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drewknew 's review for:
Girl, Woman, Other
by Bernardine Evaristo
Having now read both the co-winners of the 2019 Booker Prize, and despite also loving Atwood's The Testaments, I think this deserved to win by itself.
It's a triumph of both style and substance, telling the life stories of 11 women and 1 non-binary person, exploring themes of family, race, sexuality, gender identity and friendship. The writing is alive, vital, vibrant, and real: bursting with observations about life as a minority to make the reader sit up and take notice.
Evaristo "explodes" her sentences so that each paragraph looks like a stanza: there are no full stops, no capitals to indicate a new sentence, just line breaks for emphasis and dialogue. At first glance it looks potentially offputting. I questioned whether the text would flow when reading or whether it's be more staccato-like, like reading a play. Reader, I need not have worried.
It's a beautiful, beautiful book that deserves the plaudits, and deserves to be read far and wide - even moreso at this moment when Black Lives Matter has made racial politics all the more relevant.
It's a triumph of both style and substance, telling the life stories of 11 women and 1 non-binary person, exploring themes of family, race, sexuality, gender identity and friendship. The writing is alive, vital, vibrant, and real: bursting with observations about life as a minority to make the reader sit up and take notice.
Evaristo "explodes" her sentences so that each paragraph looks like a stanza: there are no full stops, no capitals to indicate a new sentence, just line breaks for emphasis and dialogue. At first glance it looks potentially offputting. I questioned whether the text would flow when reading or whether it's be more staccato-like, like reading a play. Reader, I need not have worried.
It's a beautiful, beautiful book that deserves the plaudits, and deserves to be read far and wide - even moreso at this moment when Black Lives Matter has made racial politics all the more relevant.