And then there is her “maybe-boyfriend.” Maybe-boyfriend is a car enthusiast and so is thrilled when he acquires a supercharger from a Blower Bentley. Even her family assumes such names as “wee sisters,” “middle daughter” (herself), “first brother-in-law,” etc. ,” says our 18-year-old nameless female narrator, who dares not even name the city (Belfast perhaps) nor the warring sides (tagged by her as “over the water” versus “over the border” and “our side of the road” versus “their side of the road”). “I felt unease that someone was listening, someone watching, someone following, someone clocking everything, no matter where I was, what I was doing, who I was with. It was a time of both rampant rumor and utmost secrecy. Milkman is set in Northern Ireland in the late 20th century during the time of the Troubles, where car bombings and murders were commonplace. This was an epoch like no other, and Burns pulls us right into the heart of it. It occurred to me, too, that the common aggressions against women might seem puzzling. Recently, in talking to some teenagers in the U.S., I realized they knew hardly anything about the historical setting of the novel. I am a bit late in coming to Anna Burns’ 2018 Man Booker prize-winning novel, but so glad I did.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |