Milkman Paperback – Import, 17 May 2018

The anticipation, the chill running down the spine, the sense of constantly being watched, the constant jumpiness - she felt all that and worse. Set during the late 20th century in Northern Ireland, Milkman is the story of a teen girl who is harassed by society and harangued by her family and friends about her rumored illicit relationship with the ‘old enough to be her father’, dangerous, and married ‘Renouncer hero Milkman’.This book caught my attention after being nominated for and having won the Booker Prize in 2018. It took some warming up to. Anna Burns brings her unique style of writing. The entire book is written from the point of the protagonist - the ‘Middle Sister’. There are barely any names in the book with each character being addressed by their relationship to this ‘Middle-Sister’ or their roles in the society. I found this aspect quite unique (and easy for someone who has trouble remembering names :D). The story revolves around her, her family, her maybe relation with her maybe boyfriend, the society, the rumours about her supposed relationship with the Milkman, the people over-the-street, the people over-the-waters, the political unrest further worsened by the paramilitaries, the renouncers, and the state.Anna Burns goes to great lengths to set the context, giving pages and chapters on the political situation, the functioning of the society, its norms, its outcasts. What I liked about the book was the author’s description of how a seemingly innocent rumour upsets the life of a girl, who is happy in her small little world. This is very real and I am sure many readers would relate to the premise of the story.Milkman was no easy read. The sentences were painstakingly long, albeit eloquent and articulate; a ‘full stop’ almost as rare as the blue moon. My only grouse with the book is that I would have loved to read a little more about the antagonist and probably a little into his background. The timing and the manner of his ending was a little too abrupt and focus of the story shifted in the last 20% of the book.In a nutshell, if you decide to read the book, be patient. It picks up pace towards the end.

Though a highly rated and highly rewarded book it can fall flat as a good read. The story is woven very loosely and lacks specificity. It's arduous to go over the book and keep the interest alive.It is neither rich in content nor excels in skills. Wonder , the selection criteria of awarding a book with the highest literary honour .

quite like the story, plot , authors way of writing is most amazing

It took a wee while getting used to the style of Anna Burns's Man Booker Prize 2018-winning novel, Milkman. One doesn't often read books with long paragraphs (at times running into five pages) and no names (not of people not of places), and lots of repetition of words and phrases (certainly no Hemingway this). Particularly no names. The 18-year-old narrator is 'middle sister' (she has six sisters and four brothers) and is given to reading while walking, a trait that puts her well on the path of becoming one of the 'beyond the pales'. This is reinforced by her carrying a dead cat's head in a handkerchief just to give it a proper burial. She has a maybe-boyfriend, she has Milkman (with a capital letter) and a real milkman, wee sisters (three of them, all below 10 and all precocious), a mother, a stalker named Somebody McSomebody, Tablets girl who goes about poisoning people, and the 'issue women'. And where is all this? No names, but still one understands where, with a 'country over the sea' and a country 'on the other side of the road' and two embattled religions. The author is, incidentally, from Belfast, Northern Ireland.One is soon drawn into the narrative, based in the 1970s, laced with gossip, rumours, misunderstandings, renouncer attacks and state counter attacks (or vice versa), arms caches being found and scattered, a big issue being made over a Roller Bentley supercharger because of the flag on it. Dead-pan humour at times lightens the tale, which soon becomes highly engrossing until you finally realise, regretfully, that it is over. I've not read the other Man Booker Prize 2018-nominated books, but I can see why Milkman is a worthy winner.

Believe me , when I say , if you stick to the writings of anna burns , you will be rewarded . This is that kind of book .Anna burns bring the very best of her in this ' difficult to read ' yet 'harder to leave ' sort of book . Make no mistake , this is a heavy book , ardous and painstakingly long to se the tone . Writing is as unique as her , and the premise is not easy to gauge.The story , or the lack of it , is set in the 20th century northern ireland during the revolt years . The state controls the people through various measures , and the deaths are common here . The world as such is seen through the eyes of a teen girl , who is battling her own relations with maybe boyfriend and base rumours with the false milkman .The inhabitants of the town are just mere puppets and the family ties are severed . Most of the characters are unnamed buy identified through titles as ' middle sister ' , ' wee sisters ' , ' real milkman ' , ' poison girl ' etc .Anna burns scripted the story around the revolt but focussed on the teenage protagonists life , as been experienced through the series of events and the rumours . This is not a fast paced book , at times you may find it difficult to go through , but you are compelled to go through as you know very well that you can't leave this unfinished .

