Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo

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Co-winner of the booker prize 2019, this book is written as a compilation of narratives of 12 women in various treads of life of all ages, all societal statuses and all sexual preferences. The characters explored in detail are given separate sections within the chapters of the book and they are: Amma, Yazz, Dominique, Carole, Bummi, La Tisha, Shirley, Winesome, Penelope, Megan/Morgan, Hattie and Grace.

This story describes the various lives of British people of color. Numerous issues and political topics are addressed through the eyes of these several generations of people and we can see how the lives have progressed and what else is yet to be acknowledged and brought into light. Issues of feminism, transphobia, gender fluidity are directly addressed in the narrative as well. It is very well written in a way that we were brought into the conversation with our own prejudice, thoughts and opinions.

Moving on to the 12 characters I found that even though some characters were richly portrayed I could not bring myself to enjoy characters like La Tisha and Winesome who in my opinion seemed to be too stereotyped in to the mold of 'woman' who are always in need of a man and make decisions all based on that. I do not particularly see the importance of these stories within the narrative and think that the other 10 narratives would have been just fine in bringing the issues that are discussed. I also did not like the way men are stereotyped as well.
Overall, I enjoyed the way the narratives progressed and how we got to see both the mother's version and the daughter's version of the stories, relationships etc. 






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