Review: Milkman

Milkman by Anna Burns
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First of all, this book did an excellent job of transporting me to the Northern Ireland of the 1970s, and the paranoia and violence surrounding everyday life.

Having said that, I'm really not sure about not using proper names. Well, they are avoided when discussing geographical locations, and this aspect worked quite well for me, making it seem more like the story took place in a random land with set rules, rather than a precise 1970s Northern Ireland.

But the entire book avoids them, even for peoples' names, preferring to use names such as "Somebody McSomebody, Milkman, The real Milkman, maybe-boyfriend", etc. I'm not exactly sure why. Possibly so as not to bias the reader against any one name. Or maybe to imply it's a real story and so as not to implicate anyone real. Or maybe I'm just missing something. Regardless, the end result seemed to be a bit unwieldy to me, with sentences like this:
"third brother would also be recognised as the brother of the sister who was sexually involved with the paramilitary player"

There were also quite a few meanderings and digressions, which for some reason felt like they detracted from the story a bit.

Aside from that, I really liked the book. It had a bit of a "sostiene Pereira" feel to it. Someone trying to be aloof of all the conspiracies, gossip and paranoia, finds that it is more and more difficult to do so. The feeling of suspicion and mistrust becomes more and more suffocating through the course of the book.

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