide his brogue, but uses it: a stranger in a strange land. That distance and perspective allows Thomas to make comment upon what is commonly observed
"Everything bad gets shot in America, says John Cole, and everything good too."and
"I know I can rely on the kindness of folk along the way. The ones that don’t try to rob me will feed me. That how it is in America."The novel constantly surprises: when the boys answer the ad hung awry on a saloon door in a broken-down Kansas town, “Clean Boys Wanted,” we prepare for the worst. Within pages we are jolly and laughing, then agonized and pained, then back again, our emotions rocketing despite the tamped-down telling. Our initial sense of extreme danger never really leaves us, but serves to prepare us for the Indian wars, those pitiful, personal slaughters, and the Civil War, which comes soon enough.
The most remarkable bits of this novel, the sense of a shared humanity within a wide diversity, seemed so natural and obvious and wonderful we wanted to crawl under that umbrella and shelter there. These fierce fighting men fought for each other rather than for an ideal. Their early lives were so precarious they’d formed alliances across race, religion, national origin when they were treated fair. “Don’t tell me a Irish is an example of civilised humanity…you‘re talking to two when you talk to one Irishman.”
And then there is the notion of time, if it is perceived at all by youth: “Time was not something then we thought of as an item that possessed an ending…” By the end of the novel, the characters do indeed perceive time: “I am doing that now as I write these words in Tennessee. I am thinking of the days without end of my life. And it is not like that now.” We have been changed, too, because we also perceive time, and sorrow and pain and those things that constitute joy. We have lived his life, and ours, too.
Barry gets so much right about the America he describes: the sun coming up earlier and earlier as one travels east, the desert-but-not-desert plains land, the generosity and occasional cooperation between the Indian tribes and the army come to dispatch them, the crazy deep thoughtless racism. But what made me catch my breath with wonder was the naturalness of the union between Thomasina McNulty and John Cole and the fierceness of the love these two army men had for an orphaned, laughing, high-spirited, bright star of an Indian girl they called Winona.
Barry understands absolutely that our diversity makes us stronger, better men. Leave the pinched and hateful exclusion of differentness to sectarian tribes, fighting for the old days. We know what the old days were like. We can do better. I haven’t read all the Man Booker longlist yet, but most, and this is at the top of my list. It is a treasure.
I had access to the Viking Penguin hardcopy of this novel--I'm still surprised at how small it is, given the expansive nature of the story--but I also had the audio from Hoopla. I needed both: the pace of the novel is swift, and may cause us to read faster than we ought. Barry writes poetically, which by rights should slow us down. The Blackstone Audio production, though read quickly by Aidan Kelly, allows us to catch things we will have missed in print and vice versa. At several stages in this novel, crises impel us forward. As we rush to see what happens, we may miss the beauty. Don't miss the beauty. Books like these are so very rare.
October 26, 2018
Πρέπει να σαι πολύ καλός συγγραφέας και να έχεις μια σπουδαία πένα για να καταφέρνεις μέσα σ’ ένα βιβλίο που αναφέρεται στον πόλεμο και στις κακουχίες που βιώνει κανείς μέσα σ’ αυτόν και να βγάζεις μια απίστευτη τρυφερότητα, αγάπη και απλότητα. Η λυρικότητα της γραφής ήταν απίστευτη και είναι αυτό που θα θυμάμαι περισσότερο από τούτο δω το βιβλίο παρά την ιστορία αυτή κάθε αυτή. Ωραίος ο Μπάρι. Στη μυστική γραφή δεν είχα ξετρελαθεί όμως το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο μπορούσε κάλλιστα ν αποτελέσει μάθημα σεμιναρίου για το πώς να γράφεται απλά και όμορφα χωρίς φτιασιδώματα και περιττές μεθόδους εντυπωσιασμού.
Shelved as 'did-not-finish'
August 2, 2017Wow, you know, this book is just really not for me. First I tried reading it in print and the language felt so archaic and forced, and part of me was resisting the idea of an Irishman writing a western, I think. My immediate gut reaction was a big nope.
But it's on the longlist for the Man Booker Prize! And people I respect have given it five stars!
