Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Pages: 453
Published by Penguin
Publication Date May 2, 2019
Goodreads
Joint Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2019
Teeming with life and crackling with energy — a love song to modern Britain and black womanhoodGirl, 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.
My thoughts
Girl, Woman, Other is a beautiful, intertwining collection of short stories. At first, I had difficulty getting used to the lack of punctuation and, it wasn’t something I ever completely got used to. However, I didn’t feel like it hindered the story either. Truthfully, I’ve never been a fan of short stories unless they are of a humorous variety, so this was a bit of a stretch in my repertoire.
Girl, Woman, Other reminded me of Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. It was a beautifully written book, but the prose felt stuffy and made it difficult to read. That is how I felt about Bernardine Evaristo’s novel. As beautiful as it was, I found it distracting. There were several times that I had to put the book down, walk away, and clear my head. I always came back refreshed and ready to start again, but it did ruin the flow of the story.
I really wish that I liked the book more than I did. Unfortunately, the characters flitted in and out before I could form a connection to them and the writing wasn’t condusive to going back to refresh one’s memory on a plotpoint. I do think it was a gorgously written book and someone who liked literary fiction would enjoy it more than I. Although, beauty couldn’t save this book for me and was sadly a bust.
I read it during the first lockdown. At first, I had trouble getting into it, not because of the lack of punctuation, but the characters, I guess. Then I got hooked and absolutely loved it. But hey, different readers, different tastes, it’s good that we don’t all love the same books (it would be a bore !)
I agree, it is good to have a difference in opinion — it makes for interesting conversation! I’m glad you liked Girl, Woman, Other. It is a beautiful story and I can understand why so many people like it.
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