Today, very few British politicians admit to reading novels, let alone make a virtue of the fact – although Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, is a notable exception, and Jeremy Corbyn has named Ulysses as his favourite book. Perhaps Theresa May’s cabinet is full of secret bookworms. Somehow, I doubt it. But if there is one book that all British politicians ought to read right now, it is this week’s Man Booker prize winner.
Milkman, the third novel by Anna Burns, offers both an unnerving reminder of very recent Northern Irish history and a meticulous account of an oppressive relationship between an 18-year-old woman and a 41-year-old man. The novel, part of a Man Booker shortlist chosen at least partly for the book’s ability to parse the confusing state we’re in, holds up to the light two of the most pressing political and cultural questions of the moment – the Irish border and #MeToo.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2OwT3Ze
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