I decided to try it on audio because it's available in Hoopla, but it's the kind of story where my brain just tunes it out. And it's weird to hear it in an Irish accent because the words LOOK like an American western. I understand the main character is an Irish immigrant but I suspect a dryer American plains voice would have been a better choice to communicate the feeling of the language. It just doesn't match, the voice with the words, the elevated words with the cowboy talk... it feels forced and fake and unrealistic. It's a hurdle I can't get over.
Clearly this book is a great experience for many. It is also clearly not a book I will force myself to finish.
But it's on the longlist for the Man Booker Prize! And people I respect have given it five stars!
I decided to try it on audio because it's available in Hoopla, but it's the kind of story where my brain just tunes it out. And it's weird to hear it in an Irish accent because the words LOOK like an American western. I understand the main character is an Irish immigrant but I suspect a dryer American plains voice would have been a better choice to communicate the feeling of the language. It just doesn't match, the voice with the words, the elevated words with the cowboy talk... it feels forced and fake and unrealistic. It's a hurdle I can't get over.
Clearly this book is a great experience for many. It is also clearly not a book I will force myself to finish.
February 6, 2017
3.5 stars
2016 Costa Book of the Year winner
Barry's prose as always is beautiful and vivid and he captures the most fateful years in America's past.
Days Without End is a coming of age story about friendship, survival love and the tragedies of war.
This is my fifth novel by Sebastian Barry and Days Without End has a connection with other novels by this author and the McNulty Family, this time we are introduced to Thomas an ancestor who is orphaned during the Irish Famine and at the age of 17 makes his ways to North America where he signs up for the US Army in the 1850s and befriends John Cole and they go on to fight in the Indian Wars and Ultimately the Civil War. While there is a small connection with other novels which feature the McNulty family this a very much stand alone novel as there is very little reference to Thomas McNulty's Irish past.
I always enjoy Barry's prose and stories as he manages to convey a wonderful sense of time and place in all of his novels. The massacres of the Indian nations I found difficult reading and so horrific but very realistic and well written. I wasn't so convinced by other elements of the story and found quite a lot of it improbable situations occurred in the plot.
I would have loved to have read this a as a book club read as it is a short novel and would make a great discussion book.
I enjoyed the book but
and
will stil remain my favorites by this author.
2016 Costa Book of the Year winner
Barry's prose as always is beautiful and vivid and he captures the most fateful years in America's past.
Days Without End is a coming of age story about friendship, survival love and the tragedies of war.
This is my fifth novel by Sebastian Barry and Days Without End has a connection with other novels by this author and the McNulty Family, this time we are introduced to Thomas an ancestor who is orphaned during the Irish Famine and at the age of 17 makes his ways to North America where he signs up for the US Army in the 1850s and befriends John Cole and they go on to fight in the Indian Wars and Ultimately the Civil War. While there is a small connection with other novels which feature the McNulty family this a very much stand alone novel as there is very little reference to Thomas McNulty's Irish past.
I always enjoy Barry's prose and stories as he manages to convey a wonderful sense of time and place in all of his novels. The massacres of the Indian nations I found difficult reading and so horrific but very realistic and well written. I wasn't so convinced by other elements of the story and found quite a lot of it improbable situations occurred in the plot.
I would have loved to have read this a as a book club read as it is a short novel and would make a great discussion book.
I enjoyed the book but
and
will stil remain my favorites by this author.
April 20, 2017
An entirely believable look at the life of the American soldier in the 1850s and 1860s, this novel succeeds due to its folksy dialect and a perfect balance between adventuresome spirit and repulsion at wartime carnage. While it shares some elements with Westerns and Civil War fiction, it’s unique in several ways. Though thrilling and episodic, it’s deeply thoughtful as well. Thomas writes semi-literate English but delivers profound, beautiful statements all the same. Lovely metaphors and memorable turns of phrase abound. Finally, this book is the most matter-of-fact consideration of same-sex relationships I’ve ever encountered in historical fiction. Heart-breaking, life-affirming, laugh-out-loud: these may be clichés, but here’s one novel that is all these things and more. Truly unforgettable.
See my full review at BookBrowse.
See also my related article on the Native American practice of winkte/berdache (cross-dressing).
