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.

Marlena-Troubled Teens' Fast and Furious Friendship

"Marlena" is a novel by Julie Buntin who writes about 2 teenage girls from broken homes who find refuge & in each other.   Catherine "Cat" is 15 when she moves to the desolate MI town with her mother & older brother, Jimmy, after her father abandons the family.  "There aren't words for the catastrophic dreariness of being 15 in northern MI at the tail end of winter."  The move takes her from her privileged private school (on academic scholarship) to the public high school and a rundown home which Cat's mother can barely afford.  Jimmy defers his college scholarship so he can be the breadwinner.  They move across the street from Marlena, 17, who lives in a run down barn with her dad & younger brother, Sal.  Marlena's mom left their family leaving Marlena to care Sal while dad is either making/selling meth or getting high.  We know from the start that this coming of age story ends tragically for Marlena a year after they meet & Cat now as a working woman in NYC has her own battles with alcohol.  Although the novel deals with very harsh issues of drug addiction & sexual abuse it's also about the power of friendship as a teen that overshadows everything else.  "A best friend is a magic thing, like finding a stump full of water that will make you live forever."  A cautionary tale of self-destruction, family dysfunction and the intense bond of teen friendship that is a driving force of youth.

"The Hearts of Men" a Novel by Nikolas Butler-"Lord of the Flies" and the Continuing Adult Saga

"The Hearts of Men" begins in the summer of 1962 with our young hero, Nelson Doughty, a pre-teen at Boy Scout Camp in norther WI.   We feel empathy for Nelson dubbed ignominiously "Bugler"for his bugle playing reveille & taps.  He is either ostracized or tormented by fellow campers.   There's one older boy, Jonathan Quick, who parcels out acts of kindness that Nelson so desperately seeks.  Quick is not the wholesome, decent person Nelson at first believes.  The camp trauma is eerily reminiscent of "Lord of the Flies" with "Bugler" as "Piggy." The novel is most compelling as the reader becomes an onlooker to the cruelties inflicted on Nelson.  The abuse is egregious & the reader, complicit.  The flagrant attrocities are commited under the noses of adults, not on an abandoned island without adults.  Before departing camp, the director tells Nelson he will become a leader of men; he rises above the rabble.  His solicitous behavior sways a naive Nelson to unwittingly betray the older campers.  The atrocious behavior of the boys towards Nelson evokes our sympathy yet it's also off-putting.  The novel's intensity & interest wobbles as the author brings the characters into adulthood. Nelson is at the knot holding the story together.  The author trails Jonathan's adulthood, adultry and parenting.  The blazing beginning smolders into a weary paragon of decency, loyalty and human frailty.  Jonathan does merit a valid parenting tip. "Try to remain silent however long it takes.  Most of the time parenting is like a contractual negotiation.  Let them spill their guts."  Jonathan has a pragmatic perspective on life which at times seems callous & calculating.  But he does try to mentor his son to navigate in a grown-up world.  "It is a difficult thing, you see, to be a good man.  The whole world will try their level best to make you swerve, to bend your principles."  Butler gives marriage a terrible rap but he also lashes out against guns & war.  Trying to conceive what happens to boys who grapple with a "Lord of the Flies"firestorm is intriguing, unfortunately, "The Hearts of Men" implodes in adulthood.  

Lincoln at the Bardo by George Saunders-A Novel Unlike Anything You're Thinkin'

George Saunders (b Amer) is an award winning writing of short stories ("The 10th of December") essays & novels.  His novel, "Lincoln at the Bardo" is a work of genius unlike anything I have read.  I highly recommend this profound theological perusal & anecdotedly footnoted historic study.   It's also a poignant reflection on grief & empathy.  Most assuredly, it's a lyrical affirmation of the wonders of life.  Nonetheless, its multiple narratives by the dead may repel many as macabre.  Perhaps some, believing the religious afterlife sacrosanct, will find the novel impertinent.  I argue the novel's wisdom is its unifying empathy for humanity.  Bardo is a term for the existence between death & rebirth which varies for each individual and determined by the life they've lead & age at the time of their death.  The novel combines factual history pertaining to Pres Lincoln & the Civil War and the President's painful grieving process for his son Willi.  Willi died at age 11 during the 1st year of the Civil War.  Pres Lincoln's personal, abysmal suffering is compounded with the understanding of the suffering the war is inflicting to so many under his command.  "Sorrow was not uniquely his.  All were in sorrow, or had been or soon would be."  Willi is laid to rest by his unconsolable father.  Willi's spirit becomes tethered to an afterlife in the graveyard where he is mentored by fellow spirits who've remained in a state of bardo. These ghostly beings learn from Willi the ability to immerse themselves into the beings of both the living and the dead and by doing so, fully come to understand, admire & respect the the other person.  "One must try to remember that all were suffering "none content; all wronged, neglected, overlooked, misunderstood, and therefore one must do what one could to lighten the load of those with whom one came into contact."  "Lincoln at the Bardot" so eloquently & uniquely speaks to the universal right for freedom and the cruelty of the oppressed.   Saunder's exceptional novel is a eulogy for the shared torment of loss & an ode to the limitless bounty of beauty found in nature & life.

