Hiiii my people them!!
How're you doing?
I hope you're fine?
Hope you're smiling? Hope you're living?
Anyway, I come bearing good news. I am finally done with the book I have been reading for about a month. I finally got to the last page, finished the last page, had a little “there's no way that happened!” Moment and now I wish I hadn't finished the book because now I have to actively look for another to read.
Another book that I would not abandon halfway (because I am a psycho who abandons books halfway 🙂).
I have found one though (Judge stone by Viola Davis and James Patterson). I'm actually loving it so far buttttt I'm still a few pages in so I cannot say for sure yet. I'll get back to you on that one.
Anyway, GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER (THE REVIEW)
I really don't know how best to explain this book. It is not easy to explain (that's why I considered not writing a review because I was scared I would choke and not come up with anything readable because it is such a different kind of book but this year is for challenging myself so yeah.)
Girl, woman, other is not a collection of short stories. I also don't think it's a novel. I will classify it as a collection of stories embedded in a novel.
It's like if you write a novel and then proceed to extract all the characters in that novel and then delve deep into each character's life in such a way that all the characters’ stories intersect at some point but each story maintains its individualistic qualities.
That was the thing about Girl, woman, other that fascinated me the most: how Bernardine Evaristo (the author) was able to connect each (very different) stories of very complex varying characters into one story that makes sense when told in parts. It is a story with various sub-stories. These sub-stories contribute to making the story a full story.
These sub-stories are told from each character's point of view (with an omniscient- third person's narration), thereby giving each character agency and the chance to sorta plead their cases.
They are basically like: I know you think what I did was horrible but was it really horrible when you consider this, this and this?
That is actually my favorite thing about storytelling: the ability to create full human beings with flaws and all. Creating multidimensional characters who are not some perfect (un-flawed) figure head curated for representation sake but are full humans who are just being themselves.
I like movies and books that do that. I like writers who forget that people will read their work. Writers who just go ham on the imagination and give us the stuff unfiltered. I like stuff like that and I feel like Bernardine Evaristo did a great job doing that in this book. At some point, I was like: girllllll don't put that in! But she put it in… (that sounds wrong…it's not my fault your mind is dirty) and I love her for that.
GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER (THE STRUCTURE).
WARNING: might contain spoilers, so maybe save this post and come back after you've read the book?
So the story begins with AMMA who is this hot Badass play writer lesbian. We dabble a bit in her story. No gonna lie, I did not pay attention to Amma's story. It was the beginning of the book. I thought the beginning of the book was a bit boring. I only started enjoying the book from the second chapter (Yazz's story).
So basically, I blacked out on Amma (and Dominique's story), although I know that Amma is this really Badass play writer lesbian (I've said that before). Who started out as a struggling creative (lowkey reminds me of Rent the musical. Everything reminds me of Rent. I love rent so much!).
Anyway, Amma sorta forms this theater company with her best friend DOMINIQUE (who I totally have a crush on by the way). They stay struggling for sometime but slowly start to rise. Amma goes through her Shane (from the L word) era where she's a terrible people that sleeps with everybody (her groupies because her plays were gaining traction) and dumps them.
There's the page of that woman chasing her down on the street (hilarious!).
Anyway, Amma and Dominique stop working together but remain bestfriends. Dominique goes to do her own thing, Amma continues writing plays. She eventually becomes someone noteworthy.
I think her dad died or something. This made Amma who had always wanted to stay child free go through this existential crisis where she decides that she wants a child.
Her gay professor friend (Robert, I think is his name) helps her out and so she had YAZZ
Now let's do YAZZ
Yazz is Amma's super woke (I don't like using that word but I literally cannot think of any other word to use… culturally aware perhaps?).
Whatever, she (thinks she) knows what's wrong with the world and she's on a mission to fix it. Starting with her parents.
One would think that the sexually liberated- very leftist lesbian Amma is very “woke” but no… not to her daughter Yazz. Not at all.
