Girl, Woman, Other book review

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Published by Hamish Hamilton on May 2, 2019
Pages: 453
Goodreads

Joint Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2019
Teeming with life and crackling with energy — a love song to modern Britain and black womanhood
Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.
Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and utterly irresistible.

I have been trying to read a few of the Booker Prize Shortlist, I was very successful with The Testaments which made it onto my Favourites of 2019 list but then An Orchestra of Minorities lost my attention and I just couldn’t sift through it. I was really worried that Girl, Woman, Other was going to go the same way but I am happy to say that not only did I finish the book but I actually really loved it. A small disclaimer is that it took me a lot longer to finish than I thought it would and it is definitely a beast of a book even if the writing looks easy enough.

The characters are definitely the strong point when it comes to Girl, Woman, Other. The entire book is a series of almost short stories about different generations of women that all connect with the others. I loved learning about each of their lives, because of the way the book was laid out you actually got a really good look at all their entire lifespan including past generations. My favourite stories were where they delved deep into history and showed how things used to be, it really widened my horizons and understanding of the different circumstances in this book. I don’t have a favourite character because I don’t think I could separate the stories from one another, what I will say is that the characters are some of the best I have ever read about and I loved them all dearly.

I think the best bit of Girl, Woman, Other apart from the characters would have to be the fact that there were so many different stories built into this book. I loved having a complete look at the different women’s lives it was a really wonderful experience hearing about someone and then finding out their life story. I think the ending was really well done, I loved seeing all the women together and hearing about how their life fitted into each others especially with the ones who weren’t relatives. It was eye-opening and beautifully done. I wouldn’t hesitate to read another book like this again!

The only bad point I have to say about Girl, Woman, Other is that it took me SO long to read and I have no idea why. I thought that it wouldn’t take me too long to read because the format is almost like a bunch of short stories, but I think it actually hindered me from reading a lot at a time because each chapter was quite long. I also think the lack of punctuation was a little off-putting and I’m still not quite sure why there wasn’t any!

I would definitely recommend Girl, Woman, Other. I definitely think it will be making my favourites of 2020 list and I loved everything about the characters and the story that they all portrayed. Definitely a great way to start the year!

Have you had a read blow you away even if it took you absolutely the longest time to read it? Let me know what it is!