I recently read Milkman by Anna Burns which is about an
18-year-old girl growing up in Northern Ireland. This novella from 1983 is about a young man
also living in Northern Ireland during The Troubles.
Cal McCluskey and his
father Shamie are the only Catholics living in a Protestant area of
Ulster. Cal falls in love with Marcella,
a young widow whose husband, a Protestant reserve policeman, was
assassinated. He hopes for a relationship
with the local librarian but he has secrets because of his unwilling
involvement with the IRA. The book
jacket offers a perfect summary:
“Springing out of the fear and violence of Ulster, Cal is a haunting
love story in a land where tenderness and innocence can only flicker briefly in
the dark.”
Cal’s father works in
an abattoir where Cal could also have a job but he “hadn’t a strong enough
stomach” (18). It is quite obvious that
the slaughterhouse is a metaphor for Ireland:
“People were dying every day, men and women were being crippled and
turned into vegetables in the name of Ireland . . . [People were] caught
between the jaws of two opposing ideals trying to grind each other out of
existence” (83). Cal has been coerced
into being a driver during some militant actions but he doesn’t want to be
involved: “’I just don’t like what’s
happening. . . . I have no stomach for it’” (23).
The book depicts what
life is like in a conflict zone. Because
of his neighbourhood, Cal faces almost daily intimidation, and he and his father
receive a threat from the Ulster Volunteer Force: “Get out you Fenian scum or we’ll burn you
out. This is your 2nd
warning, there will be no other” (27).
Cal is a sensitive and thoughtful person who does not want to get
involved but is pressured into being an accomplice for the IRA. Then when he indicates that he wants out, he
is threatened by those very people:
“’That creates a big problem, Cahal.
It would be out of my hands. I
wouldn’t like to see you hurt’” (40).
The effects on Shamie are equally devastating.
The characterization
of Cal is outstanding. He is a decent
person who wants nothing to do with violence.
Yet he cannot live the peaceful life he wants or be with the woman he
wants because of the sectarian violence.
He feels a great deal of shame and guilt for the activities in which he’s
participated: “Then he went to his
bedroom to eat again the ashes of what he had done” (15).
An atmosphere of
sadness permeates the book. The
relationship between Cal and Marcella is doomed because of the circumstances. This is a harrowing story told with
compassion but without sentimentality.
It is a short narrative (154 pages) but its emotional effect lingers.
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