A review by escape_through_pages
Milkman by Anna Burns

challenging dark funny informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

📖 REVIEW 📖

The setting is presumed to be Belfast at the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland but this is never explicitly stated. Anonymity, the identity of a person or a place only described in terms of their relationship to someone or somewhere else: ‘middle sister’, ‘first brother in law’, ‘maybe boyfriend’, ‘that country over the border’ and ‘that country over the water’. 

The narrator recalls her experience as an eighteen year old living in this place in this time. Her thoughts wander and drift along tangents before returning to focus on her reflections of being the object of attention of the titular Milkman, who is not really a milkman, but a dangerous paramilitary. He is her stalker and in a place where rumours and gossip can lead to brute violence and summons to kangaroo court, our narrator is quickly judged and presumed to be in a relationship with this married and lethal man. She is fully aware that to deny this results in one set of undesirable consequences, to keep quiet comes with consequences of its own but judged to be lesser. The impossibility of our protagonist’s situation in the sociopolitical context is clear, she cannot win whatever she does. 

I’m not sure you could find a book that is more divisive than Milkman; readers either love it or hate it, it’s a one star or a five star and, in truth, I can understand both sides. 

The writing is dense, the sentences are long, the paragraphs are long and the chapters are long. There are lengthy tangents and this is a slow, slow read. It demands intense focus. If you need a sustained and moving plot with frequent dialogue, this is most definitely not for you. Accessible it is not. 

But, how does the saying go? Nothing worth having in life comes easy? That’s Milkman. Despite the work I had to put in, it was worth it. It was absolutely worth it. An entirely new experience. I appreciate a book that is different, a style that is completely unfamiliar and writing that breaks the mould. That is Milkman and that’s why Anna Burns won the Booker prize.