Mothering, or lack of it, is at the heart of this eccentric, breast-laden book. Breasts everywhere, this is a bosomy paradise that features white, blue veined marble domed buildings, the tell-tale wet shirt of a nursing mother, a woman selling melons by the road, an entire scene that plays out with our heroine Sofia accidentally and unknowingly topless, and even the book's apt title. The female form is everywhere, reminding Sofia of the mothering she missed out on. The chesty symbolism protrudes...

Debbie has passed from the cool and profitless corners of the unknown (where the finest books are published), to the Booker-nominated realm of mainstream presses who insist on insipid covers with bikini-clad women to flog their books to “markets” not readers. Despite this brutal shift, Debbie has not altered her lean poetic prose style, her steely Ballardian tone, and her panache for poking into the painful nooks of her damaged personnel. This short novel features a daughter chained to her hypoc...

I really loved the first 100 pages or so, but the meandering story didn't keep me interested and I felt too detached from the characters (practically all of them neurotic in one way or the other) to care about them. Plus: The writing was skillfully done but too heavy on the symbolism for my taste. 2.5*Re-read in January 2019:I definitely liked it better this time, probably also because I knew that I shouldn't expect a lot of plot. The beauty of the book is in the writing and the imagery (the sym...

Okayyy......This book is really strange, the setting is beautiful and transports you to another ethereal place however the story feels fragmented almost as if Sophie is living in a deamlike trance removed from reality, the most perplexing thing is the dialogue. The stilted conversations the unusual randomness of the questions, it's like everyone is infected by the same tap water or something which makes everyone act so strangely or perhaps the scorching Mediterranean sun is to blame. None of the...

So I finished this book, am shaking my head and thinking what a strange little book this was. Additionally I am sure that there is much I have missed in symbolism and a deeper meaning I am just not getting. A mother and a daughter, either the mother is very ill or using her illness as a passive aggressive gesture? A 25 year old daughter, who has delayed her thesis in order to take care of her mother, a seriously bad co-dependent relationship. The daughter does not have much in the way of gumptio...

Despite the multiple negative reviews on this one, including the New York Times review that describes this novel as wanting in narrative, I really loved this book! It just goes to show you that not every book is for every reader, and that we all look for different things when we read. I thought when I liked it and others didn't that it didn't have a shot for the Man Booker prize, but the day after I finished it, it was named to the shortlist for 2016. "I am overflowing like coffee leaking from a...

I just didn't really get this one. Nice writing, but the story was all over the place and the dialogue was unnatural.

“My love for my mother is like an axe. It cuts very deep.” This is a most unusual mother–daughter story, set on the southern coast of Spain. Twenty-five-year-old Sofia Papastergiadis has put off her anthropology PhD to accompany her mother, Rose, on a sort of pilgrimage from their home in England to Dr. Gómez’s clinic to assess what’s wrong with Rose’s legs. What I loved about this novel is the uncertainty about who each character really is. Is Rose an invalid or a first-class hypochondriac? Is

Is Sofia bold enough at the end? That is the question Deborah Levy wrote into this copy of Hot Milk after a lecture, during a book signing session. Needless to say, the question haunted me as a reader, especially since I was about halfway through the novel when she placed it there. So the first half of the book, I read on my own, puzzling over the strange characters and settings. The second half, I read with a guiding star - a grapple question, as my professional self would put it.Is she bold e...

A haunting, enigmatic and dreamlike story analysing a daughter's relationship with her mother and the damage they inflict on one another. On the surface not much happens - Sofia accompanies her mother Rose to a desert beach resort in Spain where they attend a local clinic to find the mysterious ailment that prevents her mother walking, and has various affairs interspersed with a visit to her Greek father and his new family. The surface story is insignificant but full of symbolic resonances. Like...

Sophia is twenty-five years old and possesses the dark Mediterranean looks of her Greek father. She’s clever too – in the academic sense, at least – having completed a master’s degree in Anthropology. She’s currently working in a London coffee shop whilst struggling to finish her doctoral thesis. So a trip to southern Spain to accompany her mother, who is seeking a cure for a mystery debilitating illness, seems like just the ticket. Whilst there, she swims and fetches water (always the ‘wrong’ w...

This is a very self-consciously literary novel. At times almost overloadedly literary as motifs, symbols, allusions to current global events, poetical dialogue are heaped in the narrative shopping trolley. I often felt like the author was trying to cover too much ground and as a result the focus could be a bit blurry. Also, I couldn't quite get a handle on the narrator who seemed to me like two different women. I was never quite sure if what she was telling us was really taking place - in partic...

Questions I thought about....Why is this story set in Southern Spain? And what's the connection of the location to the title of the book?When I think of Southern Spain, I think of gorgeous beaches, bright blue skies, fluffy flamingo dresses, sangrias, and many vibrant cheerful healthy people. When I think of "Hot Milk"... I think of a young child. I think about a warm white soothing drink before bedtime.....and sleeping and dreaming. Our main characters are not vibrant, cheerful, or healthy ( of...

I’ve written a lot of book reviews recently in which alcohol had a leading role. It was unavoidable—I'd been reading the works of François Rabelais and Flann O’Brien, both of whom favour scenarios where quantities of beer and wine are consumed. Goodreaders who follow my reviews may have had enough of such alcoholic ramblings so I thought I’d write about hot milk today for a change. Not that I expect to find many goodreaders who like hot milk. Is there anyone who really finds hot milk palatable—u...

I am actually sorry I finished listening to this terrific novel. I found it hypnotic, dream-like and compelling. I should probably wait a little longer and ponder before I write my review, but that's not really my style. This is a relatively complex novel, deceptive in its simplicity. It's filled with symbolism and it's wonderfully rich in characterizations and vivid descriptions. Twenty-five year old Sofia is the carer of her sixty-four-year-old, hypochondriac mother, Rose, who's lost the abili...

In light of Elaine's review, I rewrote my initial snarky take on this novel and posted to my blog. To get full enjoyment from this novel, I urge you to see what a reread will do for you. Below is my original review.---------------------This short novel feels too long. An anthropologist, Sofia, quits working on her PhD ostensibly to care for her mother, who is unable to walk. No explanation can be found for the mother’s malady so mother and daughter travel to Spain in hopes a specialist there may...

A marbled white dome, its creamy walls veined with blue minerals, is the place of last resort for a mother-daughter pair looking for answers. It is a posh medical clinic set in an artificial oasis of flowers in the area of Andalusia, Spain. There are smaller yellowed domes also dotting the nearby Spanish desert, and inside them work migrants - slaves, really -who toil inside the geodesic greenhouses to bring about fruit where there should be none.This dreamlike story is dotted with blatant symbo...

This is a sad book - with a message embedded in the tale - which I don't generally like. I prefer my novels without - lessons! Despite that I like it. The first half has a stop-start feel to it - I suppose the author is setting up the scene and characters as best she can - and then there is real momentum and power in the episode when Sofia follows up on her need to re-acquaint herself with the father who left when she was 14.The backstory, is mostly about Rose, Sophia's mother, and the hardships...

4.5/5 stars. This book takes place in Spain and for that alone I loved it. I felt like drying in the sun, swimming in the blue water and hearing the seagulls cry while reading and it was bliss. As soon as I dived into the story - which is about a hypocondriac mother and her daughter who have gone to Spain to find a cure - I realized that this was going to be a quirky story, written beautifully. Deborah Levy makes sure that every dot is connected without making it too obvious, and therefore it is...