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A review by andrew_russell
Girl by Edna O'Brien
3.0
Girl by Edna O'Brien is the tale of Maryam, a girl who has been kidnapped by the extremist terrorist organisation Boko Harum from the Secondary School in Chibok, Nigeria in April 2014.
Given the subject matter, it comes as no surprise that there are unflinching accounts of horrific acts and atrocities which were carried out and which Maryam often experienced firsthand but also on occasion, heard related by other characters in the novel. This lends itself to a dramatic and emotionally manipulative style of writing, which often proves successful in driving home just what an ordeal the kidnap experience must have been for those who went through it.
As the novel is written as a first person account, we experience the double-edged sword that is on the one hand, greater immediacy and intimacy with those events which are experienced by Maryam and yet on the other hand, a curious lack of connectivity with her feelings, emotions and any long term effects such events may have had on her. This is a real shame as the rawness at the heart of the central topic lends itself, with relatively little effort, to driving home these aspects to the reader.
What we get instead is events; horrific events, eye-opening events and even on at least one occasion, a genuine 'bring a tear to a glass eye' event. These are for the most part, expressed in eloquent and vivid prose and yet they lack something and the 'something' is characterisation. We never really get under the skin of Maryam, to understand her hopes, frustrations, fears, wants and ambitions. There is only ever the attempt to achieve this through the lens of the events which take place around her. In spite of the first person narrative and it's immediacy, we soon begin to feel more and more like a spectator rather than some sort of metaphysical being, experiencing such happenings alongside the main character.
It's important to underscore this deficiency only because, were it not present, this novel could really have been elevated to a completely different level from that at which it sits. In spite of this however, there is more to like about Girl than dislike. Colourful, striking prose is the most obvious one but there are several others also. Themes such as the oppression of females, the threat of extremism on a global scale but particularly for those who live under less economically and politically sound regimes, the plight of those in developing countries which possess less robust human rights protection than that taken for granted by the inhabitants of the Western World and the ability of under-privileged individuals to display remarkable tenacity and courage in the face of seemingly hopeless circumstances almost entirely beyond their control, are all put out there by O'Brien.
Girl is far from being a 'bad' book. It's just that given the somewhat two-dimensional characterisations, it unlikely to resonate down through the ages, or indeed to even be remembered with any clear sense of detail a year on from putting it down.
Given the subject matter, it comes as no surprise that there are unflinching accounts of horrific acts and atrocities which were carried out and which Maryam often experienced firsthand but also on occasion, heard related by other characters in the novel. This lends itself to a dramatic and emotionally manipulative style of writing, which often proves successful in driving home just what an ordeal the kidnap experience must have been for those who went through it.
As the novel is written as a first person account, we experience the double-edged sword that is on the one hand, greater immediacy and intimacy with those events which are experienced by Maryam and yet on the other hand, a curious lack of connectivity with her feelings, emotions and any long term effects such events may have had on her. This is a real shame as the rawness at the heart of the central topic lends itself, with relatively little effort, to driving home these aspects to the reader.
What we get instead is events; horrific events, eye-opening events and even on at least one occasion, a genuine 'bring a tear to a glass eye' event. These are for the most part, expressed in eloquent and vivid prose and yet they lack something and the 'something' is characterisation. We never really get under the skin of Maryam, to understand her hopes, frustrations, fears, wants and ambitions. There is only ever the attempt to achieve this through the lens of the events which take place around her. In spite of the first person narrative and it's immediacy, we soon begin to feel more and more like a spectator rather than some sort of metaphysical being, experiencing such happenings alongside the main character.
It's important to underscore this deficiency only because, were it not present, this novel could really have been elevated to a completely different level from that at which it sits. In spite of this however, there is more to like about Girl than dislike. Colourful, striking prose is the most obvious one but there are several others also. Themes such as the oppression of females, the threat of extremism on a global scale but particularly for those who live under less economically and politically sound regimes, the plight of those in developing countries which possess less robust human rights protection than that taken for granted by the inhabitants of the Western World and the ability of under-privileged individuals to display remarkable tenacity and courage in the face of seemingly hopeless circumstances almost entirely beyond their control, are all put out there by O'Brien.
Girl is far from being a 'bad' book. It's just that given the somewhat two-dimensional characterisations, it unlikely to resonate down through the ages, or indeed to even be remembered with any clear sense of detail a year on from putting it down.