BookerPrizeReview #4: Girl, Woman, Other
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ก.ย. 2024
- Let’s chat about the books on the Booker-shortlist. This time:
Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other (May 2019): / girl-woman-other
My review of Lucy Ellman, Ducks, Newburyport: • BookerReview #1: Ducks...
My review of Elif Shafak, 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in This Strange World: • BookerReview #2: 10 Mi...
My review of Margeret Atwood, The Testaments: • BookerPrizeReview # 3:...
The Booker Prize: thebookerprize...
The Shortlist 2019:
• Margaret Atwood (Canada), The Testaments (Vintage, Chatto & Windus)
• Lucy Ellmann (USA/UK), Ducks, Newburyport (Galley Beggar Press)
• Bernardine Evaristo (UK), Girl, Woman, Other (Hamish Hamilton)
• Chigozie Obioma (Nigeria), An Orchestra of Minorities (Little Brown)
• Salman Rushdie (UK/India), Quichotte (Jonathan Cape)
• Elif Shafak (UK/Turkey), 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World (Viking)
Find me elsewhere:
website: www.brittaboehler.com
twitter: / britta_boehler
goodreads: / 5497508.britta_b_hler
facebook: / britta.boehler1
Instagram: / brittaboehler
By the way:
I stole the name ‘The Second Shelf’ from the title of Meg Wolitzer’s article in the New York Times: www.nytimes.com...
I also wrote some books:
The Decision (2015): hauspublishing....
or in the German original: Der Brief des Zauberers (2104): www.aufbau-verl...
Dutch non-fiction: De goede advocaat (2017): www.uitgeverijc...
as Britta Bolt (together with writer Rodney Bolt), The Posthumus Mysteries:
- Lonely Graves (2014)
- Lives Lost (2015)
- Deadly Secrets (June 2016)
www.hodder.co....
and for German readers:
- Das Büro der einsamen Toten (2015)
- Das Haus der verlorenen Seelen (2016)
- Der Tote im fremden Mantel (February 2017)
www.hoffmann-un...
![Explaining the 12 characters' connections in Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other [CC]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dt7HjgAnm3Q/mqdefault.jpg)
I searched for this video because I have just read it, and I've been trying to figure out my thoughts. It transpires that our thoughts are quite similar on this book - I also found that Evaristo used stereotypical characters to tell her stories. I recently read an interview in which the author said she created Carole to show a young black woman beating adversity and becoming a banker, which is all well and good, however the way she is portrayed, and it is written is straight out of a teen school drama. I wanted to find your review because you hit the nail on the head of how I feel about the book, and I was trying to make sure it wasn't just me. Thank you for the review - it's helping me make more sense of my own thoughts on the novel.
Thank you, Charlie! And I guess it's now the two of us against the rest... LoL.
@ count me in, sister! I DNF it. Totally missed the buzz! I've filed it with "Normal People", which I also couldn't understand the hype. Thank you!
Your reviews are always interesting to me. Thank you so much for sharing them with us. It is fabulous that you invite others who have read the books you profile to offer their opinions. I always read all the comments before I make a decision on spending time with the book.
I always love the discussion in the comment section, whether other readers agree with me or not, its interesting to hear other people's opinion.
I love a good, strong, honest review. I probably won't read it, but I was indeed curious.
Thank you very much, Patrice!
I also didn't get along with this, so it's nice to know I'm not alone in that! The writing style didn't bother me, although I didn't really see any benefits to it either. I definitely agree with you about the lack of depth in the portrayal of the characters, but the main thing that bothered me about it was the feeling that the author way trying to educate the reader - and not in a subtle way! It's a difficult thing to criticise because I can definitely get behind her intent, but it was just too heavy-handed for me and I didn't feel as though there was anything more to each woman than her being representative of some kind of diversity.
I can certainly see your point about the author being too heavy-handed re 'educating' the reader!
I enjoyed your honest thoughts and I think they will help inform me as a reader when I get around to picking this one up.
If you do, let me know what you think of it!
I am in the middle of reading this book and I thought I was the only one who didn't like the form of writing. This is such an honest and concise review, thanks for this!!
Thats very nice of you to say, thank you!
thanks Britta! A profound, sharp review!
Ah, I very much like being called sharp and profound :-)
I agree with you about this book. I tried to read it recently but sadly bailed as it was way too “look how inclusive I am!!”. As a gay man I’m interested when an author creates a view into minority lives but this tried too hard and just felt very unconvincing. I would say however that it is an upbeat and jolly book - if you like that sort of thing. I felt the same way with the second half of ‘10 minutes 38 seconds...’
I didn't much care for 10Minutes either...
