When Lauren Bruce, 35, mother of six-week-old daughter Rory decides to nurse her baby at a public museum and accidentally drops the blanket, flashing a group of HS students and is escorted to a privacy of the museum bathroom, she finds herself in the middle of a huge controversy and at the forefront of Candace Calloway’s movement for women and backed BOOBS (Boston Organization for the Oversight of Breastfeeding). However, this new movement does more that hit hard in the breast women and men; it sparks and stirs Calloway’s maternal instincts, fans the desire for love in campaign manager’s Maisy Street’s heart and has women around America pitted against one another as they fight for cause.
Author Johanna Weiss addresses many of the issues that preoccupy the minds and bodies of new mothers; from painful breasts to the decision of whether or not to breastfeed, from the glazed-over feeling to the struggle to rediscover a new life with a baby. In addition, Weiss examines the issues between new mothers and their husbands as seen in Lauren’s response to her husband stating: “I miss them. I want them back.” She replies: “You talk like you own them. They’re mine.”
Protagonist Lauren Bruce is a sympathetic, sensitive and credible new mother, struggling to make sense of all the new information, “baby-related paranoia” and guilt about her absent sex life and initial difficulties with breastfeeding. Lauren’s emotions are well tempered, showing a believable balance as she enjoys the limelight of her newly found fame, but also struggles with the peer pressure as the group she first inspired, takes the movement to extremes.
Weiss also does an effective job portraying changes in mentality in her characters Candace Calloway, a sharp but somewhat shallow Governor hopeful, and Maisy Street. Everything is simple fix for Calloway who manipulates people and messages to win votes, until the presence of the babies and mothers ignites her maternal instinct and she begins to believe in motherhood and women’s issues. Maisy is too busy setting the stage for the political charades that she doesn’t have time for love, but soon the bras, the talk of breasts and the passion of women rekindles her desire for love, that she finds in the enemy camp.
Weiss’s supporting characters are equally light and funny – even Mia, Lauren’s best friend whom she describes as “a senior vice president of maternity” who goes from supporting breast feeding in public to wanting to compare baby formula to arsenic and label mothers who use formula as “evil”. Weiss has a knack for describing her characters’ personalities through their actions, for example, when describing one of Calloway’s public relations people, Steve Albee serving himself at a luncheon meeting: “Steve Albee, a tall wiry man with horn-rimmed glasses, spooned six of the eight dumplings.”
Though several chapters are a little heavy on dialogue, which slows down the pace, Milkshake is an easy, fast-paced read. Weiss’s spoof on politics gone to extreme is both funny and frighteningly realistic as Calloway’s campaign supporting moms breastfeeding in public becomes Calloway turned into a representative for pornography; fanatic breastfeeding mothers attempt to reenact the Boston Tree Party using formula instead of tea; television advertising distorting candidates’ campaign messages and the wet-nurse business booming because of the publicity.
Milkshake is charged with maternal and political issues. Weiss speaks to the emotional state of new mothers and the ridiculousness of politics with funny characters and fresh images.
Reviewed by Maya Fleischmann for IndieReader.com 2012