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3.29 AVERAGE
3.29 AVERAGE
First things first: This is not an easy read. It has multiple content warnings including depiction of sexual assault, kidnapping, trauma, violence, and terrorism.
My quick thoughts: What an unforgettable book! Raw, sad, horrifying and very much the reality of some women, Girl beautifully portrays the life of a schoolgirl abducted by terrorists in the area and what her return looks like into society. How can something like this be beautifully portrayed you might wonder? Well, it is emotionally charged and the author has a number of writing choices which I really enjoyed - use of flashback, switch between past/present tenses, anonymity of characters and places... I thought about the atrocities of war, the plight of women in these times, the political games that are played and the way society views women who have come back somehow.
I have only scratched the surface of my thoughts and hope to put them together later this month!
My quick thoughts: What an unforgettable book! Raw, sad, horrifying and very much the reality of some women, Girl beautifully portrays the life of a schoolgirl abducted by terrorists in the area and what her return looks like into society. How can something like this be beautifully portrayed you might wonder? Well, it is emotionally charged and the author has a number of writing choices which I really enjoyed - use of flashback, switch between past/present tenses, anonymity of characters and places... I thought about the atrocities of war, the plight of women in these times, the political games that are played and the way society views women who have come back somehow.
I have only scratched the surface of my thoughts and hope to put them together later this month!
I really disliked this book. I think it qualifies as trauma porn and the main character felt flat beyond her persona as victim.
Rated #6 on my 2020 Booktube Prize Octofinals ballot.
Rated #6 on my 2020 Booktube Prize Octofinals ballot.
IMO, this book deserves to win in the horror category of Goodreads's best books of 2019.
Reseña en español | Review in English
Otro libro tremendamente… olvidable.
La verdad desconocía que la autora es una de las grandes voces de la narrativa contemporánea, pero el tema fue el que me llamó la atención. Girl narra la historia de una joven adolescente que fue raptada en Nigeria por el grupo extremista Boko Haram. La historia está contada desde la perspectiva de la protagonista quien describe el terrible suplicio que inició en el día en que fue secuestrada de su escuela, arrebatada de su vida normal, violada incontables veces y casada con un hombre con quien no conocía.
La cosa es que el tema da para tanto y la ejecución fue terrible. No es ni un ensayo, ni una biografía, pero tampoco es una novela. En todo momento me sentí ajena a la protagonista porque su voz era… plana. Puede que haya sido un recurso de la autora –al final, una mujer que pierde todo y que aun y cuando sobrevive, debe volver y enfrentar el rechazo de su familia, es casi seguro que lleve una existencia muy compleja– pero creo que esto es extender demasiado el beneficio de la duda.
Por otra parte, la novela no proporciona ninguna información para aquellos que no tenemos contexto de lo que sucedió con este grupo extremista, y creo que esto era necesario. Estoy de acuerdo que es ficción y no un texto sobre la historia de Nigeria y los conflictos políticos y sociales, pero creo que era información que hubiera contribuido a entender más a la protagonista y el trasfondo de tanto sufrimiento. Pienso sencillamente en otra autora, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, quien sin hacer un ensayo ni tratado filosófico sobre la situación en Nigeria, a través de sus personajes nos da información de su país para ubicarnos históricamente en ese periodo que tiene que ver con las personalidades de los protagonistas y con la historia, y con ello, tenemos un mayor entendimiento y empatía con la narrativa.
He leído varias críticas que señalan que este libro debió ser un ensayo. Quizá. El problema que veo es que no veo material suficiente ni para un ensayo ni un testimonio. En ese sentido es que la novela me parece seca, horriblemente gris y aburrida, para una experiencia y vivencia que merece no ser olvidada, precisamente por su brutalidad que no debe repetirse.
__________
Another quite forgettable read.
I was not aware Edna O’Brien is one of the leading voices in contemporary literature in English, but I picked up this book because I was interested in the topic. Girl is the story of a young girl that is kidnapped by the extremist group Boko Haram in Nigeria. The story is told from the girl’s perspective, who describes the terrible ordeal she faced since the day she was taken away, uprooted from her family and home, raped countless times and married to a man who she did not know.
