#dayswithoutend

Review: Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

by Justine McGrath

A tale of man’s ‘inhumanity to man’ and the redemptive power of love, set during the Indian wars and the American Civil War of the 1850s.

Sebastian Barry is the first novelist to win the Costa Book of the Year award twice, with it only ever having been won twice before by the poets Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes. Sebastian Barry had previously won the award for The Secret Scripture in 2008. Both novels are deserved winners, in my opinion. 

Sebastian Barry is a master, not just of writing incandescent prose, but of crafting stories of such human complexity and beauty, that you are left reeling with emotion by the end of the book.  

This story is told as a first-person narrative by Thomas McNulty. He is the son of a butter exporter from Sligo, who manages to escape the horror of the Irish Famine in 1847, and steal aboard a cargo ship headed for Canada. He is only 13 but has witnessed the horror of seeing both his mother and sister killed by the famine. He begins his young life already unshockable and world weary. As he witnessed thousands trying to escape the famine but dying on the journey to freedom, he states how futile it all seems:

“The point is, we were nothing. No one wanted us. Canada was a-feared of us. We were a plague.”

Thomas then makes his way to America, and ends up in a place called Daggsville Missouri, after meeting John Cole under a hedge sheltering from the rain. The two boys instantly become firm friends.

They see a sign for ‘clean boys wanted’ and they apply to a Mr. Titus Noone, who employs them for 50 cents a night to dress up as two women and dance and entertain the miners.  They form a lifelong friendship with Titus Noone, who becomes a sort of surrogate father.  Thomas’ love of dressing as a woman remains with him throughout his life, and we are given a glimpse into the complex nature of his own sexuality:

“I feel a woman more than I ever felt a man, though I were a fighting man most of my days.”

As the two young boys grow into men they have to give up the show, and they decide to enrol in the United States army together, trekking across the Oregon trail towards California. This is the start of a journey that will take them through several horrific battles, first against various Indian tribes, and latterly as ‘blue coats’ fighting on the side of Lincoln in the American Civil War.

The deep and enduring love between John Cole and Thomas McNulty is clear from the start. Thomas respects his quiet companion from early on:

‘You had to love John Cole for what he chose never to say.’

Barry portrays their relationship with such dignity, and in so understated a manner, that as the reader we appreciate the intensity of their relationship all the more. Their sexual desires are only referred to directly once throughout the whole course of the novel:

‘And then we quietly fucked and then we slept.’

Thomas McNulty refers to John Cole many times as his ‘beau’ and his ‘love,’ and the deep admiration and respect they have for each other is touching, and heart breaking without being sentimental.

The novel draws on several key relationships throughout. The boys meet Major Neale early on during the war, and he will become an essential part of their lives. They see comrades die and they forge bonds for life with other army soldiers who help them.  

However, the love that binds Thomas and John Cole even closer together is that for a little Sioux Indian girl called Winona, who they unwittingly and informally adopt and grow to love as a daughter.  

It is their love for Winona which is transformative and ensures their will to survive, and their redemption.

The relationships amongst the horror of war drive the point of this magnificent story home – love will triumph. It is grief that causes the Major to act in a way wholly foreign to him, it is love which causes him to act for Thomas, and it is love which causes both Thomas and John to do everything in their power to protect and nurture Winona.

Characters that the men meet during the war become integral parts of the rich tapestry of the tale, and their actions prove that people will do anything to protect or defend those they love. Loyalty reigns supreme.

There is sentence upon sentence of perfectly placed words, so much so, that I found myself writing down pages of quotes from the novel, in sheer delight at their beauty.  

This is a story of the dichotomy of the savagery of man, tied up with his desire for justice and goodness. The complexity of human nature is evident through the many choices and dilemmas faced by Thomas and John. They are simply doing their best at any given time to survive in the harshest and craziest of worlds.

As Thomas philosophically puts it:

“We have our store of days and we spend them like forgetful drunkards.”

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is unforgettable.