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"Girl, Woman, Other is a celebration of the diversity of Black British experience. Moving, hopeful, and inventive, this extraordinary novel is a vivid portrait of the state of contemporary Britain and the legacy of Britain's colonial history in Africa and the Caribbean. The twelve central characters of this multi-voiced novel lead vastly different lives: Amma is a newly acclaimed playwright whose work often explores her black lesbian identity; her old friend Shirley is a teacher, jaded after decades of work in London's funding-deprived schools; Carole, one of Shirley's former students, works hard to earn a degree from Oxford and becomes an investment banker; Carole's mother Bummi works as a cleaner and worries about her daughter's lack of rootedness despite her obvious achievements. From a nonbinary social media influencer to a 93-year-old woman living on a farm in Northern England, these unforgettable characters also intersect in shared aspects of their identities, from age to race to sexuality to class. Sparklingly witty and filled with emotion, centering voices we often see othered, and written in an innovative and fast-moving form that borrows from poetry, Girl, Woman, Other is a polyphonic and richly textured social novel that reminds us of everything that connects us to our neighbors, even in times when we are encouraged to be split apart"--… (more)
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“to choose such a brutal and dramatic finale Carole knows what drives people to such despair, knows what it’s like to appear normal but to feel herself swaying just one leap away from the amassed crowds on the platforms who carry enough hope in their hearts to stay alive swaying just one leap away from eternal peace.”
I love short fiction and linked stories and this collection, really delivers on both fronts. It follows, twelve different woman, living in England, both in the past and the present. Most are black or mixed race, and the author directs a careful spotlight on each individual, with loving detail. Her writing is a marvel- strong, intelligent and lyrical. It also deals with many of the issues that are plaguing our troubled world.
I adore Margaret Atwood and I enjoyed The Testaments, but Bernadine Evaristo should have been the sole winner of the Booker Prize, in 2019, with this incredible achievement.
The novel is structured as a set of linked short stories, each describing the life of one woman. The stories are presented in groups of three, with direct connections between those women (e.g.; mother-daughter, or childhood friends). Additional connections emerge as the novel moves towards its conclusion. I was so immersed in the rich detail of each life story, that I didn’t see these additional links until they were made plain, making for many pleasant surprises. The epilogue tied up the one remaining loose end -- that I had completely forgotten about -- in a most satisfying way.
Along with captivating stories of sometimes captivating women, Evaristo sets herself the task of connecting each of them, not necessarily to all of the others, but to enough to form a weave. It’s a structure that has risks since at some point the connection will tend to feel forced, even potentially mawkish. Nevertheless, there is an earnestness in the telling that carries the reader through. And even if none of these women might be exemplars, most, if not all, are certainly memorable.
Neither the formal structure nor the conceit of connectedness are especially original. And yet this novel feels very fresh, almost challenging. Why? I think it’s because Evaristo writes with the assurance of a mature author in full command of her talents. She knows that it is the larger canvas that she wishes to convey, and that any flaws or limitations in the stitching will be nearly imperceptible and in any case forgiven when one stands far enough back in order to take in the whole. Which is a form of writerly wisdom.
I really like Evaristo’s voice and look forward to reading the rest of her oeuvre.
Gently recommended.
The writing style was a poetic prose--sounds odd but
The issues discussed are really the point of the book rather than the stories of the characters who were all very interesting people.
The Epilogue surprised me.
Read this book.
Evaristo, daughter of a black Nigerian father and a white British mother, certainly knows the challenges black women face. She shows us the lives of 12 different women living in Britain from the late 1800s and on into the present. Many of them, like herself, had one black parent and one white parent. Many live in London but others lived in rural areas of Northern England. Evaristo first introduces us to Amma, a playwright and theatre producer, who finally has a play being performed at the National Theatre when she is in her 50s. Amma is a lesbian with a considerable array of former lovers and at least two current girlfriends. She is the mother of Yazz who is now attending university who was fathered by a gay male friend. Amma is sort of the linchpin that connects all the rest of the women in the book. We meet her daughter, her best friend, a childhood friend who is now a teacher, the friend of that childhood friend who is also a teacher, a student of that childhood friend and so on. After meeting and learning about the lives of these other eleven women (pay attention when reading about their lives because they do reappear) we return to the aftershow party at the National Theatre where Amma's play has been given rave reviews. It's a triumph and a vindication for Amma. Most of the attendees are thrilled for her but some experience more problematic emotions. Amma's success makes them wonder about their own lives.
