We are thrown into the middle of the Troubles and nothing is explained: all we have is the girl’s whirring brain, trying to make sense of things that happen to her and the people in her heavily controlled community. The girl gives us all these relationships in a big, interconnected web. People just have labels: maybe-boyfriend, third-brother-in-law, eldest sister, Somebody McSomebody, ma. The girl has no name because we don’t think of ourselves by name. The reader is expected to do a bit of work, here. We’re so far inside the girl’s head there’s a lot we must take for granted. There was no milk about him.” No, he’s a gang-boss thug and one of the creepiest characters I’ve met in recent literature. She gives you it all, Northern Ireland in the 1970s through the eyes of a teenager who is trying to go about her life: work, family, boyfriend and avoid the big picture unavoidable stuff – like car bombs and the paramilitary, tribalism and her disturbing stalker, the Milkman. It’s one girl yabbering non-stop into your ear endlessly. To be sure (to be sure) this is one for a book club ready for a bit of a shot in the arm. I don’t know many people who loved it straight off. Eagerly ready, in fact, which is the sign of a good book. A year after nearly expiring from the sheer weight of reading it the first time I’m ready to go again. Milkman was destined for my Books that don’t make the cut list, but I’ve had second thoughts and decided I really do love it.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |