Product Description

Resting in a hospice for the terminally ill, Annie is dying. Supported by her oldest friend Clemmie, who listens and sympathises, she looks back over her life, revealing her daughter's search for her father - an American GI - and her return from the US with a man of whom Annie is highly suspicious.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #644844 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 198 pages

From the Publisher
REVIEWS FROM THE PRESS
‘[A] beautifully constructed, tender novel’ DAILY MAIL

‘The story exerts a fierce grip and is likely to be read at one sitting’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘[Bernice Rubens’s] opening pages … have all the virtues – directness, economy, vividness, tension – of a short story by Maupassant or Maugham … A book that, in so short a space, conveys so much, with unremitting power, pathos and understanding’ DAILY TELEGRAPH

‘Brilliantly written, compulsively readable and reveals some real truths about the sadder and darker side of life … Milwaukee is the latest contribution to a massively successful literary career’ SUNDAY EXPRESS

‘Bernice Rubens is at her shrewd and chilling best … moving and memorable’ TLS

‘Rubens is as inventive as ever … MILWAUKEE, like all of Rubens’s work (she has both won and been runner-up for the Booker Prize), is a very good read.’ LITERARY REVIEW

‘A gripping story that’s nastily and lovingly human, sometimes melodramatic, often mercifully farcical … MILWAUKEE is a book written in a prose which is all clarity and wit, narrated in a voice which pulls no punches … deeply moving’ SCOTSMAN

‘An unputdownable race between understanding/forgiveness on one hand, and dwindling time on the other … The ostensible simplicity of her story-telling is subtly powerful … Not many books cry out for an immediate second reading. Milwaukee does’ IRISH INDEPENDENT

About the Author
Bernice Rubens was born in Wales and later read English at the University of Wales. Two of her books have been made into feature films, I SENT A LETTER TO MY LOVE and MADAME SOUSATZKA, and MR WAKEFIELD'S CRUSADE was made into a TV series.

Customer Reviews

A moving and wise remembrance of a life nearing its end.
An observation that was constant in reviews of the most recent Iris Murdoch novel was that while perhaps not a 'great' novel, Dame Murdoch was unquestionably 'wise'. Without trying to understand why critics begrudged her claim to greatness, it must be said that Bernice Rubens displays a similar amount of insight into the human psyche, but here the similarities between the two writers end. Ms Rubens works on a much smaller scale (with the exception of 'Our Father') and without the complexity of philosophical dilemmas of Dame Murdoch, but she is no less 'wise'.

With deceptively simple prose and structure, Bernice Rubens has consistently probed the depths of human thought and feeling. Her new novel, 'Milwaukee', is no exception as she takes her narrator, Anne Dawson, on a journey of flashbacks through her past as she moves progressively closer to her rapidly approaching, inevitable death. All the characters come vividly to life, and it is impossible for the reader to avoid emotional response to them. It is a story of guilt and redemption, vengeance and forgiveness. A mistake in her youth leads to a chain reaction of blunders for Anne, and she spends her final days unraveling the mysteries of her past. Past and present eventually begin to overlap as Anne desperately attempts completion and understanding in the time she has remaining. It is a rare example of modern fiction that is successfully written from the head but aims for the heart and a testament to the power of words.

Bernice Rubens may be the most under-appreciated author writing today, and 'Milwaukee', which finds her at the height of her power, would be a good place for readers to correct the neglect.

One of rubens` best...
A classic example of a book that makes you take a long hard look at yourself - and those around you. The mistakes we make along the way - the little white lies we tell that always seem to have a way of coming out, and have a pronounced effect on others. The things we do to spite others - and end up hurting mainly ourselves. And mostly, the forgiveness that goes hand in hand with love.