The issue I had with this book is that the topic it deals with is so interesting and relevant but it is poorly executed: simply put, the book is boring. It is not an essay, nor a biography but it is not a novel either. I always felt very disconnected from the main character because she was just plain, and this should not have been. Perhaps this was a conscious decision from the author –a woman that loses everything and who, having survived, must come to a world where she is rejected by her family because of what happened to her surely leads a complicated existence with heavy psychological impact – but I think that might be too kind for the writer. There was no complexity on this girl.
Also, the story does not provide any additional information for those of us that have no context of what happened with this extremist group, and I believe this was necessary. I agree this is fiction and not a text on the story of Nigeria and its political and social conflicts, but I think providing context would have helped in understanding our main character and the background for all her suffering. I only have to think of another author, Chimamanda, who without needing to write an essay or fill pages of the situation of Nigeria, through her character gives insight of the history of Nigeria so we can, as readers, feel immersed in that historical period that affects them and their story and can truly understand what is going on.
I have read several reviews saying that this book should have probably worked better as an essay. Maybe. The problem I see is that I feel this lacks any material to even think it could have been an essay or an autobiography. In this aspect I feel the novel is dry, grey and boring and does no justice to an experience that should not be forgotten because of its brutality and the need of it not being repeated.
Otro libro tremendamente… olvidable.
La verdad desconocía que la autora es una de las grandes voces de la narrativa contemporánea, pero el tema fue el que me llamó la atención. Girl narra la historia de una joven adolescente que fue raptada en Nigeria por el grupo extremista Boko Haram. La historia está contada desde la perspectiva de la protagonista quien describe el terrible suplicio que inició en el día en que fue secuestrada de su escuela, arrebatada de su vida normal, violada incontables veces y casada con un hombre con quien no conocía.
La cosa es que el tema da para tanto y la ejecución fue terrible. No es ni un ensayo, ni una biografía, pero tampoco es una novela. En todo momento me sentí ajena a la protagonista porque su voz era… plana. Puede que haya sido un recurso de la autora –al final, una mujer que pierde todo y que aun y cuando sobrevive, debe volver y enfrentar el rechazo de su familia, es casi seguro que lleve una existencia muy compleja– pero creo que esto es extender demasiado el beneficio de la duda.
Por otra parte, la novela no proporciona ninguna información para aquellos que no tenemos contexto de lo que sucedió con este grupo extremista, y creo que esto era necesario. Estoy de acuerdo que es ficción y no un texto sobre la historia de Nigeria y los conflictos políticos y sociales, pero creo que era información que hubiera contribuido a entender más a la protagonista y el trasfondo de tanto sufrimiento. Pienso sencillamente en otra autora, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, quien sin hacer un ensayo ni tratado filosófico sobre la situación en Nigeria, a través de sus personajes nos da información de su país para ubicarnos históricamente en ese periodo que tiene que ver con las personalidades de los protagonistas y con la historia, y con ello, tenemos un mayor entendimiento y empatía con la narrativa.
He leído varias críticas que señalan que este libro debió ser un ensayo. Quizá. El problema que veo es que no veo material suficiente ni para un ensayo ni un testimonio. En ese sentido es que la novela me parece seca, horriblemente gris y aburrida, para una experiencia y vivencia que merece no ser olvidada, precisamente por su brutalidad que no debe repetirse.
__________
Another quite forgettable read.
I was not aware Edna O’Brien is one of the leading voices in contemporary literature in English, but I picked up this book because I was interested in the topic. Girl is the story of a young girl that is kidnapped by the extremist group Boko Haram in Nigeria. The story is told from the girl’s perspective, who describes the terrible ordeal she faced since the day she was taken away, uprooted from her family and home, raped countless times and married to a man who she did not know.
The issue I had with this book is that the topic it deals with is so interesting and relevant but it is poorly executed: simply put, the book is boring. It is not an essay, nor a biography but it is not a novel either. I always felt very disconnected from the main character because she was just plain, and this should not have been. Perhaps this was a conscious decision from the author –a woman that loses everything and who, having survived, must come to a world where she is rejected by her family because of what happened to her surely leads a complicated existence with heavy psychological impact – but I think that might be too kind for the writer. There was no complexity on this girl.
