Milkman | 
pick17-21 Nov 24 (audiobook)
I loved this audiobook but can understand it would be a difficult read.
Set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles, the story is narrated by Middle Sister, an apparently Catholic teenager who is negotiating entry into adulthood in a suspicious, conservative and fearful society. She is stalked by the lecherous middle-aged Milkman and unsure about her relationship with Maybe Boyfriend.
The Wee Sisters are wonderfully funny!
I came home to this book at my door. My friend sent this to me from across the country. Time to get reading!
best representation of the paranoia a politically dysfunctional society generates I've read. No person or no place is given its name. Life is in code (hence the dense language) It's about what happens to women in a culture where precedence is given to male-on-male violence. Every other kind of violence is considered inconsequential. to understand the Troubles read a standard history & then this as you need the former to decode this, but worth it!
Exciting #roll100 picks for July! Milkman is from @youneverarrived ‘s #NYWD list years ago. I hope I get to it now, Katie! Marsh is an #aardvark backlog from their first month. I meant to read the sequel to Moloka‘i more quickly than 5 years later. 😂😱
Once again, completely surprised that I owned these three audiobooks. 😂🤦🏻♀️ I know Moxie is a memoir, but otherwise I‘ll be surprised! 👍🏻
pickI loved this book. I listened to it and the narration really added to the rhythm of the book. 18 year old middle sister stands out in her community for many things, among them, reading while walking. Her descriptions of life during “the troubles” in Ireland captured the constant feeling of being watched and on alert and aware of even minute things are impacted by the conflict. The structure of the sentences was beautiful and surprising.
so-soI am really torn on this one. Reading about The Troubles is always emotional and difficult. This book is somewhat stream of consciousness and moved very slowly. I didn't dislike it, and stuck it out to the end. But I can't say that I loved it. Curious about what others have thought.
pickIf William Faulkner and Virginia Woolf had a love child who grew up in 1970s Belfast, they would write this book. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/milkman-anna-burns/
pickI‘ve had this in my TBR forever, and finally its turn came! I think this is a love it or hate it book, and I loved it. I think listening to it is key. It‘s quirky in that none of the characters are called by names, but by descriptors like third brother in law and maybe boyfriend. It‘s got serious things happening but I also laughed out loud at parts. I don‘t normally love book prize winners but I see why this one won.
pickBooker Prize Winner (2018)
Milkman takes place in an unnamed city (probably Belfast) in 1970s Northern Ireland during “the troubles”. From the vantage point of the present, the obliquely named "middle sister" narrates the trials she faced at age 18 living in an urban war zone. She finds herself inexplicably stalked by a man called the milkman, a lecherous 41-year-old married man who threatens to wreak havoc on her life if she resists his advances.
I'm facing down a really busy couple of weeks, but a new #BookHaul arrived today- I'm thinking of these titles as both reward and motivation for making it through. 😆 Can't wait to come out on the other side and enjoy an indulgent few days with these titles. Any suggestions on where to start??
it was perilous to focus on good things when there were bad things, all these bad things, she said, that could not be forgot. She said old dark things as well as new dark things had to be remembered, had to be acknowledged because otherwise everything that had gone before would have been in vain.
pickThis book is freaking brilliant. It works super well as an #audiobook. It's a bit of stream of consciousness and the characters don't have actual names. The setting is The Troubles in Northern Ireland in the 70s. A young woman is basically being stalked by a local terrorist referred to as the Milkman. Maggie Gyllenhaal recommended it in a podcast interview with The Economist. It wasn't on my radar previously.
#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks
pickThe characters, how they talk, and the small moments they pay attention to seem so subtle yet entirely unique that it‘s hard not to think that this was a memoir rather than a work of fiction. Ann Burns builds an entire personal world. She writes “to convey something about closed societies and how they work and to depict the very restrictive conditions that go on within them and how the inhabitants adopt these conditions as if they were normal.”
so-soThe first half of this was a slog - I considering bailing several times but I struggled through. While I eventually settled into the style of the writing, I‘m not quite sure what all the hype was about.
One tier! I‘ve finally dented this stack enough to have my #JulyTBR down to one tier! I have just 13 of the 40ish books I gathered up from around the house at the beginning of Jan, vowing to read them before pulling more from the shelves. I‘ve mostly stuck to that (there was no way I wasn‘t joining #14books14weeks2021) but library holds have slowed my progress fairly frequently. But I feel like I‘ll have cleared that pile soon!
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/10/anna-burns-milkman-difficult-novel...
