Admittedly I am late to the party on this one, but after practically inhaling the book in one go I couldn’t resist singing my praises here! I’ve just had the pleasure of finishing Bernadine Evaristo’s 2019 Booker Prize winning Girl, Woman, Other and it’s AN ABSOLUTE JOY!
If you are a lover of vibrant character and clever plot, this book will not disappoint. Evaristo animates a wide cast of voices, each one unique in personality and physique but all with something in common: Girl, Woman, Other champions the voices of black womxn/women/people exclusively, offering a kaleidoscope of perspectives on the UK through the 21st century so far. As you journey through their voices, seemingly unrelated people somehow meet and entangle for better or worse; a tapestry of life builds that is equal parts beautiful, joyful and soul-speaking. Evaristo does not mollycoddle history or pretend that the UK was ever hospitable to her symphony of black protagonists. We know behind the teapots and doilies lurk more sinister meanings. But the characters are not at all defined or defeated by their hardships, not one of them can be called a victim.
Each voice comes with its own history, and the stories that flesh out are both hilarious and heart-breaking. Evaristo brings an exuberance to her prose that makes daily happenings like catching the train or sitting in class feel momentous with details, never losing touch with the raw grit of existence. I love how Evaristo writes her voices so realistically, using humour and speech that really is like what you would hear your own family and friends saying. Reading Yazz especially made me laugh! All of the voices are loveable in my opinion, but if I had to choose favourites it would probably be Bummi and Yazz.
I also think the form Evaristo chooses to write with aides the seamlessness of the narrative, effortlessly weaving disparate lives together. It’s like a mixture of prose and poetry. Very little punctuation is used and sentences almost act like beads on a necklace: readable as standalone lines, but flowing into one another, building up a cadence and pace to the book that your eyes and imagination just glide on. At first I was worried the form would be too intellectual for me to enjoy as a ‘pleasure book’, but it was no barrier and I really appreciate Bernadine using poetics of a kind to help her story! As Girl, Woman, Other is about the hybridity of identity and impossibility of labels, this hybrid form lends itself very well to the subject matter.
My only critique would be about the ending of the character-story for Shirley, another one of my favourites. I don’t want to give spoilers, but I felt that whereas most of the other stories resolved conflict or problems, Shirley was done dirty without much retribution on her behalf. I know life isn’t all roses and perfection, but I just want a better handling of Shirley!!!!!! She needs more!!!! I think her character is portrayed unfavourably without much light shone on her positives by other characters, but I shall have to ponder more privately on why exactly Evaristo would choose to do this…
If you haven’t yet already, read Girl, Woman, Other!!! It helped me fall back in love with reading over lockdown, melting away the hours. I hope it can help you too!