See my full review at BookBrowse.
See also my related article on the Native American practice of winkte/berdache (cross-dressing).
August 1, 2023
This book tells us the story of Thomas McNultry's life in his own beautiful Irish voice. You can almost hear him aloud, that Irish accent sounding so beautifully clear, even when you read the story on paper like I did.
In the very beginning, somewhere around 1848, we find fourteen year old Thomas taking shelter from the rain under some bushes somewhere on the road to Missouri. He is hungry and only dressed in a old wheat sack tied at the waist, but that doesn't bother him in the slightest. He considers himself a lucky man. He survived the famine in Ireland, survived the passage to Canada between hundreds of hungry Irishmen in a ship's hold, survived the rampant fevers in the Canadian detention camps and managed to cross into America. He has been walking southwards ever since. Under that particular bush, he meets fifteen year old John Cole, his beloved friend for the rest of his life. When the rain has stopped, they walk together onwards to their mutual future. A future of good times and bad times but, whether good or bad, they have each other and that makes all the difference. Now Thomas continues to tell his story with John Cole at his side. Look at Thomas being a success in a burlesque show, look at Thomas and John in the army, killing Indians, which he regrets. Thomas displays no moral judgement about what he is doing, he has nothing against the Indians. He feels he is paid to do it, so he does. He is an ignorant boy. It sounds familiar, doesn't it! Then look at Thomas and John fighting the Confederates on the battle fields of the Civil War. His narrative of the actual combats go sometimes on for pages. His reports are shocking. I never read a more assiduous account of how it feels to find yourself in a man to man battle than as how Thomas recounts it to us. He does not hate the men he is stabbing down with his sable and even notes that, when looking them in the face in close combat, they resemble himself, just poor Irish boys who could have been from his hometown in Ireland. Himself a boy of seventeen or eighteen and having only a slight notion of what this war is about, he feels he must be on the right side as his opponents look so much worse for wear, skinny from hunger and most not even having been provided with shoes when fighting on the battlefields. After all the horrendous fighting, the war ends and the two boys go on. Thomas continues to describe their exploits in great detail, the bad and good decisions made, the travelling done on foot, mule or horse.
It was moving to read Thomas' tale because he was so unprejudiced to all and anything he encounters. His poetic, yet simple voice conjured up images of beauty and hardship. I must read more novels of Sebastian Barry, as he is a terrific writer. Wholeheartedly recommended.
In the very beginning, somewhere around 1848, we find fourteen year old Thomas taking shelter from the rain under some bushes somewhere on the road to Missouri. He is hungry and only dressed in a old wheat sack tied at the waist, but that doesn't bother him in the slightest. He considers himself a lucky man. He survived the famine in Ireland, survived the passage to Canada between hundreds of hungry Irishmen in a ship's hold, survived the rampant fevers in the Canadian detention camps and managed to cross into America. He has been walking southwards ever since. Under that particular bush, he meets fifteen year old John Cole, his beloved friend for the rest of his life. When the rain has stopped, they walk together onwards to their mutual future. A future of good times and bad times but, whether good or bad, they have each other and that makes all the difference. Now Thomas continues to tell his story with John Cole at his side. Look at Thomas being a success in a burlesque show, look at Thomas and John in the army, killing Indians, which he regrets. Thomas displays no moral judgement about what he is doing, he has nothing against the Indians. He feels he is paid to do it, so he does. He is an ignorant boy. It sounds familiar, doesn't it! Then look at Thomas and John fighting the Confederates on the battle fields of the Civil War. His narrative of the actual combats go sometimes on for pages. His reports are shocking. I never read a more assiduous account of how it feels to find yourself in a man to man battle than as how Thomas recounts it to us. He does not hate the men he is stabbing down with his sable and even notes that, when looking them in the face in close combat, they resemble himself, just poor Irish boys who could have been from his hometown in Ireland. Himself a boy of seventeen or eighteen and having only a slight notion of what this war is about, he feels he must be on the right side as his opponents look so much worse for wear, skinny from hunger and most not even having been provided with shoes when fighting on the battlefields. After all the horrendous fighting, the war ends and the two boys go on. Thomas continues to describe their exploits in great detail, the bad and good decisions made, the travelling done on foot, mule or horse.
