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| B. Evaristo by Hamish Hamilton |
Our meeting will be this Wednesday, December 6th at Dianaߴs home for Sharonߴs presentation on Bernadine Evaristo, inspired by her birth yearߴs theme, ‟The English Novel.”
A few weeks back I was so excited when Ann Patchett chose Bernadine Evaristo's book, Girl, Woman, Other as her choice for her weekly book recommendation she calls, "If You Haven't Read It, It's New to You." I loved this book, and, like Ann, was surprised it didnߴt get more attention, especially after winning the Booker. I can't wait to learn more about the author and her work from Sharon.
Also to be decided is the format for our future 2023-24 meetings—to mask or not? To offer lunch or continue with generous snacks? Constance will poll members for their preferences. Jackie brought us news of the renamed library Children's Room in honor of recently deceased Ed Young, with plans for neon skylight to be designed by Antonia Young, one of Ed's daughters. Jackie also mentioned that in the future we will be meeting at noon to allow for more time for sharing before the presentation.
To punctuate or not to punctuate? That was one of the questions that arose in Sharon's introduction to her chosen author, Bernardine Evaristo. The first Black woman to win the prestigious Booker prize (in 2019 along with Margaret Atwood), Evaristo was the master of many formats, styles, punctuations and lack of. She wrote poetry, fiction, autobiography, plays, short stories, epistolary, often mixing genres experimentally. She drew on her own life story as one of 8 children, with a black Nigerian father and a white lrish-Catholic mother. She also plumbed African heritage—and her novel Blond Roots is a satire inverting a black-white universe where Blacks are the masters and whites, the slaves. She has eight novels and two books of non-fiction to her credit and has received 76 awards, nominations, fellowships and honors. When she was awarded the Booker Prize at age 60 for her novel, Girl, Woman, Other, Evaristo had been a working author and playwright for decades!
She was born in 1959 and grew up in Eltham, southeast London, always considering herself Black, in spite of a mixture of many roots in her DNA. Her mother was loving and encouraging in contrast to her authoritarian father, with whom she didn't have a good relationship till her 20ߴs. She and her siblings eagerly sought her mother's company and attention. Evaristo wrote that her mother was “calm, amazing, brave, honorable woman” with an “earth mother vibe.”
Evaristo was the only Black student at school, with not much racist backlash. An eager and early reader, Evaristoߴs love of books provided a buffer for sibling competition for the family's TV. We read from Manifesto, her autobiography, which she says is her “tribute to multicultural Britain,” and tells of her family's history and struggle to fit in.
In addition to her writing, theater plays an important role in her life. She got her first degree in drama from the Rose Buford School of Speech and Drama and subsequently a doctorate in creative writing from the University of London. In the 1980ߴs, she and two other women founded Theatre of Black Women, the first of its kind in Britain. And in the 1990's, she organized Britain's first Black British Theatre conference. She has also helped establish a number of awards for Black African poets.
Evaristo's unusual love life has been a source of interest, and in interviews she has detailed her 10 years as a lesbian, going clubbing, participating in marches, part of the Black feminist culture. Some of her relationships were abusive, others not. However, her life changed when she met the man she would marry—David Shannon, a white writer, who was, and is, very supportive of her and her work.
We read Hello Mum, a book Evaristo was asked to write for readers with little book experience, using simple language, presenting a young boyߴs viewpoint in a letter to his Mum, ending in his fatal encounter with a gang. Sad and powerful, it is another experiment of sorts—both language wise and subject wise. Finally, on a more upbeat note, w€ focused on Evaristoߴs Booker Award, Girl, Woman, Other. It draws on her parentsߴ foibles, on complicated feelings of inter-family relationships, on generations with mixed race backgrounds, on how people deal with enormous stresses they encounter. The language is vivid, the characters intimate and alive, there is humor, compassion, all thoroughly absorbing—and not a thought to punctuation for we, the readers!
Respectfully submitted,
Carla, Interim Secretary, again
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