A double hit on MILKMAN, Anna Burns' remarkable Man Booker winner for 2018. You disparage it for not generating the "buzz and controversy" of previous years. Not enough to be a great novel then?And unaccountably, the Times omits MILKMAN from its 100 Notable Books list, while listing some weaker titles from the Man Booker long-list.
I agonised over whether MILKMAN or THE OVERSTORY (clearly the outstanding pair on the short-list) was the better novel, concluding that, as achieved as Powers' book is, it is ultimately a beautiful thesis more than a novel. MILKMAN is the formidably ambitious tale of a triply jeopardised focal character, with an invasive army, faux-protective paramilitaries and the macho eponymous Milkman himself all restricting her chance for happiness and fulfilment in what is evidently 1970s Troubles Belfast. Original, very funny and moving, it is a match for the two great American winners in recent years, THE SELL-OUT and LINCOLN IN THE BARDO.
In the UK, MILKMAN has typically been disparaged by those unwilling to read it on its own terms. The Guardian newspaper's critics have been particularly culpable, Charlotte Higgins a notable exception.
You should not allow this excellent novel to be damned with faint praise.
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"Fiction sales over all have slipped while readers have been glued to the nonstop news cycle."
This, I believe, is one of the saddest and most overlooked by-products of the 24/7 barrage of news media that consumes so many.
I was fortunate to have been raised by parents who instilled a deep love of education and reading in me. I cherish my library card and am on a first name basis with my local librarians.
Reading, at its core, expands our minds and reminds us of our humanness. It's one of the most democratic activities I know.
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@Cindy
Fiction is not the only category of book reading. There are many of us who treasure our library cards and know our librarians who read nonfiction to expand our minds and remind us of the better angels of our nature.Maybe fiction sales are down because current reality feels so much like bad fiction.
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"Some of America’s most influential writers have received them, including W.H. Auden." I always thought he was British.
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@HKGuy
Auden was British by birth, but became an American citizen in 1946
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