Status Updates From Zile fără sfârşit

20. Brutalities. shocking chapter. Winona saved but no mercy for Major Neal (or Sterling Carlton), who is now beyond redemption.

Winona the only soul not thrown on the bonefire. She seen the worst and seen it before. It makes her silent, so silent the silence of winter is like a clattering.

Word so black they were blacker than dried blood

Gruesome, savage slaughter and in the middle of carnage, Thomas goes for Winona to bring her to safety.

19. The exchange of Winona Cole for Angel Neale.

Hardly any action, possibly my favourite chapter in the book

Winona, the Queen of this o’erwhelming country. God damn it but a corporeal best not weep.

If ever you forget why this book is so dear, look up p249 again. There you’ll find Thomas McNulty showing a whole lot of humanity in a handful of thoughts…

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.

Two weeks with Startling Carlton would wear out St. Paul. I’m so hungry I could eat the head off John the Baptist…

As said before, McNulty’s vocabulary, grammar and spelling can get rather tiresome, but I love it when out of the blue he shows his depth, going all biblical or referring to the Greek classics, as he does.

Every life has its days of happiness despite the ugly Fates.

18. Farming at Lige’s. And a shoot-out with Tach Petrie’s gang.

The vernacular sometimes irritates. Remarkable that even without a proper sentence, the meaning does not get lost…

You could arrest sunlight for attempted murder out on the plains.

17. Suspense, ambush and shots fired. Concerns for Winona. All of a sudden it’s become a captivating pageturner, while Thomas’ voice hasn’t changed. It’s probably the human dimension compared to the mass action of war. And yet, Th. account keeps a distance and lets the beating heart sound through ever so slightly.

16. After much hardship in the camp, returning to Titus Noone, Mr. McSweney and Winona. Long time needed to recover and never get back to their young selves (despite not even being thirty). Then Thomas & John Cole get married by a half-blind priest and, together with Winona, leave for Lige Magan’s farm down south.

Men so sick they are dying of death.

15. Southern prison camp. Amidst war crimes, torture and hunger and threat, all bluecoats must try for months on end to survive. And then at the last sentence, an inkling of proof that love is still around. Nothing sentimental, just the slightest sense of connection…