Girl, Woman, Other is an important feminist novel. It tells the stories of twelve women in an experimental style that is both readable and entirely fitting for these characters. Reading this Booker Prize-winning novel is an edifying experience. But it must be pointed out, it is also absolutely delightful. Because in addition to being insightful, informative and wise, Girl Woman Other is also frequently laugh out-loud funny.
The connecting tissues that bind the characters in this novel are sometimes surprising. Indeed, part of the fun of reading about these characters is learning how they are connected to each other. But perhaps the strongest adhesive binding them together is the opening of a play, The Last Amazon of Dahomey at The National Theater in London. The woman who wrote it, Amma, is at a crossroads. Could this at long last be the break that she’s been waiting for: recognition that her political lesbian feminist perspective is finally gaining some acceptance from The Establishment? Is she selling out? What if it flops? All of the characters in this epic novel are struggling with similar issues. Namely how to be successful in society without compromising your soul as a woman, a person of color, a lesbian, a transgender person. It is also entirely appropriate that the theater figures so prominently in this book, because this novel is about the choices women make in presenting themselves to the world.
For this queer reader, the most amusing part of this book is the pages dealing with the play’s production. The characters’ dialogue is so often humorous that one is reminded of how West End plays used to be written–or anyway should have been. Just another example of what makes this important novel both edifying and entirely entertaining.
Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman Other is published by Penguin.
4/29/2020