Also, the story does not provide any additional information for those of us that have no context of what happened with this extremist group, and I believe this was necessary. I agree this is fiction and not a text on the story of Nigeria and its political and social conflicts, but I think providing context would have helped in understanding our main character and the background for all her suffering. I only have to think of another author, Chimamanda, who without needing to write an essay or fill pages of the situation of Nigeria, through her character gives insight of the history of Nigeria so we can, as readers, feel immersed in that historical period that affects them and their story and can truly understand what is going on.
I have read several reviews saying that this book should have probably worked better as an essay. Maybe. The problem I see is that I feel this lacks any material to even think it could have been an essay or an autobiography. In this aspect I feel the novel is dry, grey and boring and does no justice to an experience that should not be forgotten because of its brutality and the need of it not being repeated.
This book was brutal with a capital B - and contains a fair few trigger warnings for those people who get affected with sexual abuse and violence. This is an incredibly harrowing tale of a young girl who is forcibly taken by militants along with other girls from their school. What follows is an incredibly harrowing tale of her treatment at the hands of the militants as they are repeatedly raped then forced into marriage with the commanders. After the young girl has a child and is able to escape during an attack, the second half of the book describes her journey home, and then the attitudes of her village towards her.
The book is incredibly short and the writing is well spaced, so although it does deal with a horrific subject, you do race through it. But it certainly lacks a punch.
The book is incredibly short and the writing is well spaced, so although it does deal with a horrific subject, you do race through it. But it certainly lacks a punch.
This book is heavy and hard to read. Even though it's fiction, it reads almost like a memoir or diary. I was thrilled that the ending was a generally happy one.
I hated this. There is no way around this. I thought this was pretty damn awful and the longer I sit with it, the less I understand how this book was longlisted for the Women's Prize. I am not touching the "should O'Brien have been the person to write this particular story" controversy with a ten-foot pole except to say it would have been easier to defend that decision if the book that resulted was good in any shape or form.
O'Brien sets out to tell the story of one of the school girls abducted by Boko Haram and she does not shy away from showing just how horrific that ordeal must have been. The book is relentless in its depiction of atrocities; in fact the first third is pretty much comprised of only that. However, weirdly enough, I found the second part of the story, after the protagonist returns home, actually a lot worse. I found the way in which her mother is characterized horrifying (and here having an own voices author would have made this decision feel at lot less voyeuristic and judging).
I do not get on with books that set out to teach me something - while I love the power literature has to broaden my horizon and to let me see lives outside my own, paedagogical books irk me. If I want to learn something, I gravitate towards non fiction - and as a piece of non fiction this might have actually worked for me because then the story told would have been just that: authentically mirroring the reality. As it stands, I questioned a lot of authorial decisions O'Brien made here (why is everybody so uniquely awful? Do we really need to only see awfulness?).
I also do not get on with books that set out to tell a horrifying story just to tell a horrifying story - and this felt like this. While reading it, I actually wondered if O'Brien had decided that trying to write a good book, sentence or style wise, would detract from the horror she was depicting. This is a pretty petty way to say that I was baffled by how bad the prose was. While I do kind of see why she chose to switch between tenses (it does add to the feeling of a fractured state of mind her protagonist has), overall I found this choice clumsy and the writing lacking. And in the end, this was what stuck with me: how can a book be this badly written and nominated for a major award? Even aside from the narrative problems I had with this and the question of authorship, this was just not well written.
Content warning: Rape, stoning, involuntary pregnancy, horrifying birthing scene, humiliation and pretty much everything you can imagine.
You can find this review and other thoughts on books on my blog.
O'Brien sets out to tell the story of one of the school girls abducted by Boko Haram and she does not shy away from showing just how horrific that ordeal must have been. The book is relentless in its depiction of atrocities; in fact the first third is pretty much comprised of only that. However, weirdly enough, I found the second part of the story, after the protagonist returns home, actually a lot worse. I found the way in which her mother is characterized horrifying (and here having an own voices author would have made this decision feel at lot less voyeuristic and judging).
