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It doesnt span generations or continents; its not a staid reflection on the nuclear family.
And her characters struggles are timely.
Hearsay abounds in the vacuum left by diminished faith in institutions.
They arent held accountable for their crimes, and the crimes committed against them arent avenged.
The books no-name effect is twofold.
First, one feels that in this community, individual expression has been stamped out.
Characters are not single entities but exist only in relation to one another.
So-and-so is somebodys father, somebody elses ex-maybe-lover.
Its a characters standing within a family and within society at large that matters most.
And second, as a consequence, acts of violence are depersonalized.
The community discusses such violence without emotion.
Car bombs and poisonings are fodder for gossip, on the same level as whos dating whom.
How, then, to break out of this cycle of dead bodies and deadened nerves?
For the characters inMilkman, there seem to be two options.
Finally, Middle Sister begins to doubt her own feelings, her own view of reality.
Was he actually doing anything?
Todays readers will recognize this as the language of gaslighting.
This is the books strength, but it also makes for a dense and at times unrewarding reading experience.
Middle Sister feels bereft of both a sense of self and the ability to respond todramatic events.
For as much time as we spend with Middle Sister, we never do get to know her.
Middle Sister is free, but her reputation is permanently scarred while Milkmans is untouched.
Her disillusionment will sound familiar to anyone frustrated by the quickness with which Louis C.K.
or Brett Kavanaugh can rebound, their power guarding them against even theclearestaccusations.
To see the same disappointment played out in a historical novel isnt exactly surprising, but it is deflating.
Will nothing ever change?
Static asMilkmancan often feel,there are a few moments where Burns suggests that change is possible.
Also by the community, by the very mental atmosphere, that minutiae of invasion.
Awareness may not be the same thing as action, but its something.
In the acknowledgment of a future theres a possibility, at least, of escape.
