Soviet Milk

I ultimately did enjoy reading Soviet Milk, but it took me longer than it should have done to get into the story. I didn't initially realise that the two alternating voices were those of the mother and her daughter - I saw them as one woman narrating different eras in her life so was confused by the frequent jumps in time. Ikstena, I have since learned from other reviews, isn't an author to mollycoddle her readers!

Soviet Milk is a novel of women, of dysfunctional mother-daughter relationships, of national identity and of personal freedom. At its heart is one unnamed woman who, prevented from following her dream career, abandons herself instead to substance abuse as she no longer particularly cares whether she lives or dies. Ikstena has her identify at one point with her daughter's caged hamster - able occasionally to run free within the parameters defined by an outside power (for the hamster, this temporary freedom extends to the walls of the daughter's room), but then abruptly reminded of her powerlessness as playtime ends and the cage door is again locked. The woman and her own mother can clearly remember when Latvia was an independent nation so are fully aware of everything they lost to Soviet rule. The woman's daughter only knows the Soviet regime and her primary focus has always been mothering to her mother. These dynamics are complicated, but poignantly rendered and in such emotional depth that, on finishing Soviet Milk, I felt as though I had read a much longer novel. This is only really a novella. I'm not sure I will now rush to read more of Ikstena's books, but I think the themes and scenes explored in Soviet Milk will remain with me. I feel this is a book to be mulled over at greater length in the days to come.