On page 15 of Toni Morrison's 'Home,' there is this, about a soldier:
"And the memories that had ripened at Fort Lawton, from where, no sooner than discharged, he had begun to wander."
It appears to be a misuse of the construction 'no sooner A than B' which is a device to emphasize how fast an event occurs by dramatically denying reality: the real sequence of events is that A precedes B, but B happens so fast that the observer has the impression that the two events are bunched together or even that their sequence reversed.
The correct phrasing should be something like:
"as soon as discharged, he had begun to wander"
"no sooner discharged than he had begun to wander"
Even the masters goof sometimes.
Isn't that true!
Dang, he's right! I was going to disagree, Rafee—it sounded so natural when I read it at first—but after thinking about it carefully (my lips moving surreptitiously) I saw what you were driving at. Good catch, Rafee.