Milkman by Anna Burns

In an unnamed city, middle sister stands out for the wrong reasons. She reads while walking, for one. And she has been taking French night classes downtown. So when a local paramilitary known as the milkman begins pursuing her, she suddenly becomes “interesting,” the last thing she ever wanted to be. Despite middle sister’s attempts to avoid him―and to keep her mother from finding out about her maybe-boyfriend―rumors spread and the threat of violence lingers. Milkman is a story of the way inaction can have enormous repercussions, in a time when the wrong flag, wrong religion, or even a sunset can be subversive. 

REVIEW:

I was excited to read this book - it won the 2018 Man Booker Prize, the author is an Irish woman, and the subject matter sounded highly relevant to our current world. I must admit that I found this book to be much more of a challenge than I anticipated. None of the characters are named (all are referred to by their place in the protagonist's life, 'third brother-in-law' or 'maybe boyfriend'). This anonymizing is interesting and certainly speaks to the main character's state of mind (she herself is only referred to as 'Middle Sister'), but honestly I found the narrative unnecessarily confusing. Many reviewers seem to have struggled with the dialect, which didn't bother me at all, but the total lack of structure in the writing was, for me, difficult to wade through. I commend Anna Burns for depicting so vividly the bleak hopelessness of a community entrenched in religious and political war, and for illuminating the complexities of interpersonal dynamics and gender roles in modern society ... but overally, this novel just wasn't for me. 3 stars.