"Girl, Woman, Other," by Bernardine Evaristo

I read good reviews of the novel “Girl, Woman, Other” (paperback Black Cat, 2019), bought it, hesitated a bit in the face of the slightly unorthodox paragraphing and punctuation, set it aside for a few days, and then was nudged to read it by the strong recommendation of my friend SB. (Thank you, SB!) I was soon overwhelmed by how good this book is, and felt a bit embarrassed and annoyed at myself that I had allowed myself to be, at least temporarily, deterred by a little bit of experimentation in the writing. I soon found that the many short paragraphs, and the dearth of both capital letters and periods, were actually very effective. The novel portrays the lives of several Black British women of different ages, classes, sexualities, and situations. Each section focuses on one or more main characters, but the characters often reappear in future sections as well, thus knitting together a widespread community or network of very different women. I became completely absorbed in this book and its characters, and marveled at the poetic yet down-to-earth writing. The author, Bernardine Evaristo, listed as an “Anglo-Nigerian” writer, was deservedly awarded the prestigious 2019 Booker Prize for this book.