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Thursday 1969

The Troubles started on a Thursday. At six o’clock at night. And seven whole days later, for Amelia was counting, she could hardly believe it, for here they were, still going on.

In the week of Anna Burns much deserved win in the 2018 Booker prize �� I attended an event at London’s most famous bookshop �� Foyles, where the Man Booker winner gave a reading and was interviewed by the literary editor of the New Statesman.

In the New Statesman, simplified write up what was a key interview she is quoted as saying

“In my first book, No Bones, the critics seemed to think I was writing about a dysfunctional family to show up the dysfunctional society, but it was actually the other way round. The Troubles was the backdrop and the family stuff felt more important and urgent. I think it’s because I’ve resolved something about family issues that I can now do the “bigger�� issue �� which actually, for me, is the lesser issue.��

My own recollection is that her answer was more complex. I recall her saying that her first book “No Bones�� was dealing with her issues as an individual; her second “Little Constructions�� with her issues with the family unit; and that finally now in her third book “Milkman�� she was able to consider her issues with the society in which she grew up.

And reading this, her first novel, I think that more nuanced picture is a more accurate reflection �� as the book deals I think with the long run mental effects of a dysfunctional family (in a dysfunctional society) on an individual.

And although Northern Ireland is key to the novel �� the latter parts of it are set in London, and Burns has said in contemporaneous interviews that even incidents which were taken as being from Belfast were in fact ones that took place in a troubled Islington housing estate.

The main character of the story is Amelia Lovett �� living in a working class Catholic family in the Ardoyne �� a seven year old when the book starts in 1969, the beginning of the Troubles.

Thereafter the book is made up of 23 chapters �� which progress the story of Amelia, her family and her circle of acquaintances over the next 25 years. In some Amelia is the point of view character, occassionally the first party narrator, sometimes a side character and sometimes the story is about her family or wider circle.

In the second chapter (An Apparently Motiveless Crime �� 1969-1971) we see the situation spiraling into violence as Amelia’s cousin, a Brit serving in the Army, is initially welcomed by his extended family, but then later murdered.

Treasure Trove, 1972 introduces us to a recurring image in the book �� Amelia’s chest of treasures including her collection of thirty-seven British Army rubber bullets, as well as to the indifference and brutal violence which characterises life in the Lovatt family.

As time progresses we go through shootings, punishment beatings, bombings, vigilantes, teenage pregnancies, domestic abuse - all played out at the societal and family unit level.

And as she grows in this environment, Amelia descends into anorexia, self-abusing sexual promiscuity, alcoholism and then later in England into a complete mental breakdown ending in institutionalisation.

Later chapters set after her move to England - Trigger 1991, Safe House 1992, A Peace Process 1994 �� have titles which are far more explicitly based around her own mental health than around the Northern Ireland situation.

Much of the foundational work of “Milkman�� �� situations, characters, writing style �� can be seen in this book. However its structure means that it is much more varied than “Milkman’s single, distinctive voice. Whereas “Milkman�� has been described as a black comedy �� this book is on the whole much less funny and much bleaker �� particularly when dealing with the issues of addiction, self-abuse and mental illness, albeit a glimpse of the humour of “Milkman�� does reappear in the last chapter, which also offers one of the few bright notes in the book as Amelia starts to tentatively rebuild her mental health.

“They could go to this place, whatever it was, have this thing, this daytrip, then come back and be themselves again at the end. It wasn’t as if they’d lose anything. It wasn’t as if their lives would be transformed by one, singular, extraneous outing. It wasn’t as if their long established, insular identities which they relied upon so heavily, could be ravaged and taken away from them just like that. So yes, they decided a day trip was within reason, just so long as they could come back and be miserable later on.��

Overall an excellent debut, itself marking the start of a 17 year literary journey which culminated in the best Booker winner for many years.