Bitter Milk: A Novel

by John McManus

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312301934
Publisher:	Picador
Publication date:	06/01/2005
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.48(d)

About the Author

John McManus was raised in Maryville, Tennessee. The author of the collections Born on a Train and Stop Breakin Down, he became the youngest ever recipient of the Whiting Writers' Award in 2000.

Reading Group Guide

Discussion Questions
1. Why do you believe Loren Garland's family hides so much from him, and furthermore, why do you think he is more curious about these mysteries than other children?
2. The novel is structured along two quests, both connected: the puzzle or mystery of the world around Loren (what is happening to the Garland family? What occurred in the past? Where did Loren's mother go? Why does she not love him the way he wishes to be loved?) and the puzzle of Loren's brain (Who is Luther and why does he drift in and out of narrating the story?). Why does every one of these questions seem to lead back to Loren's mother?
3. Who, in fact, is Luther?
4. Furthermore, what biblical overtones are implied in his name and his possible origin? What biblical overtones resonate throughout the novel as a whole?
5. Is Mr. Ownby more than he appears to be? Why does he seem care for Loren? How are the two of them – man and boy – similar?
6. In what ways does this world old-fashioned, in what ways does it seem modern, and what is the author trying to say about Appalachia and the South by showing this world to be so anachronistic?
7. Though Loren is only 9 years old, he has questions about his sexuality? Is he attracted to Eli, or does he just wish to be him? Most importantly, does Loren indeed hate himself? How much of his uncertainty is connected to his mother's struggles with sexuality?
8. What is the meaning of the book's title?
9. What does Chilhowee Mountain symbolize for Loren?
10. The letter at the end of the book: what sort of closure does it provide for Loren? What sort of closure does it provide for you, the reader?

Editorial Reviews

McManus's nerve-wracking prose has great pitch and daring...He's a wildly talented writer.” —Joy Williams

“McManus writes like he is inventing a new language on pure guts.” —Michael Knight

“Would I be happy to have written these stories myself? I wish I could have written them.” —Madison Smartt Bell

“This mysterious, almost phantasmagoric, debut novel is reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's The Orchard Keeper in its precociousness. McManus writes with a wisdom and empathy that belies his youth. Bitter Milk signals the arrival of an important new voice in Southern literature.” —Ron Rash, author of One Foot in Eden and Saints at the River

From the Publisher