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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
3.0
September book club (finished a little late). While I love the message behind this novel the format and writing style was not for me. It was, at times, very hard to follow or understand why I should spend time investing in characters. Often I felt like by the time I realized a character’s connection to the story and became attached the chapter, their chapter would end and the story would move on to someone else. While the plot twist was moving, it was difficult to understand how the all characters were connected without a family tree.
September book club (finished a little late). While I love the message behind this novel the format and writing style was not for me. It was, at times, very hard to follow or understand why I should spend time investing in characters. Often I felt like by the time I realized a character’s connection to the story and became attached the chapter, their chapter would end and the story would move on to someone else. While the plot twist was moving, it was difficult to understand how the all characters were connected without a family tree.
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
really enjoyed it loved the web weaves of everyone just wish the ending was as good as the rest.
I absolutely loved this book. I enjoyed the start of this book, but then I was living in this book and was surrounded by this book. I just watched in interview of Bernardine Evaristo in a Guardian Live Event because of her new book, "Manifesto". "Girl, Woman, Other" was mentioned several times during the interview. I would say, of course. "Manifesto" is autobiographical, but there are autobiographical elements to "Girl, Woman, Other". Someone in the audience asked Evaristo which character in her books would she play and why, if book was a play. She said, "Amma". Again, I say, "of course".
What was fascinating to hear was how Evaristo's love of poetry and theater lead to her writing her books. The act of getting to know the characters in her many theater monologues is how she learned how to write her characters. I felt like that was an explain of how I just slid into her book and was with her characters.
I know I am rambling so go get a really nice review from Cecily at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2957054278. It includes a link to a review with spoilers, which you may only read after you have read the book!.
I am in awe of how the characters are woven into each others lives. First you hear the stories of three different women: Amma, Yazz, and Dominique. It is obvious they are connected. Then you move on to meet a fourth woman (Carole) who is not related to these three, but then you meet the fifth woman (Bummi), and the sixth woman (LaTisha), and there are contact points. These three are connected in different ways. Suddenly you see a pattern with the, in total, four groups of three women.
What emerges is how varied and different these women are and how much alike they are. Even more fascinating is how I can relate to them when I am different from all them, and yet have many touchpoints with all of them.
Evaristo is an activist who works hard to lift others as she journeys from one success to another. She does a lot of work to make invisible voices visible, meaning the Black community of women in Britain. Her writing is also doing that work of making invisible voices visible. I, for one, rejoice. I had a beautiful experience reading this book. I am not sure I have called reading a book "an experience" before. Maybe it is the theater part of Evaristo that simply brought everyone to life for me almost in front of my eyes. I could see this made into a movie, but I would want all aspects included and that would make an awfully long movie! I would support a female director of said movie, but all I could think of was Steve McQueen due to one character talking about Lovers Rock music. Lovers Rock is the name of one episode in the Small Axe mini-series by Steve McQueen, which was just amazing. Thinking of that show enhanced the visuals in my mind for that character.
Historical elements are mentioned throughout the book as a way of marking time: now we are in the 60s, 70s, or early 1900s. This adds perspective to the attitudes you encounter as you meet all these women.
I think this book definitely deserved a literary prize, but why did it have to be shared. I have not read the Atwood novel that was given half of this Booker prize. Was the committee afraid to give a whole prize to one woman who was black? I was rather shocked, but sadly not surprised, that 2019 was the first year that the prize was awarded to a Black woman.
From the interview I saw tonight, I learned there is nice back catalogue of Evaristo books I can explore. Like I need more books on my to-be-read list! Still, several of her other books do sound quite intriguing...
What was fascinating to hear was how Evaristo's love of poetry and theater lead to her writing her books. The act of getting to know the characters in her many theater monologues is how she learned how to write her characters. I felt like that was an explain of how I just slid into her book and was with her characters.
I know I am rambling so go get a really nice review from Cecily at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2957054278. It includes a link to a review with spoilers, which you may only read after you have read the book!.
I am in awe of how the characters are woven into each others lives. First you hear the stories of three different women: Amma, Yazz, and Dominique. It is obvious they are connected. Then you move on to meet a fourth woman (Carole) who is not related to these three, but then you meet the fifth woman (Bummi), and the sixth woman (LaTisha), and there are contact points. These three are connected in different ways. Suddenly you see a pattern with the, in total, four groups of three women.
What emerges is how varied and different these women are and how much alike they are. Even more fascinating is how I can relate to them when I am different from all them, and yet have many touchpoints with all of them.
