"The truth was dawning on me of how terrifying it was not to be numb, but to be aware, to have facts, retain facts, be adult." This book is literally in my head. Not even kidding. I woke up in the middle of the night, with thoughts racing about Milkman in the same fashion as the narrator’s in this novel. Milkman can be described as a “stream-of-consciousness,” as we are purely receiving the perspective of the narrator about her daily experiences. This style of writing can almost be maddening, as it is one thought after the other where the reader’s mind is almost completely overtaken by the narrator’s mind. I would agree with descriptions of the novel as “claustrophobic,” because the writing style truly makes the narrator’s mind inescapable for the reader. Milkman is set in Northern Ireland, during the time of the Troubles in the 1970’s, even though we never actually receive this information outright. The author, Anna Burns, has commented that she would like the society to be viewed as “any sort of totalitarian, closed society existing in similarly oppressive conditions.” The lack of an expressed setting and characters that are not named (“middle sister,” “third brother-in-law”) lends itself a futuristic, dystopian quality. However, this was real and the feeling of violence and looming dread throughout the book was felt by many during the Troubles. It is interesting that the contents of this book are being compared to the #MeToo Movement, while I feel like there could be many comparisons to the current political times. One quote in particular resonated with me, “There was the fact that you created a political statement everywhere you went, and with everything you did, even if you didn’t want to.” Or another quote about the opposing political views, “It was that each was intolerant of the other to the extent that highly volatile, built-up contentions periodically would result from them.” There was a distinct theme of group identity in the novel, as “us vs. them” between the opposing political groups. I felt that this could have been written currently about the increasingly divergent political opinions in the United States, which exhibits how universal this novel is. In regards to the subject of identity, I found that the entire presence of Milkman awakened the narrator’s sense of identity, but mostly her sense of public perception about her. At one point, the narrator says, “These past few months, ever since the beginning of Milkman, I was getting an education on just how much I was impacting people without any awareness I’d been visible to people.” The pervading theme of avoidance in the novel demonstrates how much of the narrator’s personality is lost due to the constant gossip being spread about her throughout the community. By shutting herself off from the meddling questions and constantly managing her facial expressions, the narrator finds the forced emotional numbness becomes real. Burns mentions the idea of mental violation in an interview, and I found that this occurrence of the narrator’s emotions ceasing to exist displays the effect of gossip on the mind. Milkman courageously deals with heavy topics, including politics, feminism, or even what it means to be “beyond-the-pale.” Milkman teaches readers that no matter the horror of a situation, society will go on. Checking off: Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019 Shortlist Booker Prize 2018 Winner National Book Critics Circle Award 2018 Winner My Rankings for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019 Nominees (In no way is this a critique of the rankings - this is purely based on my enjoyment!) 1) Normal People by Sally Rooney 2) Circe by Madeline Miller 3) Milkman by Anna Burns |
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