Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo

 

Description

This is Britain as you've never read it.
This is Britain as it has never been told.

From Newcastle to Cornwall, from the birth of the twentieth century to the teens of the twenty-first, Girl, Woman, Other follows a cast of twelve characters on their personal journeys through this country and the last hundred years. They're each looking for something - a shared past, an unexpected future, a place to call home, somewhere to fit in, a lover, a missed mother, a lost father, even just a touch of hope . . .

Review

I had so many reasons for not reading this book! It won a Booker Prize (I often don't get on with ones that do win), it has no punctuation, there are no capital letters for words beginning a sentence, it is a mix of prose and writing. It is written from a POV I know little about. Yet I read it - and I am so glad I did.

Borrowed from the library in case I hated it I slowly got into the book. Yes the lack of capital letters and punctuation annoyed me - but only for a few pages. I began to realise the depth of meaning that the writing can convey when written like this, sometimes almost like it's written in capital letters and in bold, the meaning jumps off the page.

Each story is about a different person. I hadn't realised that as I worked my way through the book. People would reappear as the backstory to someone else's story. Some stories I enjoyed more than others. I admit to getting a little confused with who was who at times, but that is more down to my memory than the writing. I especially enjoyed it when I realised I had met a character before. Once the story got a little more fleshed out I thought "ah, yes - this is so and so" just like meeting old acquaintances and seeing their story through someone else's eyes.

At times I was so saddened by the injustice the people suffered - especially by the girl who wanted to work in a Department store but had to work as a maid even though she was cleverer than her friends who did get to work in the store. 

The ending of the book was just sublime - I absolutely loved it. I see some others reviews are less favourable, especially regarding the punctuation. Really, if you read Shakespeare as he wrote it I doubt you would enjoy it - times move on, language and writing evolves and if this is the result I am all for it. 

i am giving this book 5 out of 5 stars.