Review: 
Hm. Hmmm. This is a difficult book to write about as it defies easy genre placement. It has notes of thriller, horror, SF/speculative fiction, and philosophy. I chose to shelve it under “literary fiction” because I don’t see a conflict between the literary and genre elements.
Judging by the three-star average rating, most will either love or be confounded by and hate this novel. It took some warming up for me, and I have other quibbles about characterization and writing style. But when I finished the book, I wanted to jump back in and discuss it.
It’s a novel of big (and politically relevant) ideas wrapped in a domestic thriller. The story centers on a mom and her young daughter. The mother, Anna, hears a voice. Not voices, one voice, and much of the novel’s first quarter or third is spent characterizing this voice–what it is and isn’t, if not why it is at all. Then, the voice stops. Anna is relieved but still puzzled. More importantly, she has to get away from her husband, who is revealing himself to be a sociopath. She sets out on her own with her daughter and shacks up at a motel in New England. Her husband doesn’t care until he decides to run for a government office. He wants his estranged wife and kid around as political props. Anna resists but is threatened.
Interspersed with events are bits of research Anna has done on the voice–on language and communication across species, flora and fauna, on God and mental health, community and self-hood. She’s found a small community at the isolated motel, and they contribute to her understanding. The closer she comes to making sense of things, the more danger she’s in until matters reach a breaking point, not felt until she realizes just how much she’s been manipulated.
Millet is posing some big questions and making assertions that ring especially true in our new extreme-right and digital environments. I haven’t yet sorted through all the implications of the story, but I’m happy for the challenge.
Original post:
eevilalice.booklikes.com/post/1530751/sweet-lamb-of-heaven-by-lydia-millet
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