{"id":26580,"date":"2019-08-21T13:18:31","date_gmt":"2019-08-21T17:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=26580"},"modified":"2019-08-21T13:18:31","modified_gmt":"2019-08-21T17:18:31","slug":"bernardine-evaristo-girl-woman-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2019\/08\/21\/bernardine-evaristo-girl-woman-other\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernardine Evaristo: Girl, Woman, Other<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” menu_anchor=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” parallax_speed=”0.3″ video_mp4=”” video_webm=”” video_ogv=”” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” overlay_color=”” video_preview_image=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding_top=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” padding_right=””][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” center_content=”no” last=”no” min_height=”” hover_type=”none” link=””][fusion_imageframe image_id=”20947″ style_type=”none” stylecolor=”” hover_type=”none” bordersize=”” bordercolor=”” borderradius=”” align=”none” lightbox=”no” gallery_id=”” lightbox_image=”” alt=”” link=”http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews” linktarget=”_self” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Header-2-1-e1493098728843.jpg[\/fusion_imageframe][fusion_title hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” content_align=”left” size=”3″ font_size=”” line_height=”” letter_spacing=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” margin_top_mobile=”” margin_bottom_mobile=”” text_color=”” style_type=”underline solid” sep_color=””]<\/p>\n

Girl, Woman, Other<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
\nby Bernardine Evaristo (2019)<\/span>
\nHamish Hamilton (2019)<\/span>
\n336 pp<\/span><\/p>\n

[\/fusion_title][fusion_text]<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

although the mother of his only child, writer and director, and dear, dear friend, could have made her name where it mattered a long time ago, if she\u2019d taken his advice and directed a few multi-culti Shakespeares, Greek tragedies and other classics, instead of writing plays about black women which will never have popular appeal, simply because the majority of the majority sees the majority of Les N\u00e9gresses as separate to themselves, an embodiment of Otherness<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Girl, Women, Other<\/em>, the latest novel by Bernardine Evaristo, tells the story of twelve characters, mostly black British women, but of a wide variety of ages (19 to 94), socio-demographic groups, parts of the United Kingdom, racial and ethnic identities, and sexualities. As the author explains (here<\/a>):<\/p>\n

I wanted to put presence into absence. I was very frustrated that black British women weren\u2019t visible in literature. I whittled it down to 12 characters — I wanted them to span from a teenager to someone in their 90s, and see their trajectory from birth, though not linear. There are many ways in which otherness can be interpreted in the novel — the women are othered in so many ways and sometimes by each other. I wanted it to be identified as a novel about women as well.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The novel closes, in Chapter 5, at “the crowded after-party of The Last Amazon of Dahomey at the National Theatre, written and directed by none other than Amma Bonsu the legendary black dyke theatre director,” where many of the characters converge, but we are introduced to their stories in the the previous four chapters.<\/p>\n

The novel has been carefully constructed. Each of the four chapters first gives us the story of one of four key figures, then that of two key associated characters:<\/p>\n