Milkman by Anna Burns 📙 Review

Milkman for me is the definition of a book that has a fascinating premise but the execution is lacking.

An eighteen-year-old woman tries to stay away from all the political conflicts of her little conservative town. Her life changes radically, when she becomes the talk of the town because a rumour about her being involved with a man named Milkman, who is not only a revolutionary leader but also a middle-aged, married man, is spread. Now that everyone is watching and judging her every move, she will have to reconsider her place in the community.

Let me start the review with some major story-related choices. First of all, we don't know any of the characters' names. Instead of names, we get the relation between characters, like ‘first brother-in-law’, or nicknames, like ‘Milkman’. The lack of names can be interpreted in numerous ways; Firstly (as this is my personal favourite interpretation), it may show how the complete compliance to social rules leaves people with no critical thinking, no beliefs and opinions of their own — or in other words, with no personality of their own. Secondly, towards the end of the book, it is suggested that the use of pseudonyms has a ‘mystique, intrigue, theatrical possibility’ while real names are banal and too ordinary. Lastly, the lack of specific character names makes the story universal; the events described can happen to anyone. 

Similarly, the setting is an unnamed city, which means that the events described could have taken place anywhere in the world. As for the time of the story, it can be easily assumed that we're in a narrow-minded, contemporary society. The author explains in an interview that this universality was purposely crafted. Anna Burns, however, was heavily inspired by her growing up during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. The animosity between ‘defenders-of-the-state’ and ‘renouncers-of-the-state’, the hatred between two different (unnamed) religions, the significance of a country ‘over the water’ and the fact that the story takes place in the 1970s suggest that our characters live indeed in Northern Ireland. 

Let's focus on the writing now. Formal and long sentences with fancy-sounding words dominate the narrative, and they function as a way to highlight the cruelty and inhumanity of the society our characters live in. The characters' constant and exaggerated attempt to be polite and politically correct confirms their fear of being socially judged and punished by this anti-democratic and judgemental community. In such an oppressive environment, readers have entered our protagonist's mind, and they freely listen to her unfiltered and genuine thoughts, as she strives to survive in this dangerous world. 

However, it is this excessive telling and not showing of thoughts, feelings, impressions and events that makes the reading experience tedious. The majority of the book consists of the protagonist explaining the political complexities of her area and her feelings and thoughts on other characters and situations. Even action and suspenseful scenes are abruptly interrupted or cut short in order for our protagonist to express her view on things. For instance, when the milkman suddenly shows up in front of our main character in the dark, instead of focusing on that dangerous and creepy interaction, at some point we get a mental composition of ideas concerning political conflicts between rivaling communities, which of course makes all of our interest, curiosity and agony, that were built a couple pages ago, fade. 

To conclude, although interesting themes are investigated and ingenious literary choices are made, reading the whole story is exhausting because most events are overly analysed, which leaves almost no room for actual plot, character development and readers' active participation.

My favourite quote: 

"It was the convention not to admit it, not to accept detail for this type of detail would mean choice and choice would mean responsibility and what if we failed in our responsibility? Failed too, in the interrogation of the consequence of seeing more than we could cope with? Worse, what if it was nice, whatever it was, and we liked it, got used to it, were cheered up by it, came to rely upon it, only for it to go away, or be wrenched away, never to come back again? Better not to have had it in the first place was the prevailing feeling, and that was why blue was the colour for our sky to be. Teacher though, wasn't leaving it at that."

My rating: 🌻🌻 / 🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