“Milkman” by Anna Burns (post 4): The protagonist and another character each speak to their own alternate personalities

The protagonist’s “maybe-boyfriend” has a male friend who cooks and is called “chef.” And while maybe-boyfriend is busy upstairs, chef is downstairs in the kitchen.

The protagonist hears chef talking to his alternate personality, which she then compares to when she talks to her own alternate personality:

“And now maybe-boyfriend…got busy, and chef downstairs…was busy in the kitchen. He was talking to himself which was not rare…As usual I could hear him describing to some imaginary person who appeared to be serving an apprenticeship under him, everything he was doing regarding the making of the meal. Often he’d say something like, ‘Just do it this way. There’s an easier way, you know. And remember, we can develop a unique style and technique without histrionics and drama’ and whenever he did this, he’d sound soft and much more accommodating than when he was interacting with real people in real life. He liked this acolyte who, from the sound of chef’s praise and encouragement, was a good attentive learner…Once I peeked in when he was inviting his invisible apprentice to try some, and there he was, all alone, raising a spoon to his own lips. At that time, which was the first time I’d witnessed chef doing this, he put me in mind of me during the times I did my mental ticking-off of landmarks which I’d do peripherally whilst also doing my reading-while-walking. I’d pause after a page or so, to take stock of my surrounding, also occasionally to be specific and helpful to someone in my head who’d just enquired directions of me. I’d imagine myself pointing and saying, ‘Well, orientation is there,’ meaning the person needed to go round such-and-such a corner. ‘Go there,’ I’d say. ‘Just round that corner. See this corner? Go round it and when you get to the junction by the letterbox at the start of the ten-minute area you head up by the usual place.’ The usual place was our graveyard and this directing would be my way of helping some lost but appreciative person. And here was chef in his kitchen doing much the same thing” (1, pp. 35-36).

Comment

So far, the multiple personality of these two characters has not been labeled as multiple personality. It is treated as ordinary, pitiful and/or endearing, imaginative psychology.

Multiple personality is not mentioned in any review I’ve seen. Did the reviewers and Booker Prize judges read the above passage?

My guess is that they did read it, but since the text does not label it as multiple personality, and since the novel is not marketed as being about multiple personality, they didn’t think of it.

However, I am only up to page 36, and my opinion may be premature.

1. Anna Burns. Milkman. Minneapolis Minnesota, Graywolf Press, 2018.