“ageing is nothing to be ashamed of especially when the entire human race is in it together although sometimes it seems that she alone among her friends wants to celebrate getting older because it’s such a privilege to not die prematurely”

Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernadine Evaristo

Summary

Girl, Woman, Other is a magnificent portrayal of the intersections of identity and a moving and hopeful story of an interconnected group of Black British women that paints a vivid portrait of the state of contemporary Britain and looks back to 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, is a successful 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 fast-moving form that borrows technique from poetry, Girl, Woman, Other is a polyphonic and richly textured social novel that shows a side of Britain we rarely see, one that reminds us of all that connects us to our neighbors, even in times when we are encouraged to be split apart.

My Thoughts

This book is unlike any other book I have read before. Evaristo writes the book in a unique blend of regular paragraph writing and prose, with long run-on sentences, minimal capitalization, and paragraphs that run into each other. The style works for the story, which is a deep exploration into the lives of twelve unique women, each different yet connected, and each story explores a different aspect of womanhood. The women are not just Black, but they are of different classes, backgrounds, sexualities, and more. From Amma, to her daughter Yazz, to Amma’s best friend Dominique, to the nonbinary influencer Yazz meets in school, they are each different, ultimately meeting in the last chapter at the after party for Ammas’s newly acclaimed play. The characters are all in England, and English culture is tied to the book. There are also rather dark topics in the novel, which has to be considered before going into it—sexual assault, postpartum depression, drug addiction, domestic abuse, and more. I will say that the only issue with the writing, which is mild, is that the dialogue can occasionally feel forced, used just to have characters repeat specific political talking points like ““Her mother was unthinkingly repeating patterns of oppression based on gender”. The book is ultimately about life, and about being. There is no right or wrong way to do so, and Evaristo presents a broad, diverse spectrum of lives.

Spoilers ahead for specific characters if you just want to skip to the end of the review after this!

The book asks hard questions through its characters. Is there a correct way to be a person of color? How do people of color relate to their culture post-colonization; is it even possible for this relationship to not be affected by the colonizer’s gaze? How do cycles of violence and power perpetuate themselves? How is success impacted by race, or generation, or sexuality? Stand out characters and ideas to me included characters like Yazz, Carole, Dominique, and Penelope. Yazz, the only Gen-Z character, struggles to define her race in a modern world, and is often caught up in “Oppression Olympics” with her diverse friend group: one is white, one is Muslim but incredibly wealthy, and they have conversations comparing privilege in the book. Carole is a character who chooses to assimilate completely, and after returning from a semester at University, her mother Bummi (another character with her own chapter) comments that it is like she is a different person, with different speaking styles, opinions, fashion, etc. She completely and utterly assimilates into a world of whiteness, power, and privilege to get what she wants, but loses her own culture entirely in the process. What I love is that Evaristo does not comment on whether this process is positive or negative either way; it is a part of the narrative, and a method of living, but it is a choice you have to make. Dominique moves to a women-only camp in America with her girlfriend, who eventually begins abusing her, and Dom then leaves, making a new home for herself in America and becoming an immigrant not from a country in Africa, like so many other characters, but from the UK. Evaristo does well in writing an abusive story that is both queer and black—too many authors are scared to portray marginalized characters in a negative light, and Evaristo does so without falling into any of the tired old stereotypes that can pop up. Penelope, who is bi-racial, lives her entire life believing she is white until she is an old woman, and eventually meets her Black birth mother (another named character with a chapter). Evaristo pushes boundaries with Penelope, asking readers to consider if there is truly a difference between races if Penelope could pass her whole life, and in doing so, draws upon strong literary history from stories like Passing, by Nella Larsen. Overall, an excellent read, and I’m so glad that I read the entire novel, cover to cover, and got to discuss it with a class!

Review: ★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2