I'm currently reading this book for the book club that I'm in and really disliking it. I really liked the way you compared the way the women acted in the lesbian relationships and the comparison with heterosexual ones, I thought that was a really great point that I didn't think of before.
Glad my review was helpful!
I couldn't get through this book. I abandoned it about 60 pages in. I will admit that I want to try and get to a few more of the booker list to see which book is the runner-up to The Ducks, which is going to win. I might give another book of hers a shot before I return to this one someday. I knew nothing about the book before I opened it. Had I known what to expect, that might have helped too. Question: did you read the ending of this book first? You admitted that you often do that. I actually considered this radical step.
A radical step, indeed, haha. And, no this time I didnt read the ending first. I guess I wasnt invested enough in the book or the characters to really care how it ends. LoL.
Huh! Interesting review. I liked how our conclusions matched but from different perspectives.
Thank you, Amin, and interesting indeed!
Nicely done. You have made me curious though about what others see in the book. Fortunately, I don't have space on the ETBR.
Lucky you! LoL.
I totally agree with most of this review. The 'fast-forward' narrative style and chapter structure means you are relentlessly reading superficial life stories glossed in a few short pages. It's also really annoying that the characters speak to the reader (rather than each other) with reams of unnatural exposition on politics, history, gender and race, all of which I absolutely sympathise with but which is written in such a forced and journalistic style. For all the praise of this book's warmth I found it strangely dry and lacking in humour. The only point in the review I'd take issue with is that I don't feel the style is 'stream-of-consciousness' at all. Rather, it's almost entirely descriptive with very little depiction of the character's interior lives. Good writing should 'show, not tell', but this book is all 'tell'. Thank you for a thoughtful review.
Thank you so much for your view on this book, Nick!
Hi Britta. Thank you for this great and thorough review. I was planning on reading Girl, Woman, Other this month but now I don't think I will, as I'm no fan of stream of conciousness writing either and I hate it when a woman's sole purpose in a story is just to get a man. Honestly, after hearing you list the valid things that bothered you, I wonder why the book was even nominated, but I guess the same can be said for 10 Minutes 38 Seconds.
Thank you very much, Danii! And I think, for the Booker-people, the fact that the book features black/gender-divers characters outweighed many of the things that bothered me.
@ Sadly, you're probably right.
Ugh. That whole focus on getting a man thing drives me nuts. Thanks for a great review!
Haha, you and me both, Lori, you and me both. LoL.
That book sounds nothing like what I imagined. Although this made me more interested to find out why others like it so much :)
Oh, it would be great if you read it, really curious about your opinion!
@ I will eventually - and you will be the first to know :)
I am late in reading this book so I have no excuse in not finding your review until now. I am not enjoying it for the reasons you mentioned. I am also wondering about the Booker. I thought past winners Brookner and Fitzgerald won with their weaker books.
Ah, happy to hear this review was helpful!
I agree with you Britta
;-)
One of the best books of 2019. Evaristo builds up stereotypes in the different stories and then breaks them down again. It makes the reader think: what prejudices do I have?
Happy for you that you liked it so much.
Another fabulous video! Thanks so much. Interesting dilemma-if I recall you haven't much liked any of the Booker Prize nominees by female authors--if you had to pick one as the winner, which would it be? Which book do you think is going to win? Thanks again--BB is back!
Thank you very much, Gare! I guess I'd pick Ducks as the winner because of its inventiveness and I think/fear that The Testaments will win...
Sounds like similar problems to Three Women. I appreciate your reviews of the women authored Booker shortlist!
It's not quite as bad as Three Women, I think, but indeed a similar problem. And: my pleasure!
I’ve been very underwhelmed by this years shortlist. The only one that seems like a winner- Ducks , Newburyport- is way too daunting due to its size.
I have to say, the book that I thought was the best novel (by far) on the Booker-list is Jeanette WInterson's Frankissstein which didnt even make the shortlist...
Excellent review as always. I'll be interested to read this one as I loved 'Mr Loverman' by this author.
Thats so nice of you to say, thank you. I havent read Mr. Loverman but it looks interesting so I might give it a try.
double like ✌😎✌
Thanx!
before buying this book (and dedicate a lot of time to reading it) I came to see if you had reviewed it.
though, I am very interested in the stream-of-consciousness writing style, you convinced me to rather read some other book :D
You're right: there are so many other great books out there to read. :-)
I probably won't pick this one up unless it wins and then I check out what all the fuss is about.
Good plan!
i enjoyed Claire of the Sea Light, but i hate short-bits type books, so i will avoid this and will look for another of her books to read next time instead. She's been famous but 'under the radar' ignored for a long time, this reeked anyway of the prize for an ignored deserving winner, rather than the book itself being the point.
Maybe I should read Claire of the Sea Light, then? And you might have a point re why the book is on the list...