A review by andrew61
Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernardine Evaristo
4.0
This is a tremendous book which through 12 separate stories about women of colour in Britain brilliantly emphasises how society is changing and how positive diversity is to the cultural growth of a country.
I loved the links between the stories which open with Amma, a playwright planning her play's (about Amazonian women) opening night at the national theatre and culminate in many of the other characters attending the play as observers and we see links of which they are unaware.
The book introduces three generations of women from mothers who are newly entered the UK to their daughters trying to find their way in a hostile world to the granddaughters able to assert their rights on the shoulders of their strong predecessors yet still wanting to , as any adolescent does , fight their parents expectations.
All the tales are very strong and it difficult to single any out but include amma's partner who ends up in a controlling relationship in America, a woman who a failure at school works hard in a supermarket to support her children, a maths prodigy at the same school who becomes a business suceess, and the teacher who inspired the girl, a woman unaware of her black heritage until she takes an ancestry DNA test , a young woman who transitions and lives as non binary, and a farmer in her 90's who recalls her childhood and adolescence. I really like this structure of novel, of which I've read a few recently as the apparent individuals are linked by slight threads which perhaps emphasizes how interconnected lives can be and allows the reader to enjoy discovering the links.
A really good book which I was sorry to put down when I finished despite devouring every page desperate to read more.
I loved the links between the stories which open with Amma, a playwright planning her play's (about Amazonian women) opening night at the national theatre and culminate in many of the other characters attending the play as observers and we see links of which they are unaware.
The book introduces three generations of women from mothers who are newly entered the UK to their daughters trying to find their way in a hostile world to the granddaughters able to assert their rights on the shoulders of their strong predecessors yet still wanting to , as any adolescent does , fight their parents expectations.
All the tales are very strong and it difficult to single any out but include amma's partner who ends up in a controlling relationship in America, a woman who a failure at school works hard in a supermarket to support her children, a maths prodigy at the same school who becomes a business suceess, and the teacher who inspired the girl, a woman unaware of her black heritage until she takes an ancestry DNA test , a young woman who transitions and lives as non binary, and a farmer in her 90's who recalls her childhood and adolescence. I really like this structure of novel, of which I've read a few recently as the apparent individuals are linked by slight threads which perhaps emphasizes how interconnected lives can be and allows the reader to enjoy discovering the links.
A really good book which I was sorry to put down when I finished despite devouring every page desperate to read more.