Book Review of Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
UPDATED: 2/5/2023
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(click the image above to purchase the book through Amazon)
464 pages, published in 2019
YOU MAY ENJOY THIS BOOK IF YOU LIKE:
literary fiction * novels about feminism * novels about LGBTQ characters * novels focused on Black characters
TRAVEL INSPIRATION:
Set in England, Girl, Woman, Other provides a window into different parts of British society - from the theater scene of London to underprivileged, struggling communities. A small portion of the novel takes place in the United States as well.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Bernardine evaristo
An Anglo-Nigerian writer, Bernardine Evaristo was the first Black woman to win The Booker Prize, which she won in 2019 for this novel. (The win was a tie with Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments .) Evaristo lives in London, is a creative writing professor at Brunel University, and is the author of eight books.
REVIEW OF Girl, woman, other BY bernardine evaristo
Girl, Woman, Other is a work that must be read to be truly understood; no summary can do it justice. If your experience is anything like mine, you’ll also find it to be a life-altering book that gives voice to characters less likely to grace the pages of novels to date (which is problematic).
At its core, this novel explores the experiences and lives of twelve female characters, most of whom are Black and British. The varied voices bring to life women across the chronology of womanhood - from teens to the elderly - who are often contending with intergenerational ideas and experiences. The novel is structured into five “chapters”. The first four each have three sub-sections, each focused on one of the twelve characters. The three characters in each sub-section is specifically connected to each other, for example a parent, a child, and the parent’s friend and business partner. Through this structure, Evaristo is able to provide multiple vantage points that challenge each person’s self-perception and how each is perceived by others. In the case of Amma and her daughter, Yazz, who show up in the first chapter, Amma views herself as someone pushing boundaries and non-traditional, whereas Yazz views her as quite outdated in her ways of thinking. The fifth chapter helps to tie the novel together in a way I did not expect and truly underscored Evaristo’s masterful skill as a writer.
Girl, Woman, Other is intersectional and includes characters who are lesbians, transgender, and transsexual. Most importantly, it doesn’t shy away from the tough discussions about these topics and thoroughly explores realistic debates and thinking by those uninitiated.
Across the stories of the twelve characters, readers will come across domestic violence in a same-sex relationship, an affair between a woman and her son-in-law, appalling shows of wealth and appealing demonstrations of working class hardship, and misconstrued actions between characters. Life is wholeheartedly messy, and Girl, Woman, Other is able to accurately depict that while carrying an undercurrent of hope and empathy.
The characters in this novel are representative of the lives that often gain less notice in fiction, and the way they are spun together and juxtaposed makes them all the more powerful when they meet Evaristo’s prose, delivered in a style unto herself. A small percentage of books I read leave me with the feeling that they should immediately be added into the standard list of reading for high school students because of their ability to articulate human experience in a way that can have a lasting impact on the youngest generation. This is one of those books.
DISCUSS girl, woman, other
Which character was most interesting and/or relatable to you? Which most challenged your innate bias on the ‘type’ of character represented?
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