Girl, Woman, Other review

Girl, Woman, Other was certainly a breath of fresh air. I particularly appreciate when novels have multiple protagonists and therefore, are a mix of short stories. Even better when all these characters are connected to each other, one way or the other. It is interesting to see how completely different life choices and backgrounds still bring you to the same event. Most importantly, Girl, Woman, Other brings on the table a set of mostly black or mixed race women. A sight we don’t see often enough. We can find radical feminists, single mothers, lesbians, bisexuals, cheaters, orphans and moreover, abusive and long-lasting love and so on. What these women have in common is their strong will to not succumb to people’s opinions, prejudice, racism and sexism. To raise up from their situations of economical or educational disadvantage. They are rebels. Even Winsome, perhaps the least lovable character, she stands up for herself after her husband wants her to follow him towards failure, and consequently decides to raise out of her “misery”, away from a man she doesn’t love, and to engage in sexual relations with her son-in-law. At times, the characteristic prose, highlights the poetic tone, others I found it slightly over the top, pretentious even. Lastly, I found myself empathising and overall, enjoying most of the characters’ stories, although my favourite were LaTisha’s, Hattie’s and Grace’s. Unfortunately, there were some characters’ whose morals and beliefs I didn’t agree on at all, and therefore made the reading slightly less pleasant. For these reasons, I am leaving 4 stars out of 5.