Evaristo was recently interviewed by Eleanor Wachtel on CBC Radio's Writers and Company. Wachtel asked lots of personal questions which Evaristo answered quite candidly and at the end Evaristo said she had enjoyed the interview because Wachtel asked lots of questions that made her really think about her motives in writing this book. I think there is a lot of Evaristo in this book which perhaps is what makes it so brilliant.
Perhaps my favorite thing about Girl, Woman, Other is how Bernardine Evaristo gives a unique voice and perspective to the twelve subjects. Hearing that the story focuses almost entirely women who are black and British, I worried that the author would push
The structure—a sort of hybrid of prose and poetry—is a little off-putting at first, but quickly becomes natural. The language is gorgeous, but not overly ornate.
The overarching story is masterful in regards to some smaller arcs, but really weak in regards to others. That's perhaps this novel's most notable weakness—if you can call it that. The individual stories are all strong, though. Some of them were particularly moving, but all of them kept my interest.
Girl, Woman, Other is a particularly strong piece of fiction because it gets so much right—it's wise and entertaining, honest and sensitive, sharp and meandering, pause and movement. It may lean towards being driven by character and language, but it is quite well balanced with story. I doubt that I'll read this novel again (as re-reads are vary rare in my world), but it's certainly one that I'd consider giving another look in the distant future. I feel like this novel would only improve with a subsequent, more focused reading.
Advanced Reader Copy provided through Edelweiss.
I was ready to abandon the novel halfway through the third chapter, as each character became more obsessed with their image, but Evaristo then set that on its head, even as each woman has to consciously decide how she will present herself to the world. I ended up fascinated by each woman's story and how they all fit together. The final part, where all the contemporary women are in the same space, is less satisfying than the previous part, where generations of a single family are followed in reverse chronological order, but I appreciated getting to see how each woman was viewed by others. I do like the format Evaristo used of a series of short stories about women with varying degrees of proximity.
Every page is perfect, every sentence, gosh, every word. Evaristo takes twelve vastly different women, connected in ways obvious and subtle, profiling their lives, their agonies, their battles and loves, self-deceptions, losses, doubts, and
This is a book very much of the now, touching on numerous current cultural debates, in a manner that feels authentic and precise. It is a truly polyphonic experience. This is great literature but also very much a novel in every sense of the word.
I cannot recommend highly enough.
Dominique
"she was über-cool, totally gorgeous, taller than most women, thinner than most women, with cut-glass cheekbones and smoky eyes with thick black lashes that literally cast a shadow on her face"
Amma
"Amma was shorter, with African hips and thighs perfect slave girl material one director told her when she walked into an audition for a play about Emancipation"
Yazz
"Mum, Yazz said at fourteen when she was pitching to go to Reading Music Festival with her friends, it would be to the detriment of my juvenile development if you curtailed my activities at this critical stage in my journey towards becoming the independent-minded and fully self-expressed adult you expect me to be, I mean, do you really want me rebelling against your old-fashioned rules by running away from the safety of my home to live on the streets and having to resort to prostitution to survive and thereafter drug addiction, crime, anorexia and abusive relationships with exploitative bastards twice my age before my early demise in a crack house?"
it’s unfortunate that she’s coming of age as one of the Swipe-Like-Chat-Invite-Fuck Generation where men expect you to give it up on the first (and only) date, have no pubic hair at all, and do the disgusting things they’ve seen women do in porn movies on the internet
Latisha
"the truth Jayla, your father is a previous boyfriend of mine called Jimmi who turned violent, when he tried to throw me down the stairs, I caught the train from Liverpool to London that evening he never knew I was carrying his child and I’ve not seen him since she fell for Glenmore in the last weeks of her pregnancy he said he’d love the child as his own"
Penelope
"Penelope wanted to embrace self-love and self-acceptance getting rid of the full-length mirrors in her home was a good start"
Megan/Morgan
"and Megan was a woman who wondered if she should have been born a man, who was attracted to a woman who’d once been a man, who was now saying gender was full of misguided expectations anyway, even though she had herself transitioned from male to female"
Hattie
"Walking barefoot:it’s one of the secrets of her long-lasting mobility, keeping her toes spread and feet grounded, same as all the other beasts of nature hooves, that’s what she’s got hooves"
Amma's opinion about her favorite foreign films might well be the summary of what she is doing in her novel:
‘the best films are about expanding our understanding of what it means to be human, they’re a journey into pushing the boundaries of form, an adventure beyond the clichés of commercial cinema, an expression of our deeper consciousness’
Highly recommend the experience of reading Bernadine Evaristo's latest.
