Around the World in 80 Books discussion

Start discussion here for Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena.

I read great reviews of this award winning book, but the style of writing was not for me. This is a story of a mother and a daughter during the 1970s and 80s in Soviet controlled Latvia. The mother is a doctor who chafes under the control of the USSR. She lost her husband to government agents just days after her daughter's birth. The story is told alternately between the mother's and daughter's viewpoint, but it becomes confusing because it isn't alternate chapters, but small 1-3 page sections with no indication when the viewpoint switches. I couldn't make myself read more than one-third of the book before I abandoned it because I wasn't invested in any of the characters.

It was hard to follow the transitions between mother and daughter narrating in this book, and jumping around in time. I thought the author did an good job depicting the despair and hopelessness they felt and in depicting the mother’s depressive tendencies. It was definitely an interesting read.