I do not get on with books that set out to teach me something - while I love the power literature has to broaden my horizon and to let me see lives outside my own, paedagogical books irk me. If I want to learn something, I gravitate towards non fiction - and as a piece of non fiction this might have actually worked for me because then the story told would have been just that: authentically mirroring the reality. As it stands, I questioned a lot of authorial decisions O'Brien made here (why is everybody so uniquely awful? Do we really need to only see awfulness?).
I also do not get on with books that set out to tell a horrifying story just to tell a horrifying story - and this felt like this. While reading it, I actually wondered if O'Brien had decided that trying to write a good book, sentence or style wise, would detract from the horror she was depicting. This is a pretty petty way to say that I was baffled by how bad the prose was. While I do kind of see why she chose to switch between tenses (it does add to the feeling of a fractured state of mind her protagonist has), overall I found this choice clumsy and the writing lacking. And in the end, this was what stuck with me: how can a book be this badly written and nominated for a major award? Even aside from the narrative problems I had with this and the question of authorship, this was just not well written.
Content warning: Rape, stoning, involuntary pregnancy, horrifying birthing scene, humiliation and pretty much everything you can imagine.
You can find this review and other thoughts on books on my blog.
This novel is inspired by the real-life kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls at the hands of the terrorist organization Boko Haram in Nigeria, 2014. Given the subject matter being explored, and the extremist views of the group responsible for the act, this is understandably an upsetting read, with major trigger warnings for everything from rape and mutilation, to emotional abuse and murder.
From the off, I want to make clear that I found it difficult to reconcile my feelings towards this book. Aside from the obvious fact that the content is horrifying, making this the kind of book you’re never going to ‘enjoy’ anyway, its very authorship is grounds for possible discomfort. On the one hand, I have considerable respect for what O’Brien has set out to do. A vast amount of research has clearly gone into the novel’s creation, and it’s fuelled by anger, empathy, and humanity. Stories like this one need to be told, and I admire her for using her platform to try and spark conversation, and amplify voices that have otherwise been silenced. On the other, part of me will always feel this simply wasn’t her story to tell. For as long as marginalised groups are pushed out of the mainstream, it’s important that allies with the comparative privilege of an audience pave the way for ‘own voice’ literature. But I can’t deny an undercurrent of unease reading a story about real-life, modern-day enslavement, human trafficking, terrorism, and abuse in Nigeria, as interpreted by the gaze of the white, Western world. To justify her decision to write this story, O’Brien’s perspective needed to add some kind of additional insight that amplified things in some way. As it is, I was simply left wondering why a white, Irish author would choose to tackle this subject at all. The right to freedom of expression through fiction is always going to be a complex issue with no easy answers, and I can respect arguments on both sides of the debate. In this particular instance, I felt the author’s intentions were absolutely in the right place, but that she fell short of inhabiting the culture, experiences, and voice of her heroine in an authentic and believable manner.
Even looking beyond these hesitations, I had several issues with the book’s execution, unfortunately. In the first half, the pace is relentless, walking us through a rapid succession of ghastly events at breakneck speed, with no time given over to reflection or analysis. With nothing being granted the necessary space to breathe within the narrative, I was left feeling strangely numb to everything that was happening; the lack of emotional resonance particularly notable given the distressing nature of the subject matter. I can understand that this may have been a deliberate attempt to avoid gratuity, and to reflect the relentless nature of the girls’ suffering, but a book as heavy as this is begging for greater nuance. Indeed, though the pace slows down substantially in the second half, the look at the lasting impact of our heroine’s experiences is still very base level. Any semblance of character development is reserved for her desire to be a mother to the child she conceived in captivity, with little exploration of her own psyche, despite the huge amount of potential that lay in the trauma, PTSD, and survivor’s guilt that were merely hinted at. Without wanting to spoil any plot specifics, I will say the author did at least attempt to explore the ideas of lost innocence, societal stigma, and the long journey to freedom that lies beyond escape. But again, these threads lacked any kind of satisfying emotional connection.
