Irish Writer Sebastian Barry's "Days Without End" An Endless Odyssey of Grandeur & Devastation

Sebastian Barry (b Ireland 1955) is considered one of Ireland most distinguished authors & poets.  His eloquent stories are mainly set in his native Ireland.  "Days Without End" is a remarkable, historic epic.  Our hero is Irish born Thomas McNulty.  He shares his life story starting with his  sadistic trans Atlantic crossing in a cargo ship to the U.S.  He sails alone as a young man in the early 19th C.  "A man's memory might have only a 100 clear days in it & he has lived thousands."  Thomas must fend for himself in the harsh new world.  Tom's indefatigable human will gives homage to surviving as a victory.  He has a strange & fateful encounter with a young John Cole.  In Cole, he finds a "Friend for a whole life.  We were two wood-shavings of humanity in a rough world."  Together the two journey through an extraordinary odyssey.  They experience the savagery of battle for the Union Army.  After the war they enlist as troopers & ordered to annihilate the Indians.  During the Civil War Tom notes "Killing the Confederates was not like running at Indians who are not your kind but it is running at a mirror of yourself."  After the War, "Our work was to be the Indians.  People wanted rid of them.  Wanted them routed out."  Tom understood they were plain & simple killers; like no other killers that had ever been.  The pain & injustice never set right in their hearts.  Amidst the carnage & mayhem, Tom & John found their passion for each other in an unknown realm as lovers.  They also forged a paternal bond for an Indian girl whose entire tribe was slaughtered by their troops.  Together, they raise her lovingly as their daughter.  Barry is an exceptionally gifted writer.  In "Days Without End, Tom's voice is reminiscent of the free thinking Huck Finn, one who sees the ills in the world but dares to carve his own courageous path of love, friendship and decency.  I strongly recommend this finely crafted & beautifully told tale.  

The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan-Listed for Nat'l Book Award

Karan Mahajan was born in American in 1984 and raised in India.  His 2nd novel "The Association of Small Bombs" earned him an Anisfield-Wolf Award ('17) and was long listed for this year's Nat'l Book Award.   The ambitious storytelling is told from a cast of characters, from victims to terrorists.  The havoc of the deadly explosions is powerful.  The aftermath of the carnage is felt from the survivors, their families and from the perpetrators.  Frustration, hostility and swift illogical vengeance are at the corrosive center of this devastating novel.  The perpetual quest for reprisal & vindication for violence give this novel its unrelenting pulse.  Mahajan's characters are religious zealots or dissociated people grasping for meaning in their lives.  The prison system is unveiled for its corrupt & horrific systematic  torture.  The novel takes an oppressive position of violence.  The world needs to function through force & brutality.  The ability to make people empathize felt futile.   "I had always thought you had to educate others about your pain, show them how to solve it.  Now I realize you have to make them feel it."  Mahajan refers to 9/11 as a more heroic endeavor in arousing awareness than perpetual bombings that take the lives of fewer people.  The writing is gripping and intelligent.  Still, I found this a burdensome read that left me tattered.  "People say 9/11 was the worst terror attack of all time-was it?  I think the small bombs that we hear about all the time, that go off in unknown markets, killing five or six, are worse.  They concentrate the pain on the lives of a few.  Better to kill generously rather than stingily."  The irrational perpetuating thirst for revenge rather than peaceful discourse of reason proved omnipotent.