Liz Polding reviews ‘Girl, Woman, Other’ by Bernardine Evaristo, winner of the Booker Prize 2019.
These are the life stories of 12 characters, the girls, women and others of the title. Their stories connect, move apart, influence each other and show us the reality of their lives. It actually feels like rather an honour to be allowed to hear their experiences, to see what they have seen and felt. Although the lives of the characters are often hard, there is a lot of humour here and the writing is brilliant, jewel-bright even when the story shows us terrible things. And there are terrible things. Not just the racism, which never turns this into a ‘preachy’ or accusatory book, although the racism is bad enough, but also personal tragedies and injustices that resonate. Gender, racial identity, sexuality and the prejudices that the characters face are addressed, but not necessarily in the way that you would expect and certainly not in a way which makes the story about the issues. There were points where it was hard not to feel angry and distressed, but the characters feel so real that the issues that they live through never become them; they always feel like people that carry on living after you finish the book. Not as archetypes, but as real people whose stories we were privileged to hear.
The book moves between the characters, each of the characters has their own chapter through which the other characters move, building their individual stories, but also their shared stories. The differences in perspective work well, particularly the chapters that relate to mothers and daughters, whose relationships are the backbone of the book. The longer narrative builds slowly, gently, with each of the characters bringing something new, leading to a small crescendo of joy, where I actually found myself getting quite excited because several things fell into place at once. The phrase ‘heart warming’ is used so often to describe books and films which are no such thing, but rather mawkish and sentimental. This was neither of those things, but rather poignant and beautiful. No spoilers, though!
The range of viewpoints and experiences is rich and nuanced and the interplay between the characters is beautifully done and really quite immersive. There are some truly awful experiences here, rape, domestic violence, gaslighting, mental illness, but they are handled with empathy and a sureness of touch that makes them feel terribly real. There is one moment of extraordinary betrayal in the book that was actually quite shocking, the more because it was so unexpected. The author’s handling of something so shattering is a master class in story telling.
Overall, this was a very satisfying read; thought provoking and funny, showing how it really feels to experience things that are endlessly debated (racism, gender identity issues, sexism), and which provoke such strong feelings. The raw humanity, humour and beauty of the book show an author at the height of her considerable powers. The hyperbole is absolutely justified.
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