Review: Woman, Woman, Another Bernardine Everisto – Guldurnit in P1

Title: Girl, girl, other
Author: Bernardine Everisto
Translation: Nicholas Nilsson

In 2019, he was awarded the prestigious Booker Prize for his novel “Girl, Girl, Other” by British Bernard Everisto. Now her novel is in Swedish, which contains twelve stories about being a black woman in Great Britain. Great intensity with flawless humor, Guldurnit’s Ira Mallik falls.

The first story begins The mother of a serious, black, lesbian, feminist drama director was tormented in front of a premiere. His play about the last Amazon will be staged at The National, a traditional theater in London.

After 30 years in cultural life, she is now, in middle age, immediately entering the center.

It’s a contemporary novel by all means: a choreography, broken form with sentences without large print or full stop. Maybe it’s better to mention it right now: this is a very funny book.

Releasing disrespectEveristo writes about the gap between who his characters want to be and who they really are. She portrays all political poses as acidic, but opens up about the difference between being on the outside and being different.

The stories are often neatly intertwined. One supporting character in one story becomes the main character in the next story. For example, Shirley, Mom’s sad teacher friend, was the first to go as a newly graduated black teacher, proudly and elegantly. Now that her academic path has turned into frustration towards students, they will turn out to be teenage mothers rather than the best.

Fitting double-edged sword: Damn if you do, damn if you don’t.

This is how a speckle web is formed with the experiences of different generations, different individuals, one woman, one woman, another. This is a bigger novel than Evaristo’s case, and she wants to tell a good story – or twelve.

Ira Mallick
[email protected]