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Synopsis (from Goodreads):
Joint Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2019
Teeming with life and crackling with energy - a love song to modern Britain and black womanhood
Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.
Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and utterly irresistible.
Review:
This season, I made a goal to read all the books that were short-listed for the Man Booker prize. So far, I have read The Testaments, by Margaret Atwood, Quichotte, by Salman Rushdie, and now Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernardine Evaristo. All three books were wonderful, and I can see why Girl, Woman, Other tied with The Testaments for the win. It was filled with unforgettable characters, and dealt with issues that are extremely relevant to today.
What I Liked:
Setting:The novel takes place in various places and times around England. Many of the characters of of African decent so we see the inherent racism of British society. And we also see how this affects each character.
Characters:
Girl, Woman, Other is filled with a wide array of characters, of many different circumstances. What they have in common is that they were all born female. But what does that really mean? At a time when our understanding of gender is growing, this means including the experiences of a variety of people.
I loved that each chapter focused on a different person's perspective. This included people of different ages, backgrounds, sexualities, and experiences. What I got from this is that everyone is complex, and we cannot know each person's inner struggles.
Themes:
The book's focus on racism, sexual politics, and identity politics was so relevant for today. It made me think of so many other perspectives than my own. It made me think about how our experiences affect our reactions to future situations. We are who we are because of our pasts. This can either be constructive or destructive.
What I was mixed about:
Although I did give this book a five star rating, I did have a small problem with it. This was really more of a series of character studies rather than a story. Since each chapter focuses on a different person, just as we start to become invested in the character, the book jumps to another person's mini story. This was frustrating because there were certain characters who I wanted to keep following, yet the author has moved on. We never get the full story on anyone. But perhaps that is the point.
Rating:
Release Date: November 12th, 2019
Author: Bernardine Evaristo
Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Page Length: 453 Pages
Source: Edelweiss
Format: E-Book
Recommendation: Filled with memorable characters, this book will make you think about each person's hidden depths. Very moving.
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