Girl, Woman, Other

I delayed writing this review, and now have little to say about a book I read enthusiastically. Every chapter is a biographical sketch of a different character, mostly women, mostly people of colour, living or arriving to Britain and crossing path, one way or the other. A possible flaw is that some chapters are almost too didactic and typified, the author almost visible behind the page, murmuring here's a trans folk, here the millennial, here the country woman, here the hardworking migrant. On the other hand, most characters are three dimensional, she's sympathetic, even when she points her finger to racism or careerism. And the reading is absorbing, "thick" like a XIX century novel (and I mean this in a positive way).

I was very ready not to enjoy this book. Made up of a set of short stories. Each one with a different character. It's bound to be difficult to really get into. Not a bit of it. The book still felt like a whole. Sometimes one story segues into another, other times it just the tone, the threads of thought, or contrasts between them. The chapters each focus on one person, mostly black women, and their personalities are different. Sometimes it feels a little caricatured, how complicated can you get in a few 10s of pages, but at the same time never too much and aren't we all somehow fitting one or other stereotype. A whole range of social topics: life in England as black, poor, rich, lesbian, non-binary... are played out and woven throughout the stories. An enjoyable and thoughtful read.