by Bernardine Avaristo
This book won the Mann Booker Award this year along with Margaret Atwood and her book The Testament.
It was an interesting book, I like the way the author writes, at times the words seem more like poetry.
The book is about 11 black women, most of them immigrants, and their lives in England and beyond.
As the book goes on we see that the women are all connected in one way or another. The first story is disturbing, it is about a lesbian who gets lured to the U.S. by another woman. They live in an all female commune. The American woman ends up dominating and abusing the British women until she is finally helped to escape by other women in the commune.
Some of the other characters include a playwright who rejects the status quo, a young woman who is raped at 14 and starts to fail in her studies. She finally decides she will have to fight to succeed. One of her teachers encourages her an helps her. She goes on to a successful career in banking. Her teacher started out as a very idealistic well loved teacher but all the bureaucracy that developed in education wore her down and she is now considered something of a joke by the students. One woman has a daughter from IVF and has several people serve as the girls godparents. One girl feels she is not a girl and via the Internet hooks up with an Indian boy who has had a sex change to a girl. The first girl does not want to go through operations to become a man but she does shave her head and have her breasts removed. The girl and the trans boy become lovers. Another girl is shocked when her parents tell her that she is adopted, having been left on a church doorstep. Another woman had a child out of wedlock at 16. Her parents made her give up the child. She grieves the loss of this child and wonders what has become of her. At the end of the book they get connected thanks to a DNA test.
The author does a great job of portraying the experiences, the hopes, fears and disappointments of the women. Sadly many of them are not happy in how their lives have turned out. Several of them are pregnant after one night stands. Understandably there is a lot of discussion about what black people experience in the UK. I guess I feel there was too much of an emphasis on lesbianism, etc. Do that many women really struggle with their sexuality?
I guess I have to say that after reading the book I have to ask, so what? I guess it is partly about the desire to find love and acceptance and that nonstandard relationships are an option. A lot of them were trying to find out their background/roots or felt incomplete because they didn't know their origin. One of the women, the one who had the DNA test is shocked to learn that a small percentage of her DNA is from Africa.
Sunday, 22 December 2019
Wednesday, 4 December 2019
Reproduction
by Ian Williams
This book one the Giller Prize this year. It is written by a poet/writing prof.
The book starts out with a young teenager (Felicia) and an older man (Edgar)meeting in the hospital as their mothers appear on the verge of death. They converse a little to pass the time. The girl's mother dies, the man's mother doesn't.
The girl is an orphan now. She is trying to finish her high school work. The man invites her to live at his place and look after his invalid mother. The man is the head of a company and travels a lot on business. He doesn't seem to have much care for his mother and seems to spend his time drinking an smoking in various hotel rooms. He and the young woman start having sex, he has told her he had a vasectomy. However, in a few months the girl is pregnant. When she tells him she is pregnant he offers to pay for an abortion. He schedules one but she doesn't go through with it. When the man finds this out he unceremoniously fires her and kicks her out of his house.
The book then jumps to the future when the woman and her son Armistice (known as Army) are struggling to survive financially. They end up living in part of the house of a divorced man (Oliver) who is bitter about he was treated by his ex-wife. Army, always aware of being poor cooks up all sorts of schemes for making money, e.g. setting up a barber shop in the garage of the house.
Oliver's kids live in the U.S. with his ex-wife. They come to visit him for the summer. Army really likes the daughter (Heather) but she ignores him. She gets attracted to a guy who works at Walmart(?). In a very disturbing scene in the book she is drugged and gang raped by the Walmart guy and some of his friends. She ends up getting pregnant. Her mother is furious with her ex for letting this happen and send the girl back to Ontario to have the baby to avoid scandal.
At one point Edgar contacts Felicia and offers her money, initially $10 and $20,000, Felicia always refuses. Eventually he sends her a cheque for more than $100,000 again she refuses. It turns out Edgar is being accused of sexual harassment and it appears he wants Felicia to be a character witness on his behalf. She doesn't agree.
After Heather has her baby Oliver and Felicia take on the baby as their child Heather has named the child Chariot but he is known as Riot, and he is quite a trouble maker. He wants to be a film maker but keeps getting kicked out of school for bad behaviour. Oliver and Felicia don't have a sexual relationship but they do act like a blended family. They never tell Riot who his mother is, but he suspects.
All along Army has asked who his father is but Felicia doesn't tell him. Felicia finds out Edgar is sick with cancer. Army then discovers who his father is and invites him to come live with them as he prepares to die. Felicia and especially Oliver are furious about this. Army's behaviour is not really altruistic. He hopes to get money from Edgar's estate.
When Edgar dies he leaves most of his estate to charity, his house to Felicia and a mixed tape of music for Army.
I found the names Armistice (Peace)/Army and Chariot/Riot interesting. The original names are quite powerful, in a good way but the nicknames are vary aggressive.
This was an interesting story about an unconventional family. I enjoyed it.
This book one the Giller Prize this year. It is written by a poet/writing prof.
The book starts out with a young teenager (Felicia) and an older man (Edgar)meeting in the hospital as their mothers appear on the verge of death. They converse a little to pass the time. The girl's mother dies, the man's mother doesn't.
The girl is an orphan now. She is trying to finish her high school work. The man invites her to live at his place and look after his invalid mother. The man is the head of a company and travels a lot on business. He doesn't seem to have much care for his mother and seems to spend his time drinking an smoking in various hotel rooms. He and the young woman start having sex, he has told her he had a vasectomy. However, in a few months the girl is pregnant. When she tells him she is pregnant he offers to pay for an abortion. He schedules one but she doesn't go through with it. When the man finds this out he unceremoniously fires her and kicks her out of his house.
The book then jumps to the future when the woman and her son Armistice (known as Army) are struggling to survive financially. They end up living in part of the house of a divorced man (Oliver) who is bitter about he was treated by his ex-wife. Army, always aware of being poor cooks up all sorts of schemes for making money, e.g. setting up a barber shop in the garage of the house.
Oliver's kids live in the U.S. with his ex-wife. They come to visit him for the summer. Army really likes the daughter (Heather) but she ignores him. She gets attracted to a guy who works at Walmart(?). In a very disturbing scene in the book she is drugged and gang raped by the Walmart guy and some of his friends. She ends up getting pregnant. Her mother is furious with her ex for letting this happen and send the girl back to Ontario to have the baby to avoid scandal.
At one point Edgar contacts Felicia and offers her money, initially $10 and $20,000, Felicia always refuses. Eventually he sends her a cheque for more than $100,000 again she refuses. It turns out Edgar is being accused of sexual harassment and it appears he wants Felicia to be a character witness on his behalf. She doesn't agree.
After Heather has her baby Oliver and Felicia take on the baby as their child Heather has named the child Chariot but he is known as Riot, and he is quite a trouble maker. He wants to be a film maker but keeps getting kicked out of school for bad behaviour. Oliver and Felicia don't have a sexual relationship but they do act like a blended family. They never tell Riot who his mother is, but he suspects.
All along Army has asked who his father is but Felicia doesn't tell him. Felicia finds out Edgar is sick with cancer. Army then discovers who his father is and invites him to come live with them as he prepares to die. Felicia and especially Oliver are furious about this. Army's behaviour is not really altruistic. He hopes to get money from Edgar's estate.
When Edgar dies he leaves most of his estate to charity, his house to Felicia and a mixed tape of music for Army.
I found the names Armistice (Peace)/Army and Chariot/Riot interesting. The original names are quite powerful, in a good way but the nicknames are vary aggressive.
This was an interesting story about an unconventional family. I enjoyed it.
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