The Milkman was passed down from my Man Booker Prize fan (and beer fan) Rich. This book requires getting into a reading rhythm. It is a little stream of conscious, lots of tangents and backtracking and the there are no names. Just Maybe Boyfriend, Ma and, of course, Milkman.
But when you get going you start to feel for the protagonist. She is trying, at a young age, to navigate minefields of social convention, war and duplicity and hormones and parents. And she doesn’t hesitate to think back on actions and words as wrong at the moment and wish she had done different. You really begin to root for her to succeed in life and to find the more that she wants instead of the life being laid out in this Irish town.
To drink with this book, I would try to find a brewery with a Pink Boots collaborative beer on tap or in cans (Pizza Port has one). Almost as hard to find would be a Dry Irish Stout but that would set the mood as well. Or you could encourage the wild and crazy and have a lactose-y Milkshake IPA to nod at the Milkman of the title.
Hope you are ready for pranks today. I fell for one briefly already before catching myself. Hopefully, the beers you have this month are not pranks.