A QUICK BUT SUPERBLY SATISFYING READ
HAVE you ever considered the amount of thinking we do throughout the day – mulling over issues, decisions to be made, contemplating work or chores, hearing those inner voices of dissent or encouragement?
The continuous stream that goes through our minds is so often unconscious thought – awareness only acute when the issues we face hammer to be heard.
Breaking Milk by Dawn Garisch takes us into the world of protagonist Kate over one seminal day. We follow her thoughts (many of which will resonate) and enter the rooms of her mind on a day that is fraught with anxiety, high emotions, confrontations, loss and ultimately acceptance.
This is a book about motherhood, separation and estrangement, and how the decisions we make impact on those we hold dear. It is thoughtful, incisive and moving, and at its heart full of joy as it centres on relationships between humans, animals and the environment – leaving you with satisfaction yet many questions.
This is Garisch’s seventh novel and she uses all her very impressive skills as a writer, poet, playwright, mother, doctor and member of the medical humanities movement to set the scene. Her characters are sharp, with personalities clearly defined in the lines she gives them.
A former geneticist disillusioned by the ethical questions posed in her job, Kate has returned to the family farm in the Eastern Cape and become an award-winning organic cheese maker while also running a restaurant. Meet the grumpy and brusque Gert who assists Kate and her father, Da, who is succumbing to dementia.
Cared for by the gentle young African, Elihle, Da is Kate’s major responsibility. Her divorce – a subject of much anguish and estrangement from her only child Jess, has separated them in an almost irreparable way. Nosisi, whose son Luzoko is in the bush undergoing initiation, has her own fears to deal with; uniting these mothers as they contemplate their children.
Neighbouring farmer Daniel is in love with Kate, an emotion that she does not return. And then there is a visit from the manipulative writer ex-husband Leonard, who seemingly reaches out to her. But what makes the day different? Jess, living in London, is the single mother of conjoined twins and the planned separation surgery is on this day.
She has forbidden her to come to be with her during the operation.
For Kate the routine of the farm, the discipline of her cheese-making, her relationship with her goats allow some semblance of normality as she goes about her daily business. But her emotions teeter on a scalpel edge throughout the long hours waiting for news.
Garisch has the vision to show the connections and separations that are part of all our lives. Her talent lies in teasing out the layers that make up our lives and it is this that makes the story so profound. It is almost as if Garisch has her stethoscope plastered to Kate’s chest, listening intently to the heartbeat of her life and has a scope in her brain monitoring the waves of thought. In the final pages, a charming chat to her goats, each of whom she addresses by name chronicling their idiosyncrasies, while coaxing the precious milk from them is a simple delight.
The book has a rhythm that is all-embracing. A quick but superbly satisfying read which will entice you back to more thoroughly explore the depth of the narrative and the messages it contains.