Indeed, in its irreverence and boisterousness Milkman is like the icing of Mr Heller’s upside down world layered onto a sumptious and side-splitting sponge cake of Flann O’Brien meets Puckoon. Is there any other type of war? Not if you revere the anti-war masterpieces of those literary giants Tim O’Brien, Kurt Vonnegut or or Joseph Heller, author of Catch 22, whose breath imbues this work. Not even the compelling focus of this extraordinary story, a glorious young woman besotted with books who is caught up in the madness of war. They’ve been committing stories to paper (not to mention vellum and cowhide) on this island for 1,200 years and counting but until now no-one came up with the provocative, unsettling idea of having a 350-page yarn without naming any of the protagonists – or places.
In fact, not content with creating a story both shocking and comforting in its recreation of seventies Ardoyne, the incredible talent that is North Belfast author Anna Burns has birthed a completely unique and novel style of story-telling. Where did it get its power from how did it perform that act of literary wizardry?Ī landmark opus from a war-torn Belfast where the Lord in His mercy is, thankfully, looking down, Milkman is the redeeming antidote to the warehouses of insufferable prattling passing as ‘Troubles’ tomes. Once in a lifetime – perhaps twice if you’re lucky – you will finish a book and turn it upside down, flick through its pages deck-of-cards-style, shake it by its spine and even subject it to the sniff test, all in a bid to try to work out what magic it possessed to knock you into a cocked hat.
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