[Girl, Woman, Other] takes the lives of twelve black British women and melds them into a narrative stretching back to the nineteenth century. They all have very different life experiences: from the lesbian playwright in her fifties who feels she has finally made it when her play is put on at the National, to the Nigerian immigrant with a mathematics degree who came to the U.K. for a better life but never made it beyond her cleaning business, to her daughter who has reinvented herself as an upwardly mobile banker in the City, to a Northumbrian farmer descended from an Abyssinian sailor. As the narrative progresses, the links between the seemingly disparate characters become more obvious and I loved the way that their stories intertwined. All the women face issues of racism, sexism and class, and deal with them in varying ways. And as the narrative followed a mother, a daughter, a friend, the different perspectives of the same events which developed gave a very three dimensional picture of the women's lives.
Apart from the narrator I had two main caveats. Firstly, I feel that the author was less successful in the Northumbrian element of the story when the narrative stretched back into the nineteenth century. I didn't get a feeling for the earlier time period that rang true with me at all. Secondly, especially towards the end, there did seem to be a number of speeches given to the characters that I could not imagine anyone actually uttering in real life, although to be fair that might have been the narration, and they may have read better on the page.
I may well give this a reread when it is out in paperback as I do feel that my enjoyment was marred by the audio production. Even with a better narrator, it would probably have worked better on the page, as it is a complex book with numerous characters who disappear and reappear and the ability to look back and check on past events would have been very useful!
I have Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo on my kindle and I shall certainly get around to reading that in the not too distant future.
Evaristo isn't afraid to include unlikeable characters too (Carole and Shirley for me), but letting you see the fullness of their lives and how it's shaped them so that none are irredeemable.
Quotes: "The mainstream began to absorb what was once radical."
"Knowing someone comes from money isn't the same as witnessing the extent of it in close proximity."
"Her greatest possible career move - a tactical hysterectomy for ambitious women with menstruation problems."
"Pure insolence was a special skill of hers, according to the teachers."
"Shirley felt the pressure was now on to be a great teacher and an ambassador for every black person in the world. White people are only required to represent themselves, not an entire race."
"Life's so much simpler for men, simply because women are so much more complicated than them."
"I've become the High Priestess of Career Longevity in the chapel of Social Change preaching from the Pulpit of Political Invisibility to the Congregation of the Marginalized and Already Converted."
"Feminism needs tectonic plates to shift, not a trendy make-over."
"Her mother wanted her to look cuter than she already was, like the cutest of the cutest cutie-pies."
Each chapter of this powerful and beautiful novel is from a different woman’s prospective. It begins with the story of Amma. After a lifetime of trying, Alma is finally about to present her play about black lesbians in an esteemed theatre with a big audience. Alma considers herself “wonderful, artistic, highly individualistic and rebellious.” Her daughter Yazz calls her a “feminazi.”
The book goes on to explore the lives and struggles of woman from all different backgrounds and ages groups. Dominique is Amma’s best friend who falls into an abusive relationship with another woman. Shirley is Amma’s uptight, prim and proper friend from childhood who begins her role of a school teacher feeling that “the pressure is on to be a great teacher and an ambassador for every black person in the world.” She believes educators have the power to change lives. One such promising student that Shirley takes under her wing is Carole. Carole was determined to “fly above and beyond” her poor family and upbringing. She made herself over in college to become successful. Carole’s mother Bummi was an immigrant and she feels that Carole is “rejecting her true culture,” when she marries a white man. Lakisha used be a friend of Carole’s before Carole decided to better herself. Lakisha’s dad walked out on their family when she was young and now she has three kids of her own that “will grow up with no fathers in their lives.”
Megan is struggling with gender identity. Penelope found out she was adopted at age sixteen and has felt “unwanted, rejected, unmoored and undone” ever since. There are a few other stories I didn’t mention. Near the end of the book I felt like we could have done without a few of them. A lot of the characters show up in the end to see Amma’s play. It was interesting and clever the way the author brought them all together.
This book was lovely and poetic and the author clearly deserved the Booker Prize she received for this book. The novel addresses what it means to be a woman. It says a lot about feminism, lesbianism and racism. It deals with a lot of tough topics as these women struggle with their hopes and dreams, finding love, motherhood, family issues and the need to be respected as black women.
“We all just wanna be ourselves and make sure we’re okay in the world.”
“Millions of women are waking up to the possibility of taking ownership of our world as fully-entitled human beings.”
What a treasure of a book.
Black womxn and their stories and their existences MATTER.
Each character is so real, Ii feel I