It was moving to read Thomas' tale because he was so unprejudiced to all and anything he encounters. His poetic, yet simple voice conjured up images of beauty and hardship. I must read more novels of Sebastian Barry, as he is a terrific writer. Wholeheartedly recommended.
January 4, 2017
Days Without End: By the Hush
Sebastian Barry captures the essence of identity in exile with his most recent novel, Days Without End. Young Thomas McNulty has left his Irish Nation having lost his family to the Famine to seek his future in "Amerikay," as almost a million and a half of his fellow countrymen did.
At the tender age of seventeen, Thomas lands in America in 1850. Unlike the majority of Irish who settled in significant American urban centers, McNulty ends up in the unlikely location of Missouri. There he meets John Cole, also seventeen. Cole is on the road from his Massachusetts home, a bit of an exile himself.
Thomas and John throw in together as they strike out on the Oregon Trail. To support themselves the two respond to an advertisement to become cross dressed dancers, offering a bit of purported femininity to women starved miners along the trail. The appearance of youth disappears quickly, however. Another occupation must be found. Soldiering is the easy choice.
This is the Army of America's Manifest Destiny. Thomas and John become inured to the horror of war as their regiment is posted to California to rid the Gold Rush country of American Indians to provide land to greedy Forty-Niners. These Indians are not hostile. But they are an obstacle to American expansion. The two friends become part of a massacre of the peaceful Yurok Tribe.
Thomas ruminates on the draw of the Irish to soldiering.
Barry sends his two protagonists through the Plains Indian Wars, the American Civil War, and Reconstruction in relentless cycles of violence. Perhaps it is in an effort to cling to life that Thomas and John cling to one another in a bond greater than mere friendship.
This is a novel of incredible beauty. It is a novel that revels in the growth of identity, the meaning of love, friendship, and family. Barry layers the novel with one perfect sentence after another. It comes as no surprise that Barry began writing as a poet. He continues his expression in phrases of unparalled lyricism.
This is a cracking read with which I begin my year of reading in 2017. May it be on your bookshelf, too, this coming year.
Well it's by the hush, me boys, and sure that's to hold your noise
And listen to poor Paddy's sad narration
I was by hunger pressed, and in poverty distressed
So I took a thought I'd leave the Irish nation
-Paddy's Lamentation, Traditional, Author Unknown
“That’s why no one will talk,” reflects Thomas, feeling that what has happened is simply not accounted as a subject. “That’s because we were thought worthless. Nothing people. I guess that’s what it was. That thinking just burns through your brain for a while. Nothing but scum.”-Thomas McNulty, Days Without End
Sebastian Barry captures the essence of identity in exile with his most recent novel, Days Without End. Young Thomas McNulty has left his Irish Nation having lost his family to the Famine to seek his future in "Amerikay," as almost a million and a half of his fellow countrymen did.
At the tender age of seventeen, Thomas lands in America in 1850. Unlike the majority of Irish who settled in significant American urban centers, McNulty ends up in the unlikely location of Missouri. There he meets John Cole, also seventeen. Cole is on the road from his Massachusetts home, a bit of an exile himself.
Thomas and John throw in together as they strike out on the Oregon Trail. To support themselves the two respond to an advertisement to become cross dressed dancers, offering a bit of purported femininity to women starved miners along the trail. The appearance of youth disappears quickly, however. Another occupation must be found. Soldiering is the easy choice.
This is the Army of America's Manifest Destiny. Thomas and John become inured to the horror of war as their regiment is posted to California to rid the Gold Rush country of American Indians to provide land to greedy Forty-Niners. These Indians are not hostile. But they are an obstacle to American expansion. The two friends become part of a massacre of the peaceful Yurok Tribe.
Thomas ruminates on the draw of the Irish to soldiering.
“How we were able to see slaughter without flinching. Because we were nothing ourselves, to begin with...”
Barry sends his two protagonists through the Plains Indian Wars, the American Civil War, and Reconstruction in relentless cycles of violence. Perhaps it is in an effort to cling to life that Thomas and John cling to one another in a bond greater than mere friendship.
