Milwaukee

by Bernice Rubens

Milwaukee. Is it a place/ A person? Or the painful memory of a night to forget? It could be any of them. For Mary, it is the name of her father. For Annie, her mother, it is an anonymous American GI. For her grandmother, it is a place in Wisconsin and an opportunity for revenge. Each clings to her illusions, and the result is an explosion of lies that fragments and destroys a family. Milwaukee is Annie's story. Her memories cut no corners - they are a plea for understanding and forgiveness.

Genres: Fiction

Audio Cassette

First published February 1, 2001

About the author

Bernice Rubens was born in Cardiff, Wales in July 1928. She began writing at the age of 35, when her children started nursery school. Her second novel, Madame Sousatzka (1962), was filmed by John Schlesinger filmed with Shirley MacLaine in the leading role in 1988. Her fourth novel, The Elected Member, won the 1970 Booker prize. She was shortlisted for the same prize again in 1978 for A Five Year Sentence. Her last novel, The Sergeants’ Tale, was published in 2003. She was an honorary vice-president of International PEN and served as a Booker judge in 1986. Bernice Rubens died in 2004 aged 76.

Reviews

[Canlit4ever · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seemingly a short story spun out into a novel using the most contrived devices and agonizing repetition, this implausible, unsavoury rant would be well avoided.

[John Newcomb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a one session book about a woman in a hospice looking back over her life. Whilst it doesn't sound like the basis of a comic novel it is extremely amusing.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh what a sad book. Three generations of women in the same family all angry and wanting to hurt each other for disillusionment in their own lives. Annie lies dying in a hospice and recalls the events of her life, she is keen to feel it all the bad and the good, to aim for the truth. Told in flashbacks and in a way to keep you guessting - Annie has a sexual encounter with a GI (she only knows as Milwaukee) in the back of a truck and is deeply ashamed of this - and becomes pregnant. Her parents disown her and she is sent to her aunts in Sheffield and she is deeply hurt that her mother colludes with her bullying father instead of siding with her. Her father dies whilst she is pregnant and she is glad. Her mother creates a "war-hero father" for Mary who grows up believing in him. When she is grown she asks for information about him and finds out he didn't exist. She is deeply angry with her mother - so much so that she goes to Milwaukee to find him - which she does and then accuses her mother's husband Freddie (a famous singer) of raping her as he is now pregnant. Annie doesn't know who to believe and loses her husband from this lack of loyalty. Mary ends up marrying Milwaukee (Jimmy Winer) - her mother employs a private investigator who discovers he is already married and Annie has him arrested for bigamy thus breaking her daughters heart. Through it all Annie's friend Clemmie stands by her. The hatred these women appear to have for one another and the way they speak to one another is heartbreaking and in the end on deathbeds they realise they did love one another. What wasted lives. Annie's mother is fond of saying the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and perhaps the way these women seem to want to hurt one another and the depth of hurt they feel is what makes them alike. So a very harsh tale of anger, retribution and failed family relationships - but a very absorbing read.

[Nranger7 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to be honest and admit that I picked this up at a book sale just based on the title. I grew up near Milwaukee and assumed the story would be set there so I thought it would be a nice, pleasant memory of home. Nope. The story is set in England and the Milwaukee in this book is simply a generic place where jerks live.

I knew the story probably would not be a happy one based on the first sentence questioning what one packs for dying. I rated this book a bit higher simply because I was drawn into the story and it was hard to put down. It was written well with the narration going back and forth between present time and flashbacks.

However, much of the book was based on secrets. Secrets can be great stories but these secrets were just not handled well. No one stood up for themselves when a secret came out and explained their behavior. No one ever pointed fingers and stated that the wronged party was just as guilty as the accused. There were so many assumptions made that it was hard to tell what was supposed to be real and what was made up simply because these people could not properly communicate. Maybe that's the moral of the story: communicate before one dies rather than trying to get everything off your chest when they're dying. It's a good lesson but doesn't make for great reading.

[Bionic Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

An absorbing tale from 2001 by Bernice Rubens, who won the Booker prize in 1970.