NOT Pynch - Milkman!

[Becky Lindroos]

Did I mention here that Milkman by Anna Burns (the 2018 Booker Prize winner) is brilliant?  I’m rereading it and want to have yet another go,  a 3rd reading.  It’s subversive somewhat experimental, maybe a bit allegorical.  The language is inventive and spot-on. There’s a huge feminist aspect to it.  

Thematically it’s about tribalism in troubled times and the dangers of NOT openly taking sides for any reason and the rumors, assumptions and gossipy consequences of trying that.  It’s also about the use of power, oppression, identity, surveillance and resistance from outside the tribe as well as within it.  It’s about the place of individuality and feminism in times of upheaval - dangerous - kind of forbidden.    

The setting is Belfast during the tumultuous 1970s,  but that’s never stated because it’s obvious. The characters are also unnamed for several good reasons - number one is that secrets abound in this paranoid time and place.  The absence of names also helps to establish the distance needed for a lightly allegorical aspect.  And by not naming them,  individuals are reduced to their “place” and “relationships,” like “middle sister” or “maybe-boyfriend” or maybe their groups “wee sisters.”  

I think maybe especially the women here would like it but, given the nature of the group,  I think everyone might.  

Has anyone read it already? 

Becky
https://beckylindroos.wordpress.com