'Girl, Woman, Other' by Bernardine Evaristo - a book review

This beautiful image was illustrated by my sister, Martha (Instagram @martys.arty.party).

I am willing to admit that as a white woman, my bookshelves are filled with 95% white authors. I am also willing to admit that it’s time to change that.

Following the devastating events that occurred on the 25th of May, when George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, USA, I think it was apt that at the time I had just started reading ‘Girl, Woman, Other’ by Bernardine Evaristo. This novel won the Booker Prize in 2019, alongside Margaret Atwood’s ‘Testaments’, and so I was really excited to read it.

What I loved about this feminist novel, is Evaristo’s ability to delve deep into the female Black British experience through many different lenses. As readers, we were presented with the discrimination, stereotypes, sexism and misogyny that these woman face in their daily lives. Whilst many of us cannot ever truly relate to some of these hardships, I felt I was being educated on them, which is the first step towards understanding how we can help eradicate these issues.

Since the George Floyd incident happened, I’ve seen and heard many people in Britain saying “Wow it must be hard living in America. We are lucky it’s not so bad in Britain.” or things like “racism isn’t a problem here”. It is a problem. It’s a huge problem, and I feel this novel highlighted this to me in a way I perhaps didn’t realise before. There are so many instances in this book where the women are treated differently because of their skin colour. They are bullied at school, not given a job or the same opportunities as their white friends, colleagues and counterparts, purely because of their appearance. This novel goes forwards and backwards in time frequently, and in terms of the social and cultural contexts, and the racism these women are subject to, it didn’t feel like much changed between the different eras in regards to the discrimination that these woman received.

I enjoyed the diverse collection of people that Evaristo wrote about; she included the perspectives of Lesbians, immigrants, people who identify as Non-Binary, rape victims, housewives, employees, mothers, daughters, etc. It felt like Evaristo covered a seemingly large portion of the spectrum when it comes to the Black British perspective, although of course I cannot know this for certain, as a white reader. While I must admit I found the novel perhaps a bit difficult to get into at the beginning, after the first few chapters I was hooked. I also liked how Evaristo chose to write narratives which include varied age ranges. She covered very young people’s stories as well as a great-great grandmother’s story. Furthermore, what I found very intriguing was the notion that a lot of these narratives on the surface did not seem linked in any way, yet halfway through one story, another character from a different chapter would appear momentarily, therefore linking the women together. It gave me a sense that we are all connected somehow, and reminded me of the theory ‘six degrees of separation’, which is the idea that all living things are six or fewer steps removed from each other.

Whilst controversial, I really enjoyed the novel's unconventional structure as well as the frequent disregard for the traditional rules of punctuation. It felt refreshing and modern as well as poetic and experimental. At times the way Evaristo writes feels almost like poetry or lyrics, with her use of line breaks and rhythm. I thought her use of unorthodox forms and techniques mirrors the unpredictability and irregularity that is true of modern life. It reflects the idea that contemporary lives often break away from what people in the past would have associated as 'normal', and by disregarding conventional forms, Evaristo showcases the array of different paths that people choose to follow in life.

Evaristo’s novel won first place for the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood’s latest novel and sequel to ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, called ‘Testaments’. Whilst I can’t claim I’ve read Atwood’s book, I feel somehow that this joint win was wrong. It felt wrong that the first ever Black Woman and Black British author to win the Booker Prize had to share the title as well as prize money with someone else, and it therefore seemed symptomatic of a larger systemic racism issue. Perhaps Atwood’s novel is amazing and really deserved the title, but I can’t help wondering whether she only won because she is an incredibly well known and critically acclaimed writer. I’m not sure if I fully agree with this point, but I wanted to present it as an idea to think about. Perhaps the only way to judge would be to actually read Atwood’s novel! What also did not sit right with me at all was the the controversy surrounding the BBC, when they referred to Evaristo as "another author" who won the prize alongside Atwood, without actually naming her. It became apparent to me at this point that the author herself was using her experiences growing up and living as a black woman to inform the perspectives she was portraying through her novel. This felt like the perfect example of why more books like this need to be read, and why more black authors need to be celebrated in the literary world.

Overall, I give this book 5/5. I thought it was a compelling read and I enjoyed each story and how they interlinked at various points throughout the novel.

It's safe to say that I will definitely be diversifying my bookshelf.

The first image was created by Belgian illustrator, Kaurie Vleugels.

The second is illustrated by Spiros Halaris.

The third is by Céleste Wallaert.

The fourth is a picture of the author, Bernardine Evaristo.

The fifth is the beautiful book cover. There is also an alternative design, but I prefer this one.