Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez
Rainbow Milk is a tender, explicit, and beautiful intersectional story about race, sexuality, and religion.
It begins in the 1950s with Norman Alonso, a wonderful man from Jamaica. Wanting to seek out a better life, he and his wife travel to the UK. They arrive in the motherland with many other Caribbean people – now known as the Windrush generation – and settle in the Black Country in the Midlands. However, their arrival is met with racism, ostracization, and illness.
We then meet Jesse, their grandson, a young Jehovah's Witness struggling to understand his sexuality and survive a physically and emotionally hostile home. He escapes to London aged 19 and begins life as a sex worker. Exploring his sexuality and reconciling with his tumultuous past, Jesse's story is one of pain, trauma, and triumph.
This an exceptional debut; Paul Mendez is a marvel. Closely examining themes of sex, class, sexuality, race, racism, and religion, this is not a book for the faint-hearted. It is erotic and at times deeply sad, uncomfortable and brutal. It is also wildly funny, Mendez tackles harrowing subjects with a wit that makes it easier to swallow – pardon the pun.
If you’re looking for a book to spark a lively debate, this is the one for you. The only shortcoming was within our own discussion group, in its lack of gay male representation, of any ethnicity. For that reason, our discussions missed an informed perspective. We would be very interested in having that conversation and relish the opportunity to reread this brilliant book.