Evaristo is an activist who works hard to lift others as she journeys from one success to another. She does a lot of work to make invisible voices visible, meaning the Black community of women in Britain. Her writing is also doing that work of making invisible voices visible. I, for one, rejoice. I had a beautiful experience reading this book. I am not sure I have called reading a book "an experience" before. Maybe it is the theater part of Evaristo that simply brought everyone to life for me almost in front of my eyes. I could see this made into a movie, but I would want all aspects included and that would make an awfully long movie! I would support a female director of said movie, but all I could think of was Steve McQueen due to one character talking about Lovers Rock music. Lovers Rock is the name of one episode in the Small Axe mini-series by Steve McQueen, which was just amazing. Thinking of that show enhanced the visuals in my mind for that character.
Historical elements are mentioned throughout the book as a way of marking time: now we are in the 60s, 70s, or early 1900s. This adds perspective to the attitudes you encounter as you meet all these women.
I think this book definitely deserved a literary prize, but why did it have to be shared. I have not read the Atwood novel that was given half of this Booker prize. Was the committee afraid to give a whole prize to one woman who was black? I was rather shocked, but sadly not surprised, that 2019 was the first year that the prize was awarded to a Black woman.
From the interview I saw tonight, I learned there is nice back catalogue of Evaristo books I can explore. Like I need more books on my to-be-read list! Still, several of her other books do sound quite intriguing...
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I found this book very easy to read, but felt it could have been reduced in size (and number of stories involved) by about a quarter. The sheer number of stories, especially when they're all written in such a similar style (minimal punctuation, free form), spread out over nearly 500 pages, felt a little bit stressful to keep abreast of.
Individual chapters are definitely worth re-reading, and all could very happily stand alone.
I loved Evaristo's writing style, and the seamless way in which the narrator's voice blends into direct speech or direct thought. Thought-provoking and engaging. She also has this fantastic knack of leading the reader to sympathise and feel for characters, some of whom I had already prejudged from other characters' stories earlier on in the book.
Super strong on issues of equality and diversity (obviously). While certain characters could certainly be described as militant and aggressive in their activism, Evaristo maintains a profoundly measured and thought-through tone which seems to hold the book together.
She made me feel like she was learning with me about why these issues are so important, and the real difference they make on people's lives.
Individual chapters are definitely worth re-reading, and all could very happily stand alone.
I loved Evaristo's writing style, and the seamless way in which the narrator's voice blends into direct speech or direct thought. Thought-provoking and engaging. She also has this fantastic knack of leading the reader to sympathise and feel for characters, some of whom I had already prejudged from other characters' stories earlier on in the book.
Super strong on issues of equality and diversity (obviously). While certain characters could certainly be described as militant and aggressive in their activism, Evaristo maintains a profoundly measured and thought-through tone which seems to hold the book together.
She made me feel like she was learning with me about why these issues are so important, and the real difference they make on people's lives.
Girl, Woman, Other jointly won the 2019 Booker Prize, which is the least this utterly magnificent novel deserves. Bring it Oscars, Brit Awards and 1st Prize in the Most Amusing Vegetable competition, it deserves them all.
Novels which deal with the sheer scope and range of characters tackled here can suffer from being too long, or the different characters bleeding into one. Not here. The tone is magical, each chapter gives the character just enough space to come sparkling to life and leave the reader needing more. I want to read more; more about Morgan, spend more time in Bummi's head, see where Amma goes next. But that is the beauty of this novel, no character overstays their time and each wonderfully informs the next as each tale winds itself into and around the next before we go full circle.
This is a fabulous book. It is urgent, it is wise and it is the closest any book I have read recently has come to planting a firm cultural marker down, a point people can look back on and say "I read that when it came out".
Novels which deal with the sheer scope and range of characters tackled here can suffer from being too long, or the different characters bleeding into one. Not here. The tone is magical, each chapter gives the character just enough space to come sparkling to life and leave the reader needing more. I want to read more; more about Morgan, spend more time in Bummi's head, see where Amma goes next. But that is the beauty of this novel, no character overstays their time and each wonderfully informs the next as each tale winds itself into and around the next before we go full circle.
This is a fabulous book. It is urgent, it is wise and it is the closest any book I have read recently has come to planting a firm cultural marker down, a point people can look back on and say "I read that when it came out".
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A beautifully written novel about an diverse group of interconnected/inter-generational Black women living in the UK. Its swirls, it meanders, and eventually comes back around to a major theater event highlighting the lives of African female warriors (of whom the characters we've gotten to know are attending). Loved it.
I got a little lost with which character was who, and I feel like it went on a little too long. But the first 200 pages I enjoyed quite a lot.