This is a novel of incredible beauty. It is a novel that revels in the growth of identity, the meaning of love, friendship, and family. Barry layers the novel with one perfect sentence after another. It comes as no surprise that Barry began writing as a poet. He continues his expression in phrases of unparalled lyricism.
This is a cracking read with which I begin my year of reading in 2017. May it be on your bookshelf, too, this coming year.
January 10, 2022
Thousands of novels have been set in the American West. Some have been good, others have been mediocre or worse, and a few have even been great. Writers such as Zane Grey, Max Brand, Ernest Haycox, Luke Short, and Louis L’Amour settled on winning formulas that could be tweaked from one book to the next. These were formulas that the reading public never seemed to grow tired of and they were formulas that attracted moviegoers to theaters. The popularity of the films even led to the western becoming the most filmed of all genres.
On the other hand, there have been a few novelists who brushed formulas aside when they sat down to write a western. Often these were writers who had never before written one and therefore felt free to experiment and stretch the genre. Furthermore, they might never write another one. As the cliché has it, they were one and done.
For example, Charles Portis never wrote another western after True Grit; John Williams’ sole contribution to the genre was Butcher’s Crossing; and E.L. Doctorow’s debut novel, Welcome to Hard Times, was his only western. And yet, the first is a true classic; the second is great; and the third mighty good.
Rather than being traditional westerns, they are examples of historical fiction that happen to be set in the West. They could even be called literary westerns. Days Without End is such an example.
I certainly never expected to read a western written by an Irish poet, playwright, and novelist. But now I have and it was a pleasant surprise.
Since I had read Barry’s WWI novel, A Long Long Way, I knew he was a great writer. That book belongs in the top tier of novels about that conflict. But a story set in the American West? That was unexpected.
“I am thinking of the days without end of my life. And it is not like that now.” – Thomas McNulty
The story is narrated by an Irish immigrant named Thomas McNulty who is looking back at events beginning with his emigration to America at age fifteen. His father, mother, and sister perished during the “Great Irish Famine" (1845-1849), what was sometimes referred to as the “Potato Famine” in other countries. He not only survived the famine, he also survived the often deadly voyage across the Atlantic in one of the so-called “coffin ships,” eventually making his way to the Missouri frontier where he accidentally meets up with thirteen-year old John Cole ('two wood-shavings of humanity in a rough world'), who had traveled west in an attempt to escape his impoverished existence in New England. The two would become lifelong friends and companions, even lovers.
I mention the latter matter-of-factly, because that is exactly the fashion in which Barry introduced the subject in the story. And of course it is also represents an extreme departure from the traditional western formula.
Because jobs are scarce to come by and in order to stave off hunger, the two young men enlist in the U.S. cavalry and find themselves fighting in the violent campaigns against the Indians. After leaving the army in the West they later enlist in the Union army during the Civil War. As in their former service they once again witness the chaotic and unnecessary violence of warfare. The battle scenes in both conflicts are explicit and historically accurate, but never gratuitous.
Yes, it is a story about war, but it is also a story about love, compassion, and family. And the whole thing is enhanced by the fact that through Barry’s lyrical prose you can hear Thomas McNulty’s Irish brogue in your mind’s ear.
I suspect Barry will never write another western, but I’m glad he wrote this one. Thousands of western novels may have been written, but this is one that breaks the mould.
I just discovered that many of my GR friends had read and loved this book and I have read their wonderful reviews. But I am especially indebted to Connie, for it was her excellent review that first brought the book to my attention.
On the other hand, there have been a few novelists who brushed formulas aside when they sat down to write a western. Often these were writers who had never before written one and therefore felt free to experiment and stretch the genre. Furthermore, they might never write another one. As the cliché has it, they were one and done.
For example, Charles Portis never wrote another western after True Grit; John Williams’ sole contribution to the genre was Butcher’s Crossing; and E.L. Doctorow’s debut novel, Welcome to Hard Times, was his only western. And yet, the first is a true classic; the second is great; and the third mighty good.
Rather than being traditional westerns, they are examples of historical fiction that happen to be set in the West. They could even be called literary westerns. Days Without End is such an example.
I certainly never expected to read a western written by an Irish poet, playwright, and novelist. But now I have and it was a pleasant surprise.
