Milk: A Novel

by Darcey Steinke

Overview

Mary is a new mother transformed by the birth of her baby; Walter, a lonely gay Episcopal priest, privately struggles with his contradictory desires; and John, a monk who has left his monastery after fifteen years, craves intimacy with a woman. With mesmerizing prose, Darcey Steinke weaves together the lives of these three characters in ways that explore the intersection of spirituality and sexuality and reveal how even our rawest, most confused impulses may contain elements of the divine.
Praise for Milk:
"Steinke's prose repeatedly hints at the divine in tangible things."-New Yorker "The characters in Milk form an erotic and spiritually enlightening threesome."-Vanity Fair "The conjunction of sex and the spirit, bodies and souls, is fascinating."-Washington Post "A lyrical and earthy meditation on the limits and glories of being human."-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608196548
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	01/15/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Darcey Steinke is the author of three previous novels, two of which were New York Times Notable Books of the Year. Her novel Suicide Blonde has been translated into eight languages.

Darcey Steinke is the author of three previous novels, two of which were New York Times Notable Books of the Year. Her novel Suicide Blonde has been translated into eight languages.

Editorial Reviews

In starkly poetic prose, Steinke's fourth novel glimpses the intertwining lives of three Brooklynites, each struggling toward enlightenment. There's Mary, a hip would-be poet who's obsessed with her newborn son and who feels neglected by her immature, partying husband; Mary's old college friend Walter, a gay Episcopal priest who's ashamed of his desires for teenage boys; and John, a onetime monk looking to rediscover his sexuality, who offers Mary emotional refuge. This slim novel isn't the first place Steinke (Suicide Blonde; Up Through Water; Jesus Saves) has explored the connections between sexual and religious yearning, but here the relationship is not fully plumbed ("what Mary wanted was technically impossible: to feel God's touch physically manifested"), and the dramatic situations that sparkle with controversy at the novel's opening fizzle at the end without real resolution. The wintry Brooklyn setting feels as cloistered and solemn as a monastery, in which characters spend more time reflecting than interacting. Steinke's great strengths are her eye for fresh, telling details and her ability to draw her very contemporary, urban characters into a dreamy, timeless story space in which the Second Coming might indeed seem plausible. But despite its complicated sense of morality, this novel reads like an exquisite sketch, as if the real bulk of the story has yet to be written. Agent, Sarah Chalfant. (Feb.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

This latest from Steinke (Suicide Blond) is told in three parts. Each section focuses on one of the main characters as they explore sex, religion, philosophy, and their interconnectivity. Mary is a newly single mother who seeks comfort while coming to terms with her visions. Mary's friend Walter, a gay minister, vainly searches for a replacement for his deceased lover. John is a former monk who finds intimacy in Mary that the church could never provide for him. Milk reads as if the characters are being observed through their own snowy windows, lending a distant, mystical quality to this slim volume. While the separate but intertwining quests of each character to find what they need most in this world may appeal to some readers, the sometimes stark depiction of sex acts may turn off others. An overall enlightening and philosophical book that asks readers to consider other ways to define belief. Recommended for libraries where Steinke's other novels are popular.-Leann Restaino, Jameson Health Syst., New Castle, PA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

A slim novel from Steinke (Jesus Saves, 1997, etc.) follows three lonely souls in Brooklyn seeking love and a connection with the infinite. Mary, Walter and John all have their crosses to bear. Mary is a new mother, and her husband, an aloof hipster, is cheating on her. Her friend Walter is a gay Episcopalian priest exiled from his Manhattan church to a Brooklyn parish after he wrote a compromising letter to a teenaged boy who'd captured his heart, while the priest's true love, the late Carlos, is now just a box of ash. And John has just left a monastery, 15 years after entering it in the wake of his pregnant wife's death. All three characters are seized with an urge to understand God's way of working in their daily lives. Things begin at Christmastime, when Mary leaves her husband after sleeping with John, whom she met in a local coffeeshop, to come live with Walter. Walter, especially lonely for Carlos during the holiday, has a series of unfulfilling sexual encounters in Manhattan bars and beds. John finds a more affordable apartment and wishes Mary would share it. That's about it for plot, since the real glory here lies not in action but in Steinke's ability to combine the mundane and the divine so gracefully. We read that, for Walter, "all through his life, things outside the church were just as holy as the crosses and statues inside," and, indeed, love, sex, and god all keep close company here. New mother Mary is hungry for sexual contact with her husband; Walter frequents Internet S&M Web sites; John feels closer to God after leaving his order and becoming physically intimate with Mary. But this is no soft-focus fable. Walter, after finding Mary praying in the closet a dozen times,can't help but wish that she'd go on Zoloft in order to get along more easily in the human realm. A lyrical and earthy meditation on the limits and glories of being human. Agent: Sarah Chalfant/The Wylie Agency

Kirkus Reviews

Steinke's prose repeatedly hints at the divine in tangible things.” —New Yorker

“The characters in Milk form an erotic and spiritually enlightening threesome.” —Vanity Fair

“The conjunction of sex and the spirit, bodies and souls, is fascinating.” —Washington Post

“A lyrical and earthy meditation on the limits and glories of being human.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

From the Publisher