Milkman by Anna Burns

The New York Times describes this book as ‘slogging’ through the Troubles. Despite is Man Booker status, I too slogged my way through half the book before, exhausted, abandoning it. It’s written in stream of consciousness style, almost, and is the story of a young woman who is being stalked by not one but two IRA soldiers who want to possess her. So much for the plot. The rest of it is page after page of garrulous introspection about the society in which she lives. And I don’t doubt the difficulty of that : the expectations, the gossip, the subtext surrounding everything people say and think and do. Everybody has their own version of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, even if only from living in such a fraught environment.. But I just didn’t have the stamina for all this introspection. I would gird my loins, pick it up, read three pages, forget what had happened the page before, and then give up and make a cup of tea. I’m probably a philistine but half way through I just had to quit.