Since I had read Barry’s WWI novel, A Long Long Way, I knew he was a great writer. That book belongs in the top tier of novels about that conflict. But a story set in the American West? That was unexpected.
“I am thinking of the days without end of my life. And it is not like that now.” – Thomas McNulty
The story is narrated by an Irish immigrant named Thomas McNulty who is looking back at events beginning with his emigration to America at age fifteen. His father, mother, and sister perished during the “Great Irish Famine" (1845-1849), what was sometimes referred to as the “Potato Famine” in other countries. He not only survived the famine, he also survived the often deadly voyage across the Atlantic in one of the so-called “coffin ships,” eventually making his way to the Missouri frontier where he accidentally meets up with thirteen-year old John Cole ('two wood-shavings of humanity in a rough world'), who had traveled west in an attempt to escape his impoverished existence in New England. The two would become lifelong friends and companions, even lovers.
I mention the latter matter-of-factly, because that is exactly the fashion in which Barry introduced the subject in the story. And of course it is also represents an extreme departure from the traditional western formula.
Because jobs are scarce to come by and in order to stave off hunger, the two young men enlist in the U.S. cavalry and find themselves fighting in the violent campaigns against the Indians. After leaving the army in the West they later enlist in the Union army during the Civil War. As in their former service they once again witness the chaotic and unnecessary violence of warfare. The battle scenes in both conflicts are explicit and historically accurate, but never gratuitous.
Yes, it is a story about war, but it is also a story about love, compassion, and family. And the whole thing is enhanced by the fact that through Barry’s lyrical prose you can hear Thomas McNulty’s Irish brogue in your mind’s ear.
I suspect Barry will never write another western, but I’m glad he wrote this one. Thousands of western novels may have been written, but this is one that breaks the mould.
I just discovered that many of my GR friends had read and loved this book and I have read their wonderful reviews. But I am especially indebted to Connie, for it was her excellent review that first brought the book to my attention.
November 9, 2017
Finally finished this vividly imagined, intoxicating tale on querness, violence and atrocious American history. I'm drained, elated, enraptured and sickened to be on the roller coater ride with dancing boys dressed as women to the same boys joining army and brutally killing Indians.
The language is a hearty made-up vernacular worthy of Mark Twain. Stick with it, you'll be glad you did.
And to you Mr. Barry, I beg you to please let me sit and stare at you when you write. Iet me be your slave.
The language is a hearty made-up vernacular worthy of Mark Twain. Stick with it, you'll be glad you did.
And to you Mr. Barry, I beg you to please let me sit and stare at you when you write. Iet me be your slave.
March 23, 2020
The thing I like most about this book is the very concept: that it follows two men, one of whom has a perhaps more complicated gender identity, as they adopt a daughter together during the Great Plains First Nations Wars. The thing I enjoy less about this book is… that is all I have to enjoy.
The whole point of this book is to recount the very upsetting events with a dry tongue, which makes for a narrative that takes time and effort to find the light spots beneath. It is a book that does not give up its emotions easily. Indeed, protagonist Thomas McNulty, a little-educated Irish immigrant,
I would be interested to see reviews written on this book by people more familiar with this history and specifically by Native American people. While the book clearly has no love for anti-Native rhetoric, it also has very little to actually say on the topic. Winona stuck out in my mind as a character I rooted for easily, but in writing this review it struck me that I know very little about her as a person.
With some caveats, I think the book in general functions best as a historical account than anything else. We know Thomas McNulty and John Cole are in love, and we root for them as our protagonists, but we barely get to know anything about them as people. I doubt I could give you a suitable description of the characterization of either one. Characterization doesn’t have to be the end all be all of a book, but I definitely craved more.
The thing I like most about this book is the very concept: that it follows two men, one of whom has a perhaps more complicated gender identity, as they adopt a daughter together. I like queer historical fiction because I am gay and I really enjoy the idea that even in the past, when there was almost no space for it, people like me existed and thrived. I don’t know enough about the topic to judge whether this is an accurate historical account, but I am aware the author did a huge amount of research.
