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A review by andrewspink
Milkman by Anna Burns
5.0
Here are seven reasons to read this book:
1. The writing style is really something special. The most noticeable aspect is that (almost) none of the characters have names, they are always referred to by their relationship to the protagonist. I liked that a lot for the simple reason that I am someone who always has great difficulty remembering what the names of all the characters are in a book and this book removes that problem nicely. It is of course the author probably didn't do this purely to help out people like me but it is also a nice literary device for emphasizing that in the situation the main character finds herself in, she is often reduced to only being something in relation to other people.
2. The plot is gripping and unpredictable. Some novels are too much just plot-driven (some rubbish thrillers for example) and others have no plot, so that with nothing happening it just gets boring, but this one was just right; enough plot to drive it, but more to it than that.
3. The first-person perspective is very nicely done. Everything is from her point of view, which means that we miss a lot of information. Just enough to keep the suspense up.
4. It is very specific to a particular time and space, but with universal significance.
5. It explains something of what it must have been like to live through the Troubles. In the seventies, when that was going on in the North of Ireland, I was living 'over the water' in England and of course we heard all about the bombings and killings, the tarring and feathering, the hatred and suspicion and when I was older I got to know some people from there. However, of course we got a filtered version of what went on and a different filter was very interesting.
6. From time to time it is very amusing.
7. It explains the feminist perspective that the way women are treated is to do with the power structures in society; not by lecturing but by story-telling.
Nice quote: "No one has ever come across a cat apologizing and if a cat did, it would patently be obvious that it was not sincere".
1. The writing style is really something special. The most noticeable aspect is that (almost) none of the characters have names, they are always referred to by their relationship to the protagonist. I liked that a lot for the simple reason that I am someone who always has great difficulty remembering what the names of all the characters are in a book and this book removes that problem nicely. It is of course the author probably didn't do this purely to help out people like me but it is also a nice literary device for emphasizing that in the situation the main character finds herself in, she is often reduced to only being something in relation to other people.
2. The plot is gripping and unpredictable. Some novels are too much just plot-driven (some rubbish thrillers for example) and others have no plot, so that with nothing happening it just gets boring, but this one was just right; enough plot to drive it, but more to it than that.
3. The first-person perspective is very nicely done. Everything is from her point of view, which means that we miss a lot of information. Just enough to keep the suspense up.
4. It is very specific to a particular time and space, but with universal significance.
5. It explains something of what it must have been like to live through the Troubles. In the seventies, when that was going on in the North of Ireland, I was living 'over the water' in England and of course we heard all about the bombings and killings, the tarring and feathering, the hatred and suspicion and when I was older I got to know some people from there. However, of course we got a filtered version of what went on and a different filter was very interesting.
6. From time to time it is very amusing.
7. It explains the feminist perspective that the way women are treated is to do with the power structures in society; not by lecturing but by story-telling.
Nice quote: "No one has ever come across a cat apologizing and if a cat did, it would patently be obvious that it was not sincere".