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Aug 23, 2020JeffFrauenknecht rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
One doesn't read literary fiction expecting to have an easy time of it and as I began this novel I questioned if I would be able to get through it. The narrator identifies herself only as middle sister and indeed everyone in the book goes by a vague moniker including the title character and he isn't even an actual milkman. The sentences are long and meandering in a kind of stream of consciousness way. However as I grew accustomed to her voice I was drawn into middle sister's world and the ways in which she sees it. During the times of the troubles in Northern Ireland she seeks to escape by reading old novels while walking through her neighborhood, trying to ignore the world around her. This quirky behavior backfires and draws attention from the locals including a well known insurgent nicknamed the Milkman. Her attempts to avoid him play out against a backdrop of violence. As the story is told we also learn of her iffy relationship with an young auto mechanic, the complexities of her immediate family life, her parent's history and relationship and the stories of several other residents of this unnamed town. Middle sister's round about way of communicating proves insightful and blackly humorous. By the end I was glad I stuck with middle sister and her unique view of a complicated world.