Bitter Milk

by John McManus

From Whiting Award-winning writer John McManus comes a debut novel of startling originality and mystery.

The son of an unknown father and an ostracized mother, and the next of kin in a long line of bastard relatives, nine-year-old Loren Garland lives a life of subtle mystery beneath the shadow of an East Tennessee mountain. It is on his family's broken-down estate that Loren's imagination grows, and with it, the extraordinary voice of Bitter Milk, a young boy named Luther who may be Loren's imaginary friend, his conscience, or his evil twin. And yet outside the puzzle of Loren's brain, there are the darker goings-on of his family—his mother who wishes she were a man, his new uncle who plans to develop the Garland land into real estate, and his withered grandfather who holds the clan together through truculence and fear. When Loren's mother disappears, he must set out on a quest of his own devising, tossing aside the trappings of youth in order to discover the truth of the world.

Genres: Fiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2005

About the author

Librarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

For the software engineer, see John McManus.

Reviews

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this a few years ago and liked it very much, so I decided to reread it now since I just finished one of McManus's short story collections. Although there are some aspects of the book that I love, such as the humor and characterizations, other parts were frustrating and disappointing.

The main problem I had with it was the invisible friend narrator, who is present for the first third of the book or so, and then disappears except for a few random pop-ups. This "character" felt like a device to keep the reader and perhaps the writer at arm's length from the main character and contributed to the other main aspect I found disappointing, which was the ending. The invisible friend comes back in the last few pages and seems to wrap up the story as if it were his and not the main character's. I didn't really understand this turn of events and it made the whole book fall flat for me.

There is also much to enjoy in the book, though, and certain parts (especially the scenes with the cranky grandpa who continually sings filthy songs), made me laugh out loud.

[Jennifer Collins · Rating 1 out of 5]

All things considered, it's almost absurd that this book is as unfortunately uninteresting as it is. The characters are unlikable and unengaging, the point-of-view seems to be undertaken primarily as a game with the reader, and the flow of the narrative is nothing less than jarring.

Moments of the book are fascinating, and the characters and plot are believable...but this one was a struggle that I simply can't imagine recommending on. Unless you're curious what happens when you attempt a primary narrator who could be many things, but is probably a not any version of a real person in the lives of other characters, and is also not a traditional narrator.

As an experiment, I suppose this book might have some interest...to someone...but I wouldn't recommend it. How this book ended up being So uninteresting is really the only thing that I found engaging about it.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not so much a novel as a character study. Although it shouldn't really matter, there is no break in this book section-wise or chapter-wise and it really affects the ability to find a stopping point that allows the reader to pick up again without having to back-track. Interesting inner life of the main character obviously propels the narrative but not much of a plot - and certainly not much by way of resolution.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confusing and depressing.