Min Jin Lee's "Pachinko" Portrays Japanese 20thC Dominance over Koreans

"Pachinko," by Korean American writer Min Jin Lee (b S Korea 1968) is historic fiction that follows the threads of a Korean family from 1910-1989.  Pachinko refers to pinball gambling machine.  The pachinko "gambling" operations were one of the few business Koreans were able to run.  A few Koreans prospered greatly while many gambled away their meager earnings to these tampered machines.   The gangster image of the pachinko operators were stereotypical.  So too were the Japanese negative generalization of Koreans as criminal, lazy, filthy and aggressive.  Lee's family saga is a deceptively simple overlay to the overt hatred & oppression of Japanese towards Koreans in the 20thC.  The Japanese thought Koreans were worth so little, fit only for the dity, dangerous & demeaning task.  The novel begins in a 1910 in a peasant, fishing village.  Korea has been annexed by Japan for nearly 3 decades.  The matriach of the family is Sunja.  Sunja is the daughter of an arranged marriage between 2 impoverished families.  As a young woman she encounters the older, affluent Korean, Hansu in the village's marketplace. He will steer the course of the rest of her life.  Hansu's fortune stems from racketeering & pachinkos.  He's fluent in both Korean/Japanese & able to straddle successfully both societies.  He maintains a menacing authority figure.  Sunja was easily seduced & became pregnant by Hansu whose already married.  His offer to support her & the child are ignoble & unacceptable. Sunja is married by a Korean minister as a Christian act of magnanimity.  They return as a couple to Japan.  There, Sunja gives birth to Hansu's biological son, Noa. The novel highlights the reckoning of Eastern & Western religions & philosophies.  We also learn how Koreans were forced to live every day in the presence of those who refused to acknowledge their humanity.  Hansu didn't believe in nationalism or religion.  He believed in education, money & power.  So unravels 4 generations of a Korean family suppressed by the Japanese.  Life was a constant struggle for survival.  There were dire hardships, deprivations & devastations from WWII.  Hansu comes to the rescue of Sanju & Noa countless times. The soap opera plot enfolds spaning decades, revealing the loathing, oppression & maltreatment of Koreans by the Japanese.  Discrimination & persecution persisted after WWII Japan despite Japan no longer reigning Korea. Returning to an embattled Korea was not a safe option.  Koreans born & living in Japan were required to register as foreigners & remained subject to deportation.  Despite Noa's education & ethical behavior "He was a Korean, after all, and no matter how appealing his personality, unfortunately he belonged to a cunning and willy tribe."

Irish Author Patrick McCabe's "The Butcher Boy" Shortlisted for Man Booker Prize

Before starting "The Butcher Boy" note, this is an arduous read that is both revolting and sublime.  Patrick McCabe (b Ireland 1955) has twice been nominated for the Man Booker.  This aching tale of a deeply disturbed and destructive young man takes us inside the head of its protagonist, Francie Brady.  McCabe's writing captures the unique Irish cadence & social dynamics of an impoverished, small rural town where drunkeness is the norm.  Not everyone in town is down on their luck.  The Nugent family, has a son Phillip the same age as Francie.  They are among the elite who look down their noses on those below them on the pecking order.  Mrs Nugent is the chief hen of the haughty crowd.  She publicly shames Francie's mother after he & his best mate, Joe Purcell, steal Phillip Nugent's comics, calling the family filthy pigs.  It's clear early on that Mrs Nugent is Francie's nemesis.  The enmity Francie feels towards Mrs Nugent is fueled by every hard knock Francie gets in life.  True, Francie is also his own worst enemy and his abhorrent behavior we know will only end atrociously is countered by empathy we feel for him.   Francie is not without deep feelings for his alcoholic pa, clinically depressed ma and boyhood friend, Joe.  Joe & his parents prosper while Francie's own mental state deteriorate.  Nonetheless, its Joe's feelings of anathema & jealous towards the Nugents and neediness for affection that is not forthcoming from his folks or his friend that confound our growing attachment & repulsion towards him.  McCabe's brilliantly brutal novel is comparable to "Catcher in the Rye" & "A Girl is a Half-formed Thing" but even more intense & horrifying.   McCabe's scorching novel  evokes feelings of compassion & sorrow for Francie's misfortune and madness in spite of his heinous actions.   In Francie's world, "All the beautiful things of the world are lies.  They count for nothing in the end."