If a fairly play-by-play historical account of the Indian Wars and The Civil War that utilizes a backdrop of gender and sexuality sounds like your thing, I think this will hit you very hard. I wish I had more thoughts of depth about this.
Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Spotify | Youtube | About |
The whole point of this book is to recount the very upsetting events with a dry tongue, which makes for a narrative that takes time and effort to find the light spots beneath. It is a book that does not give up its emotions easily. Indeed, protagonist Thomas McNulty, a little-educated Irish immigrant,
I would be interested to see reviews written on this book by people more familiar with this history and specifically by Native American people. While the book clearly has no love for anti-Native rhetoric, it also has very little to actually say on the topic. Winona stuck out in my mind as a character I rooted for easily, but in writing this review it struck me that I know very little about her as a person.
With some caveats, I think the book in general functions best as a historical account than anything else. We know Thomas McNulty and John Cole are in love, and we root for them as our protagonists, but we barely get to know anything about them as people. I doubt I could give you a suitable description of the characterization of either one. Characterization doesn’t have to be the end all be all of a book, but I definitely craved more.
The thing I like most about this book is the very concept: that it follows two men, one of whom has a perhaps more complicated gender identity, as they adopt a daughter together. I like queer historical fiction because I am gay and I really enjoy the idea that even in the past, when there was almost no space for it, people like me existed and thrived. I don’t know enough about the topic to judge whether this is an accurate historical account, but I am aware the author did a huge amount of research.
If a fairly play-by-play historical account of the Indian Wars and The Civil War that utilizes a backdrop of gender and sexuality sounds like your thing, I think this will hit you very hard. I wish I had more thoughts of depth about this.
Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Spotify | Youtube | About |
November 14, 2019
Wow! After a forced hiatus of over a month from reading, this was a magnificent way to get back again. Sebastian Barry has quickly become one of those authors I just know I can trust, so that there is excitement just holding the book before I even turn page one.
This story is brutal. It reminds us that our nation has not had an easy birth and that it has been baptised in blood more than once along the way. Both the Indian wars and the Civil war are depicted here, and both are told in stark terms that leave no doubt as to the horrors they possessed. But, beneath that, there is the story of the individuals, Thomas McNulty, John Cole and Winona, and those stories are sweet and serve to remind us that men are neither good nor bad sometimes, but often a mixture of the two that is perplexing and mysterious.
I would not give away one word of this plot, since the development of the story and the characters goes hand and hand. There are more than a few surprises and depictions of life’s incongruities, and moments that made me want to gasp aloud but from which I could not turn away.
I must say I could well relate to Thomas McNulty’s thoughts in the passage from which the book takes its name:
Time was not something then we thought of as an item that possessed an ending, but something that would go on forever, all rested and stopped in that moment. Hard to say what I mean by that. You look back at all the endless years when you never had that thought. I am doing that now as I write these words in Tennessee. I am thinking of the days without end of my life.
I also remember a time when thoughts of any end had no real meaning at all. It was easy to feel immortal. It is harder at my age. The end lurks too near to be ignored; too many have already preceded me into the next world.
This story is brutal. It reminds us that our nation has not had an easy birth and that it has been baptised in blood more than once along the way. Both the Indian wars and the Civil war are depicted here, and both are told in stark terms that leave no doubt as to the horrors they possessed. But, beneath that, there is the story of the individuals, Thomas McNulty, John Cole and Winona, and those stories are sweet and serve to remind us that men are neither good nor bad sometimes, but often a mixture of the two that is perplexing and mysterious.
I would not give away one word of this plot, since the development of the story and the characters goes hand and hand. There are more than a few surprises and depictions of life’s incongruities, and moments that made me want to gasp aloud but from which I could not turn away.
I must say I could well relate to Thomas McNulty’s thoughts in the passage from which the book takes its name:
Time was not something then we thought of as an item that possessed an ending, but something that would go on forever, all rested and stopped in that moment. Hard to say what I mean by that. You look back at all the endless years when you never had that thought. I am doing that now as I write these words in Tennessee. I am thinking of the days without end of my life.
I also remember a time when thoughts of any end had no real meaning at all. It was easy to feel immortal. It is harder at my age. The end lurks too near to be ignored; too many have already preceded me into the next world.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,508 reviews