This review was written by and posted on behalf of Vijaya Gollamudi.
Milkman is the story of a young woman growing up in an unnamed city not unlike Northern Ireland. Set in the 1970s, where characters and places have no names, the novel feels very surreal. The use of titles and descriptors instead of proper names highlights the lack of personhood in this story. This separation of the individual from their place in society reflects the paranoia and social stratification of the time and place.
When “Middle Sister” becomes a point of interest to a married, local paramilitary man known as the milkman, her days of flying under the radar come to an end. Middle Sister comes to realize how living in fear creates limitations, and how numbness is a fate worse than fear.
While Milkman can be difficult to read with its stream of consciousness, it is an enjoyable and insightful journey into alienation and eventual reform. It is a deeply personal account of the consequences of being deemed subversive.
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