Milton's Elements

by HarperCollins

Meet Milton, a dyslexic, friendless, out-of-work factory worker who feels himself to be always on the outside, looking in. Seven months ago his three-year-old daughter Ariel was killed in a freak accident. Numb now, helpless, he can go for days without feeling a thing.Meet Milton's family. His wife, Judith, a grocery check-out clerk who consults the I Ching, quotes John Lennon and has been seeing a 'Trance Channeller' who claims to be in touch with Ariel; his chain-smoking sister Mandy with her unemployed husband Seth and their two juvenile delinquent sons; his abuse-addicted sister Connie who's spent the last ten years living on the streets; his insufferable brother Leonard, a hotel decorator who's dying of AIDS; and Mare, his cantankerous, heart-diseased, gun-toting mother who hates everything and everybody - including her children and herself.When Judith starts seeing another man, Milton hits her, and she moves out. Now he is completely alone. But within days his family has contrived to move in with him for an indefinite period. United only in their hatred of their mother, Milton, Connie, Leonard and Mandy each struggle to come to terms with their troubled pasts and damaged lives.Are people born weak and cruel, or do the hardships of time make them so? Turning her blackly comic eye on the legacies of dishonesty and selfishness in family life, Cordelia Strube has created a collection of characters that catch at our hearts even as they make the guests on 'Geraldo' seem almost tame.

258 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1995

About the author

HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies. Founded 1989.

Reviews

[Pooker]

August 20, 2011: I've been trying to find more books by Cordelia Strube ever since I read and was blown away by *Lemon*. Normally, I prefer to purchase my books new and for full price. I like to think that I am supporting the authors and the whole book industry by doing so. But so far, I've struck out. Nothing in the stores and nothing available to order - either "sold out" or "temporarily unavailable to order". I'm starting to have my suspicions about that "temporarily" bit.

Today though, on my almost daily jaunt over to Aqua books, I decided to check & see whether I could find any used copies. Eureka! Not one but two! This is one of them. And bonus points to me for putting my money where my mouth is to go buy something at Aqua Books (my favourite used book store in Winnipeg and self-proclaimed cultural city hall, that, sadly, recently announced it was closing because they just couldn't financially make a go of it any more).