Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

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.