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Milkman (Paperback, 2019, Faber & Faber, Limited) 4 stars

In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy …

Strange artefact

4 stars

Not sure where to begin... First, after reading some ten pages of this novel you discover the importance of the paragraph, for here they are few and far in between. So reading the whole thing (352 pages) is reading a wall of text. It's like a marathon and you never know if you'll be able to hold on until the next paragraph. Second the language is surprising. Like English at the time of Cavern man: Me husband, you wife, she older daughter, she middle daughter, them wee daughters. But allow me to quote her: "After a pause brother-in-law said he was going to beat him up all the same. ‘Not necessary,’ I said. ‘Still,’ he said. ‘Ach,’ I said. ‘Ach nothing,’ he said. ‘Ach sure,’ I said. ‘Ach sure what?’ he said. ‘Ach sure, if that’s how you feel.’ ‘Ach sure, of course that’s how I feel.’ ‘Ach, all right …

replied to airdog's status

Adorno said (Sorry if I'm too lazy to fetch the exact quote) that all good music had to be listened to through gritted teeth.

What he meant by that is that all good music is the result of very exacting work and the result is that it challenges our understanding of the world as we had conceived of it to that moment.

I think this book proves this true. It was written through gritted teeth and needs to be read the same way.