Reviews

Red Milk by Sjón

Only show reviews with written explanations

margaret21's review against another edition

4.0

This is the story of Gunnar Kampen, who grew up in Iceland a towards the end of WWII in a family fiercely opposed to Nazi oppression. The story depicts a happy enough conventional childhood which progresses towards his job in a bank. And yet ... he comes into contact with Fascist ideas and ideals, and soon becomes a leader of Iceland's under-the-radar Nazi movement. There are many allusions to actual figures and events in which the fictional Gunnar becomes implicated. Allusions too to Gunnar's grandfather, whom he eventually learns was convicted of treason. Perhaps his great-grandfather was a Nazi? The book goes out of its way to portray Gunnar as a young Mr. Average, whose political proclivities are hard to spot in society at large, while pointing out those aspects of Iceland's recent history that make it possible for Gunnar to entertain the views that he has. Gunnar, however, has cancer, and dies while he is still young ... on the very first page of the book. An unusual and compelling book, showing the mindset of a young man sucked into a belief system now regaining some political traction throughout Europe.

pigeonindustrialcomplex's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

gorecki's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

It’s not hard to imagine life as a train ride: you’re making your way along pre-set rails, which often have double slips allowing you to move to another track and pick another direction at will. Every once in a while you’d stop - to let someone in or out, to repair something, or because you’re just temporarily out of whatever fuel it is you’re running on. But it’s the part of people getting on and off that I’m interested in. They always seem to leave and forget something behind and so you go on your way with the traces of different people in you, their “lost and found”.

Sjón’s Red Milk is a novel of snippets that cover the short life of Icelandic Neo-Nazi Gunnar Kampen. Opening with him lying dead in a train in the UK, in just 132 pages it covers his short journey through life from his childhood to his final day aboard said train. And while at first I found the structure a little bit lacking, a little bit incomplete, it started making sense once I finished the novel: the various chapters seemed more like stations in Kampen’s life. The many stations where others got on or off, where he switched tracks and shifted his journey towards a darker and crueller destination. How Savitri Devi Mukherji planted the seed of Neo-Nazism in him and how it found a warm place to grow in Gunnar in the middle of Iceland’s landscape.

People often blame parents for their children’s mistakes or the way they turn out as grownups, which is something I never understood because it takes the weight of responsibility off the shoulders of the perpetrator. Or how people would often say “they were such a polite person, they always said hello”, as if manners are a guarantee for goodness or kindness. And I love that this short little book touches on this too: that monsters are often raised in loving families.

Though I didn’t love Red Milk as much as Sjón’s other works, I’m very glad to have read it. It gives a very interesting perspective to a dark period of history that never really ended. It’s just changed its nature and name and still lurks around stations in our lives and people who enter and leave them, dragging their muddy shoes through our carriages.