#117 Milkman

 Milkman by Anna Burns

Im just going to start by saying this book is such an important piece of literature. Milkman is set in Northern Ireland, its never specifically said but it very obvious from the way it reads. Anna Burns deliberately removed all the place names and the character names so i think if you arent familiar with Irish culture or the area you may struggle a bit with this as it is very typically Irish in the language and slang that is used throughout. The book reads as a dystopian future but in actual fact it is desribing a very realistic version of how things actually are living there (maybe not so much now but in the past, definitely. I grew up in County Down in Northern Ireland for anyone who was wondering). 

The story follows an 18 year old nameless girl growing up in a nameless place. She attracts the attention of an older man referred to as 'Milkman' who is seen as a bit of an icon within the local community. He's known to be very dangerous and everyone in the community fears but respects him. There is a lot of gossip within the area of his interest in this girl. The whole book is centered on these waves of gossip and what is true and untrue.  

Milkman won the Man Booker Prize in 2018 and this was my first experience reading a Man Booker winner. This book is written very oddly, you question what is real and what isnt constantly well at least i did. I can see 100% why people wouldnt get along with this book it reads as a constant stream of consciousness which i didnt mind, if anything i thought it really added to the story. It is confusing in parts and initially i started this book physically but struggled with it as it felt very loopy in the way it would start with one scene but the narrator would get constantly distracted and then you would end up back in the original scene which is fine but very difficult to keep up with physically so i switched to the audio version which was narrated wonderfully.

I did find this to be a bit of a tricky read, it reads as a bit samey in parts and it felt a bit like the film Memento in that i was reading the same thing over and over again but i must admit i did enjoy it. There is a lot of controversy surrounding the writing of this book (google it) which i must admit i dont agree with as you cant put a value on good literature (dont come for me!). 

All in all, i enjoy many parts of this but in terms on enjoyment levels i did really struggle with the looping and never would have been able to read this physically. I fully understand why in won the Man Booker but unfortunately it was only a middle of the road read for me.