On another negative note, however, O’Brien’s matter-of-fact prose also did little for me. Again, in fairness, the simplistic nature of the language and the dot-to-dot narrative style arguably make sense given context. After all, the book is written in the first-person from the viewpoint of a young woman who was robbed of the chance to even finish her education; it’s unlikely she would be concerned with showcasing much in the way of literary merit. From a reader’s perspective, however, greater linguistic beauty may have helped to counter the narrative’s immense darkness, and to lift the book well above the realm of shock value; something I can see several accusing it of from time to time. It also would have made the book’s listing for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction considerably more understandable.
In short, as much as I sympathise with what O’Brien set out to achieve, this just didn’t work for me. Whether stylistic choices in search or realism or not, the spare approach to character, plot, and emotion kept me held at too great a distance. For a story that should have kicked me in the gut, I was left feeling frustratingly apathetic.
From the off, I want to make clear that I found it difficult to reconcile my feelings towards this book. Aside from the obvious fact that the content is horrifying, making this the kind of book you’re never going to ‘enjoy’ anyway, its very authorship is grounds for possible discomfort. On the one hand, I have considerable respect for what O’Brien has set out to do. A vast amount of research has clearly gone into the novel’s creation, and it’s fuelled by anger, empathy, and humanity. Stories like this one need to be told, and I admire her for using her platform to try and spark conversation, and amplify voices that have otherwise been silenced. On the other, part of me will always feel this simply wasn’t her story to tell. For as long as marginalised groups are pushed out of the mainstream, it’s important that allies with the comparative privilege of an audience pave the way for ‘own voice’ literature. But I can’t deny an undercurrent of unease reading a story about real-life, modern-day enslavement, human trafficking, terrorism, and abuse in Nigeria, as interpreted by the gaze of the white, Western world. To justify her decision to write this story, O’Brien’s perspective needed to add some kind of additional insight that amplified things in some way. As it is, I was simply left wondering why a white, Irish author would choose to tackle this subject at all. The right to freedom of expression through fiction is always going to be a complex issue with no easy answers, and I can respect arguments on both sides of the debate. In this particular instance, I felt the author’s intentions were absolutely in the right place, but that she fell short of inhabiting the culture, experiences, and voice of her heroine in an authentic and believable manner.
Even looking beyond these hesitations, I had several issues with the book’s execution, unfortunately. In the first half, the pace is relentless, walking us through a rapid succession of ghastly events at breakneck speed, with no time given over to reflection or analysis. With nothing being granted the necessary space to breathe within the narrative, I was left feeling strangely numb to everything that was happening; the lack of emotional resonance particularly notable given the distressing nature of the subject matter. I can understand that this may have been a deliberate attempt to avoid gratuity, and to reflect the relentless nature of the girls’ suffering, but a book as heavy as this is begging for greater nuance. Indeed, though the pace slows down substantially in the second half, the look at the lasting impact of our heroine’s experiences is still very base level. Any semblance of character development is reserved for her desire to be a mother to the child she conceived in captivity, with little exploration of her own psyche, despite the huge amount of potential that lay in the trauma, PTSD, and survivor’s guilt that were merely hinted at. Without wanting to spoil any plot specifics, I will say the author did at least attempt to explore the ideas of lost innocence, societal stigma, and the long journey to freedom that lies beyond escape. But again, these threads lacked any kind of satisfying emotional connection.
On another negative note, however, O’Brien’s matter-of-fact prose also did little for me. Again, in fairness, the simplistic nature of the language and the dot-to-dot narrative style arguably make sense given context. After all, the book is written in the first-person from the viewpoint of a young woman who was robbed of the chance to even finish her education; it’s unlikely she would be concerned with showcasing much in the way of literary merit. From a reader’s perspective, however, greater linguistic beauty may have helped to counter the narrative’s immense darkness, and to lift the book well above the realm of shock value; something I can see several accusing it of from time to time. It also would have made the book’s listing for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction considerably more understandable.
In short, as much as I sympathise with what O’Brien set out to achieve, this just didn’t work for me. Whether stylistic choices in search or realism or not, the spare approach to character, plot, and emotion kept me held at too great a distance. For a story that should have kicked me in the gut, I was left feeling frustratingly apathetic.