NOT Pynch - Milkman!

[Toby Levy]

That's funny. I didn't think it was all that wonderful. I found the
weirdness of her style annoying rather than appealing.  Of all the other
Booker nominees I think I liked that one the least. She had an important
story to tell and was as if she was muffling it by making it hard to
understand. When plot broke through, I was fascinated, but unfortunately
that was seldom as she spent the majority of the book "riffing." The other
booker nominee last year I wasn't crazy about was "Everything Under" by
Daisy Johnson. I really liked the book length poem by Robin Robertson about
shell shocked vets after world war II. And the other three I just adored,
telling great stories in a compelling and engrossing manner. But overall a
better than average year for the booker short list.

Toby

On Mon, Feb 11, 2019 at 11:02 AM Becky Lindroos <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
wrote:

> 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
>
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>