If you’re looking for a light entertaining read, pass this one by. Long rambling sentences with very few paragraph breaks call for high levels of concentration just to grasp some understanding of the narrative. I’ve struggled through the first 90 pages and am fighting the urge to give up on it. I don’t want to define this tale as the ramblings of some mentally deficient, self obsessed writer who might see her self as a ‘wordsmith’, but that’s how this book is making me feel. The writer may love the technical aspect of writing, with an abundance of over lengthy sentences littered with commas, hyphens and semi colons, but for me it feels like reading a technical text book rather than a gripping novel. Story teller she ain’t!

Sadly didn't finish this book. It's a dystopia but the style of writing just wasn't for me. There are too many unknowns in the story and found too difficult to read. Felt like reading somebody else's dream, and trying to understand it without feeling it.

Anna Burns won the Booker with this, and it is easy to see why, and despite its subject matter, Northern Ireland and the Troubles in the Seventies, there is a lot of humour here. As the first author born in Northern Ireland to win the award this has beaten off over novels because it has that certain something that good Irish literature always has had, a humaneness and a way of not taking things too seriously, whilst showing us the absurdities of life.All we know of our narrator is that this story happens when she is just eighteen, and that she is the middle sister in a large family, with her father dead, and her mother bringing up those children still at home, with the help of our narrator, and that the family are Catholic. This story very much feels like it is being spoken to us, and this comes across in the language, which at times is rather surprising, reminding me of the use made of language in The Sisters Brothers.Taking us back to those bad old days of sectarian violence and people living in areas of their own religion, so this reminds us all of the police and army having to fight paramilitary organisations on both sides, and although at times there are shadows of this over the story, it has to be admitted that really there is not much actual violence in this book. Of age and with men interested in her so our narrator already has her maybe-boyfriend, but also two others after her affections, both seemingly being of the IRA. Of course no one knows if they really are, or if it is just rumours, and as we see here, there is a lot of gossip and rumours throughout the story, with people worried about what they do, who they associate with and where they go. Even going to hospital is a no-no for people in the area, in case you are approached and turned into an informer.With this as a backdrop then, we have a tale that becomes at times extremely funny, with the men being scared of women as they break curfews or protest by sitting outside a safehouse, thus putting the terrorists in a sticky situation. With rumours circulating that maybe-boyfriend has a car part with a British flag on it, so he is in danger, and with Milkman harassing our narrator so we see that she could be in a dicey situation, but will things get any better?With the narrator’s three wee sisters, who are all aged under ten we find ourselves really drawn to them, especially to the things they say and ask, and at times using quite complex vocabulary. With women holding a certain power that they don’t always use so we can see how the men, even hardened terrorists can be put in their place, and that life goes on even under rather harsh conditions.In all then I absolutely love this book and am glad that it won, otherwise I probably would never have got around to reading it. This is something that should do well with book groups, and is a real joy to read, so if like me you love reading then you can’t really go wrong with this, and it is something that will stay in your mind long after you turn the last page.

This book must count as the most miserable, dull read I have ever attempted. .Long meandering sentences..no names.. constant repetition. I found the lack of names pretentious to say the least. I am amazed that it got the Booker. I read about half, and could no longer face it

"This would be a 19th-century book because I did not like the 20th century."I have no idea how to describe this book – it is so strange and dystopian and hypnotising and scary and funny with heart full of black humour.As usual, I did not read any reviews or synopsis before starting the book – and it took me until page 96 to realise... this is [Northern] Ireland! With all this talk about religion, a dozen of kids per household and occasional mention of bombings. And then there is our protagonist, 18-year old maybe-girlfriend of her maybe-boyfriend, sister to wee sisters and older sisters, daughter of Ma, student of French and an avid reader, also a love interest of some military guerrilla, aka Milkman."Milkman" is not an easy read, but it is good. It is quirky, strange and surprisingly delightful. Did I mention the sarcasm and black humour? In abundance!I could not put it better than the Guardian: despite the surreality, everything about this novel rings true.Reminded me of? At some point I thought of "1984".