An interesting article about literary “difficult” novels. I‘m still in the ‘literary novels needs to realise they‘re just another genre and get over themselves‘ camp but this has made me think....! 🤔
pickWith Spring on the way, Milkman seems a good choice for the last of my winter reading. I could really identify with the emotions of this novel, it gives a background to the legacy I grew up with in the North and felt very sincere. A lot of darkness, suspicion, paranoia, escapism but just enough humour and force of personality to pull you along. Brilliant writing and so enjoyable for me to read something in a familiar voice. 9/10
I‘m going to go ahead and give this #bookspinbingo a try for March and see if it inspires more reading! Excited to see how many books I can cross off this list 🤓
pickI‘ve finally finished. Although I‘ve called this one a pick, I cannot deny that I found it incredibly difficult to read, I think stream of consciousness novels are not for me. An 18 year old woman, living in 1970s Belfast becomes of interest to a man known only as Milkman. Milkman is to be feared, a renouncer of the State, a terrorist. As rumours spread throughout the community, the protagonist loses control of her life and idea of self.
pickThis book was relentlessly bleak and anxiety driven. The entire time you felt like the narrator couldn‘t let herself take a deep breath because to do so might set of a literal, not metaphorical, bomb. It‘s hard to imagine someone living in such an absence of joy— there is humor but no delight. The narrator and her community shun happiness, lest it be stolen from them. Hollowing.
I am posting one book a day from my extensive to be read collection. No description and no reason why I got these books. Some are really old and some are new; there are quite a few. Join the fun!
This is day 17.
#BooksToRead #TBRPile #TBRMountain #Bookstagram
pickRemarkable and revelatory approach to a contemporary political and social context I knew very little about. The turmoil of a young woman trying to lead a normal life in a patriarchal society during a period governed by fear, death and conformism, where day-to-day life is haunted by absurd rules, interdictions and threats, is outlined in a natural diary-like tone, with humour and a slight trace of sarcasm
Although I'm not a huge fan of the stream-of-consciousness genre, I find this one coherent and captivating, and along with the descriptive labels replacing the names of the characters, particularly relevant for the tormenting ethno-nationalist conflict behind the story, when certain issues were best left unwritten or unspoken of, and certain names not used or mentioned out loud.
pickThis book was work for me to get through. I nearly bailed more than once and was so happy to reach the end. But then I gave myself a couple of days to think about it and went back to read reviews and found myself nodding along and thinking,”Oh I loved that part too,” and “Yes, Burns does such a great job with that.” The longer I sit with it the more I appreciate it and somehow a so-so read has turned into a pick and one I want to revisit on audio.
pickI really enjoyed this, as someone who did peace work in Northern Ireland in the early 90s. I learned more about the impact of the Troubles on Catholic communities, along with a vivid portrayal of how “polite“ girls can be manipulated by male stalkers. There's also a rich portrayal of mother-daughter relationships in tension. Some might not like the author's device of only using descriptive labels instead of proper names, but it worked for me.
Yes I've been reading this since the 9th of July
Yes 77days it is
Yes I should be whipped 😊😊
pickCuddles over, she went to play and I got to finish the last 10 pages. This was an amazing read. Very different style, perfectly suited to the story. I found it best read in large chunks, but once you‘re into it, it flies along. #bookspin @TheAromaofBooks
Only 10 pages to go, but Amélie doesn‘t want me to read. #littenkitten #catsoflitsy
“The day Somebody McSomebody put a gun to my breast and called me a cat and threatened to shoot me was the same day the milkman died.” #FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl
#3books with one-word titles
I loved all three of these very different books: (clockwise from the top) coming of age while writing fanfic; political intrigue in a zombie-infested world; being stalked by a milkman during The Troubles.
Still reading this. It's been two months now, 2 months of thinking I have COVID so my anxiety has been off the roof. I only manage to read a few pages maybe once in 2 or 3 days and I hardly visit Litsy. I never got tested, I feel okay now but who knows how I would feel in the morning.
Let me not bore you guys, maybe I should go read a few pages before I go back to sleep.(BTW it's a nice novel, only wish I were Ok enough to really enjoy it)
pickPowerful, distinct writing. Anna Burns ensures the reader experiences the paranoia, claustrophobia and fear of Northern Ireland during the troubles. These feelings are compounded with the pressure of being a woman. This makes the novel relatable in a broader feminist exploration of the fear and pressure women face and battle against in patriarchal societies. It also explores the devasting effects on men.
Anyone else a 'reading-while-walking' person?
