Hot Milk

Starred review from January 4, 2016
“Is Donald Duck a child or hormonal teenager or an immature adult? Or is he all of those things at the same time, like I probably am?” These questions come from the memorable heroine of Booker-finalist Levy’s (Swimming Home) novel: 25-year-old Sofia, who instead of pursuing her anthropology Ph.D. works in a coffee shop in London and spends much of her time caring for her sick and complaining mother, Rose. The two have traveled to arid Almería on Spain’s southern coast to visit the renowned but unorthodox Dr. Gomez, a fitting choice, since Rose’s ailment is baffling to everyone, including Sofia. While in Almería, Sofia experiences an awakening: she meets the alluring Ingrid, gets stung by jellyfish, and becomes bolder in the face of her mother’s oppressiveness. There is light mystery in the beautiful locale involving some potentially dangerous characters, and the story might be best described as The Magus as written by Lorrie Moore. But it’s Sofia’s frantic, vulnerable voice that makes this novel a singular read. Her offbeat and constantly surprising perspective treats the reader to writing such as “we dressed as though there weren’t a dead snake in the room” and “unfinished hotels... had been hacked into the mountains like a murder.” Levy has crafted a great character in Sofia, and witnessing a pivotal point in her life is a pleasure.

Starred review from May 1, 2016
Kinship, gender, Medusas--this rich new novel from a highly regarded British writer dazzles and teases with its many connections while exposing the double-edged sword of mother-daughter love. Levy's (Things I Didn't Want to Know, 2014, etc.) latest work may read lightly but is in fact a closely woven fabric of allusions, verbal riffs, and cross-references reflecting the experiences and dilemmas of its narrator, Sofia Papastergiadis, born in Britain to an English mother, Rose, and a Greek father she hasn't seen in 11 years. Now 25, with a degree in anthropology, Sofia is living an empty, frustrated life since she abandoned her doctoral thesis to take care of Rose, whose many ailments include strange pains and mysteriously paralyzed lower limbs. The story opens in Almeria, Spain, where, at considerable expense, mother and daughter have gone to visit the Gomez Clinic in hopes of a cure for Rose. But is Rose really ill or a hypochondriac? Is Gomez a quack or a brilliant healer? Is Sofia a monster, as she and others refer to her, or a sexual powerhouse--as she begins to seem after acting on Dr. Gomez's recommendation that she become bolder by taking two lovers, one male and one female. Levy's wit and fluency render her quicksilver, sometimes surreal narrative simultaneously farcical and fascinating. The new, bolder Sofia may act more decisively--freeing an abused dog, stealing a fish, visiting her father and his new family in Athens--but underneath she's lost and lonely, afraid of "failing and falling and feeling." Yet her need for a "bigger life" cannot be suppressed, leading to one final act of boldness that disrupts--though doesn't necessarily sever--those tendrillike bonds holding her captive. In her scintillating, provocative new book, Levy combines intellect and empathy to impressively modern effect.

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May 1, 2016
Sofia's mother never likes the water Sofia brings her. It's one small example of how confining Sofia's life is as caretaker to her mother, who is troubled by mysterious ailments that come and go seemingly at random. So, in a last-ditch effort to get some answers, mother and daughter travel to an expensive clinic in Spain for treatment by a gregarious doctor. But the real questions in this mesmerizing novel are the larger ones Sofia has about her place in the world. Despite her training in anthropology (unused in her job at a coffee shop), Sofia is often left guessing at the motivations of others around her and even her own. She is at once trapped in a languorous, shiftless existence and pained by uncertainties as sharp as a jellyfish sting. Levy unravels Sofia's motivations through her interactions with sharply drawn characters of almost mythic proportions. It is an anthropologist's attention to the details in people's interactions, and a daughter's complicated efforts to free herself from her mother's needs, that make Hot Milk an evocative and complex novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

May 15, 2016

Sofia Papastergiadis, a 25-year-old waitress, is trapped in a go-nowhere life. The demands of her invalid mother, Rose, who is plagued by undiagnosed leg pains, stand in the way of Sofia pursuing a career in anthropology. The women have left England for the suffocating heat of southern Spain, where Rose places her faith in the dicey Gomez Clinic. While Rose is being "treated," Sofia drifts into uneasy relationships--one with Ingrid, a disturbed woman she meets in a restroom, and a more casual encounter with the student who treats her jellyfish stings. A brief empty visit in Greece with her long-estranged father and his new, much-younger family resolves before Sofia returns for the wrap-up of Rose's treatment. VERDICT The claustrophobic, all-encompassing dysfunction of Sofia's self-involved circle of friends and family is wrapped in the oppressive heat of Spain and the narrowing possibilities that she can (or wants to) break free. The Man Booker short-listed Levy (Swimming Home and Other Stories) draws in readers with beautiful language and unexpected moments of humor and shock. [See Prepub Alert, 1/25/16.]--Beth Andersen, formerly with Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2016

Veterans returning from the Middle East have created an extraordinary new genre of postdeployment literature, as Phil Klay's National Book Award-winning Redeployment suggests. Lindsey's work, focusing on veterans in the South, also taps into the honored tradition of Southern literature. One story, "Evie M.," about an office clerk so neurotic she can't manage her own suicide, appeared in Best American Short Stories 2014.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.