Fille, femme, autre

I'm not usually a big fan of fiction but I really enjoyed this book. Each chapter follows a new character and the connections between them all unfold as you read but Bernadine really does give you an impressive range and depth of experiences to think about. From being black and queer in the 70s to being a mother and raising a child in another country to being a young adult and trying to make sense of yourself and the world you're in. All the characters feel distinct and well fleshed out and give you something new to consider.

Just a heads up through that it does touch on some very heavy themes, including: domestic abuse, sexual assault, racism, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia.

Wow. A book that gives you a glimpse into so many lives. A unique look at the intersection of being LGBTQ and black. A complex set of stories, all interconnected, visiting friends and family, current times and historical. Some characters stories are harder to read than others, this book deals with some very difficult topics, ones that are sadly very familiar. By the end of the book I felt I knew all our characters so well, their lives, influences and ambitions.

A very readable book. I enjoyed it more or less from cover-to-cover. I like that the stories are mostly pretty independent of each other but interlaced just a little a bit. I also like that we get to see the interlaced parts from two or multiple points of view, from that aspect it's a little like Bret Easton Ellis's Rules of Attraction. You hear one protagonists feeling of a relationship/interaction and then later hear the other side's perception of it, this is most obvious in the after party between a former pupil and teacher. Overall, well worth reading.

It's one of those books where nothing much happens, there isn't really a plot, it's just people living there lives, so I wasn't expecting to like it. After about the first chapter though I found I was really enjoying it and found it very easy to read. I think it helps that it's written in a very punchy style, the text is regularly broken up into sections and the chapters are regular, which makes it easier to read. And it's broken up over twelve different characters so I never got bored of reading about one. It is of course also really well written, all the characters seemed interesting and written with depth and a little humour.