Girl, Woman, Other

Girl, Woman, Other

I have read books before that have been praised by others. Books that have won awards, as this one has, but truthfully I was disappointed when I read the book.
This is definitely not one of those books. I was hooked from the first page and the book never let go of me.
While reading this book I laughed at places. At other, times I felt such anger but at the same time I was crying, specifically at what happened to Carol. I want to reach through the pages and grab those animals, I will not call men that rape thirteen-year girl humans. Let just say this novel is a roller coaster ride with your emotions.

It is a book about women what they think, it is snapshots into their lives. I loved the connections between the different women. Each woman has her own distinct voice.
I could not pick a favorite moment, as there were so many, but what Winsome did with her son-in-law, would make the list, it was shocking.
I love to read books with strong women’s voices. For so much of history, women were unheard.
I encourage everyone to read this book. I know you will enjoy it.

This is not a book that I would choose to read for myself but a friend who shares my literary tastes suggested it and I am so glad she did. This book was like nothing I have read before…and it didn’t take long to embrace the style. I am a stickler for grammar, literate writing with strong descriptive power. While some reviewers would disagree, this book hits every mark. This book is “alternative” in so many ways: alternative format, alternative lifestyles, alternative cultures, personalities, gender and sexual identities and labels. But if I learned one thing from the book (and I learned a million), it was not to use judgmental language or labels…so toss the “alternative.”

The author’s descriptive power kept me in the book; while there was not one character with whom I could relate, she kept me fascinated by the word rich passages; one phrase could elicit so many thoughts, ideas, questions…and she offered an education for my generation which is confused about the myriad terms that describe gender and sexual identity. I only wish there had been notes to remind me of how the different characters intersect. Yes, this book is not about me or anyone like me, or about any of my friends…but it has shown me a small slice of a world that is real, it has deepened my compassion and my gratitude, and it has encouraged me to stay engaged with a modern world which can be brutal, unjust, judgmental, racist and sexist. For those of us who do not need to war against this world every day, it is healthy and useful to look at the truth of those who do. But at the end what I remember is the incredible descriptions, apt, funny, resonating, incisive – little stories in and of themselves!

I love each and every one of the fascinating characters. The web that entwined each one to the other. The mix of race and fluidity of each persons sexuality. This is a story of life, of womankind and how we are all connected.

This novel is kind of a fashionable pain. It self-indulgently rubs the reader’s nose in its political content over and over again. What a drag. However, it is very elegantly written, despite the fact that the number of characters and their connections with each other are hard to retain. Actually, one of those diagrams showing connections at the end of the book might have been useful, although I guess that the novel is mostly about figuring out those connections, so maybe not.

By the time I arrived at the last curlicue, I was tired and annoyed. Some of the contemporary references and the jokes were fun, though. It was way too long!

Many women told in many voices, all of which are necessary. Sometimes the author speaks proper English and the heroes speak in African accent such as likkle island yet sometimes she joins them and starts speaking herself as one of them, pouring herself into them. This is a book about women yet it is about people in general told through women. There are more types of women than i had thought before and am grateful for Bernadine Evaristo for showing me this kind of light.

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