Yazz still sees flaws in Amma's progressiveness (like they say: it be your own kids).
Yazz picks apart every single thing her parents do and tells them why they have to do better (in a way that's a bit judgy). I mean, I get where she's coming from (most of the time) but it is lowkey annoying and condescending.
Yazz really made me think about myself. Do I do that? Tell people how to live their lives? Is it a bad thing to do? Am I wrong? Am I annoying? Is it wrong to be annoying when your intentions are good and you are just trying to make a better place? Is it up to me to make the world a better place? Obviously yes! It is up to everybody and if telling people about themselves and how they contribute to endangering other people is annoying then so be it!
But the thing about Yazz though, the thing about most of us is that we are better at seeing other people's flaws than reflecting on our own.
In Yazz's eyes, in Yazz's POV, Yazz is perfect. It is other people that need changing but in another person's pov (Morgan's pov) Yazz is not that perfect. She's deep in that privilege stacking war, constantly trying to decide who deserves her acknowledgement, depending on how low on her privilege stack you are.
The lower you are on Yazz's privilege stack, the more she adores you. The higher you are on that stack, the more she loathes and side eyes you. It has almost nothing to do with who you are as a person.
You could be a sinner but as long as you are low on Yazz's privilege stack you automatically become a Saint.
I don't know what it is with Yazz (and lowkey the culturally aware younger generation now) . It's like once a person is part of a socially disadvantaged group, they are automatically made to be saints. Everything they do is seen as good and liberal and empowering. Everything they do or say becomes a statement to be revered even though it really isn't.
I lowkey get this. I think it's because of how few the representation is so these people bear the cross of a group, and to propel them (as well as to keep them up there for representation sake) the support has to be insane because the showrunners are most likely looking for any reason to pull these very few representations off.
It is a protective/ defense tactic, I get it but watching/ reading Yazz made me realize how insane that is.
We don't have to adore people just because they have been cast out from society. We should adore people because they are adorable (see what I did there?) And iconic and aspirational and inspiring.
So yeah Yazz.
The next person is the absolute love of my life (right now). My crush (right now…it changes every time), DOMINIQUE:
Dominique is this really confident, edge, too cool for this world queer woman (queer because I'm not sure if she's a lesbian or bisexual.)
Regardless, she's that bitch and I'm obsessed with. I don't know what it is with me and dominant-confident women with top energy who still allow themselves to be vulnerable and are very in touch with their emotions?
What is it really?
I don't know, they are just really cool to me.
Anyway, Dominique is portrayed in this independent boss-bitch light until she meets Nzinga then everything changes.
She becomes baby and I'm like okayyyy. Wrong bitch but okay.
Nzinga is horrible. She was emotionally abusive to Dominique. It was a whole thing but thankfully Dominique got out in one piece.
Another person that really stood out to me in the book was HATTIE.
So Hattie had lived on the farm all her life. Hattie's story is quite twisty. She's biracial. Her mom (Grace from Abyssinia, modern day Ethiopia) became an orphan very early on. So Grace was basically groomed to work as a maid for rich white people from when she was little.
This part was quite interesting because I've been very curious about how racism and the transatlantic slavery happened in England. I'm still curious about that. I've not seen or read much on that.
Anyway Grace gets married to this rich white English landowner typa man. He does this “my dear dear nubian queen” thing which is really cringe.
They struggle to have kids to the point that intimacy becomes a hectic task. They eventually have Hattie. Grace does not like her daughter Hattie at first because of all she had to go through to conceive.
Eventually, their relationship gets better. Hattie grows up and gets married to Slim.
Hattie's story is really the bridge of the story. The end was so wholesome. I'm really trying not to spoil it. I'm just going to leave it at that.
There are also other very fascinating characters (Megan/ Morgan, Bummi, Shirley, Carole, etc.) But you'd have to read the book to find out about them 🙃
Anyway, thank you so much for reading,
Till next time,
Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!