Girl, Woman, Other: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner)

This is not a book that I would choose to read for myself but a friend who shares my literary tastes suggested it and I am so glad she did. This book was like nothing I have read before...and it didn't take long to embrace the style. I am a stickler for grammar, literate writing with strong descriptive power. While some reviewers would disagree, this book hits every mark. This book is "alternative" in so many ways: alternative format, alternative lifestyles, alternative cultures, personalities, gender and sexual identities and labels. But if I learned one thing from the book (and I learned a million), it was not to use judgmental language or labels...so toss the "alternative."The author's descriptive power kept me in the book; while there was not one character with whom I could relate, she kept me fascinated by the word rich passages; one phrase could elicit so many thoughts, ideas, questions...and she offered an education for my generation which is confused about the myriad terms that describe gender and sexual identity. I only wish there had been notes to remind me of how the different characters intersect. Yes, this book is not about me or anyone like me, or about any of my friends...but it has shown me a small slice of a world that is real, it has deepened my compassion and my gratitude, and it has encouraged me to stay engaged with a modern world which can be brutal, unjust, judgmental, racist and sexist. For those of us who do not need to war against this world every day, it is healthy and useful to look at the truth of those who do. But at the end what I remember is the incredible descriptions, apt, funny, resonating, incisive - little stories in and of themselves!

Enjoyable to read when I was reading it, but once put aside, felt no desire to get back to it any time soon. For me, it definitely was not a page-turner.All the characters, though,were likable, along with their individual stories, and I especially appreciated their inner dialogs, along with their actual conversations, as they were spot on. Had no problem, as others apparently did, of the manner in which the book was written. All in all, pleased to have read it, and even happier that I finally finished it.

I love reading books written by women from cultures other than mine. This one broke all the molds for me. It’s written in an u usual format that took awhile To figure out. The stories are fascinating, winding back through time and shooting forward.The diversity in this novel is astonishing, complex and satisfying. The last two chapters bring it all full circle. At times I had trouble keeping track of all the characters, partly because of all the individual details for each one.

. . . Enjoyed the various points of view and different ages to loosely interweave all of these female and trans experiences over time.

This novel is kind of a fashionable pain. It self-indulgently rubs the reader's nose in its political content over and over again. What a drag. However, it is very elegantly written, despite the fact that the number of characters and their connections with each other are hard to retain. Actually, one of those diagrams showing connections at the end of the book might have been useful, although I guess that the novel is mostly about figuring out those connections, so maybe not. By the time I arrived at the last curlicue, I was tired and annoyed. Some of the contemporary references and the jokes were fun, though. It was way too long!

Great book

This book is a series of vignettes, punctuation optional, each of which focuses on a single person. Most of these persons are black women of varying ages, education levels, economic situations, and sexual persuasions. One character declares as non-binary, or gender-free. Their stories are interconnected in a variety of ways—blood relatives, friends, co-workers. Some stories stand out more than others. Dominique, for example, follows her super-control-freak lover Nzinga to the U.S. to live in a commune for women. After three years of Dominique having lived essentially as Nzinga’s caged pet, some of the other women in the commune stage an intervention to allow Dominique to escape. In another story, Carole, an excellent student until she is gang-raped at thirteen, finally enlists the help of a teacher, Shirley, who has her own chapter in the book, to help extricate her from a state of despair. Shirley later reaches a state of despair herself, unrelated to the fact that her mother lusts after Shirley’s husband. Ouch. LaTisha, who hosted the party during which Carole was raped, is an unmarried mother of three, by three different fathers, by the time she is 21. These stories all have merit, and, even though I made some notes, I still had some difficulty keeping track of the characters’ interrelationships. A diagram would be helpful, and I could probably create one if I were inspired to read this book again, but I’m not. The book has no cohesive plot, but some of the individual stories have a sort of plot, and some characters’ stories are finished in another character’s chapter.

I found this to be a deftly woven, interesting and intelligently told tale. Astonishing in its scope, I was awed and mesmerized by the author’s profound Gatling gun use of words which generated a kaleidoscope of thoughts lives and culture all coming together to form a thick highly seasoned and flavorful stew.

New

Per quanto possa aver apprezzato l’intreccio di storie presente nel libro, l’assenza (o quasi) di punteggiatura ha reso la mia lettura davvero pesante.La punteggiatura non è un optional.

Um romance contemporâneo que explora temas como movimentos diaspóricos e questões de gênero e identidade ... Evaristo faz com que o seu leitor não pare de ler seu sexto livro desde que a primeira página é iniciada... envolvente, emocionante, uma montanha russa de emoções que nos faz refletir sobre o mundo atual em que vivemos... um mundo global, sem fronteiras...

An entertaining and interesting book. I enjoyed every page. The book won the "Booker Prize" for 2019. The first black author to win the Booker Prize I believe. The stories of the women in the book are terrific, funny, sad and interesting all at the same time.

One of the greatest, most powerful novels I have ever read.