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Hot Milk by Deborah Levy (2016)
“I wanted my whole life so far to slip away with the rolling waves, to begin a different kind of life. But I didn’t know what that meant or how to get to it.”
SYNOPSIS: This was an interesting one for me. To start with a brief synopsis, the book explores a strained relationship between a mother (Rose) and daughter (Sofia) as they embark on a journey to Spain, which, rather than a getaway, is another step in the seemingly endless search for a cure for Rose’s paralysis. Rose’s illness is more complex than it seems and Rose herself has an unwillingness to let her daughter grow into her own woman, whether through jealously and resentment of Sofia or a fear of loneliness and depression in herself. Sofia grasps at romance, freedom, love, independence; but the overall feeling is that there is a cloud hanging over Sofia, in the form of her mother.
A sense of adventure-turned-desperation to escape – A life with all the responsibilities but none of the independence – An innate desire to care for a mother; a debt owed by every child.
THOUGHTS: To be honest, I am guilty of blatantly disregarding the proverb and judging books by their covers, and at the start of a big trip, I look for a book that looks… well, like a holiday on its cover. The cover of Hot Milk suggests escapism, freedom, a summer for a young girl on the beach. In reality the book is a lot more than that. In fact it’s a book about a young girl’s struggle for all of those things. It explores themes of resentment, loneliness, emotional and psychological abuse, responsibility, disability, expectation and manipulation; juxtaposing the heavenly setting. The book itself almost makes the reader feel quite trapped as we are seeing everything from Sofia’s perspective. The heat of the Spanish sun makes the reader feel clammy and uncomfortable rather than at ease.
The book is beautifully written and complex in its themes given that it’s under 300 pages. I think I only found it a slight slog because of what I was expecting, essentially something lighter and brighter. It gets pretty intense.
Without giving away too much, I found the ending unsatisfying- I didn’t want it to go on, I just wanted some peace of mind for the characters, but there is of course always meaning behind a lack of resolution. I enjoyed the style of writing and the unspoken complexities of parent-child relationships to which anyone can relate in their own way!
Places We Roam 