Soul Tourists

by Bernardine Evaristo

The funny and fabulous tale of two twentieth-century misfits and their adventure into European history...

It is 1988, and Jessie, artiste, motormouth, ducker and diver, meets Stanley, angst-ridden banker and boffin. Jessie arrives like a guardian angel and lifts Stanley out of his soul-less life. He ditches his job, and together they set off across Europe. Destination -- unknown. Duration -- indeterminate. So begins an odyssey which turns into an adventure on the stage of European history featuring Shakespeare's "dark lady of the sonnets", Pushkin's African great-grandfather, the composer Chevalier de St. Georges and other colourful characters from Europe's past.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Novels, Travel, Audiobook, Fantasy, Romance

304 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 2005

About the author

Bernardine Evaristo is the Anglo-Nigerian award-winning author of several books of fiction and verse fiction that explore aspects of the African diaspora: past, present, real, imagined. Her novel Girl, Woman, Other won the Booker Prize in 2019. Her writing also spans short fiction, reviews, essays, drama and writing for BBC radio. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University, London, and Vice Chair of the Royal Society of Literature. She was made an MBE in 2009. As a literary activist for inclusion Bernardine has founded a number of successful initiatives, including Spread the Word writer development agency (1995-ongoing); the Complete Works mentoring scheme for poets of colour (2007-2017) and the Brunel International African Poetry Prize (2012-ongoing).

Reviews

[Hugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another in my occasional project to catch up with Evaristo's back catalogue - this one has elements of both The Emperor's Babe and Mr. Loverman. It is a twisted mixture of rom-com and road trip - taking a mismatched couple on a journey across Europe in an old car. One of the main protagonists, Stanley, meets a series of historical ghosts, all of whom were believed or rumoured to have some black ancestry. This element reminded me of another book I read last year, Lost Property, indeed the journeys these two books have common elements.

At the start of the book we meet the aforementioned Stanley on his final visit to his housebound father before his death. Stanley has escaped his humble beginnings to find a well-paid city job, but is still single in his mid thirties when he meets the exuberant (and older) Jessie working in a London bar. They get together, and Jessie persuades him to leave his job and join her on a trip across Europe in her old Lada, and her caravan. She hopes to drive towards Australia where her son now lives. As one would expect in a rom-com scenario, their affair does not go smoothly , but Evaristo does not indulge in the traditional rom-com happy ending.

Like The Emperor's Babe, this is not a book in which historical accuracy is important, for the most part the tone is comic, but there are some more serious ideas at play too, and Evaristo captures the places pretty well. At times the story is told in verse. Overall, I found this a very enjoyable read.

[Aislinn Keogh · Rating 1 out of 5]

I...have no idea what I just read.

[K.J. Charles]

An early work by this staggeringly good author. Has her amazing, exuberant joy in language and the assured mix of prose and poetry, lyricism and exceeding down-to-earthness, but it isn't handled with the assurance of her later work, which...she won the Booker, it would be pretty unreasonable to expect that from everything someone ever wrote. It's an interesting read, with intriguing characters, and deeply grounded in Black history in Europe, but the plot's a bit thin and the themes a bit heavy handed at points. So not my favourite of hers, but still gives you a ton to think about and had several sentences that stopped me in my tracks.

[Katy Simpson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Evaristo's writing style is phenomenal, particularly in how she applies it to the characters personality, changing from prose to poetry to a fractured monologue. However, this book is not her best work. The character of Jessie was, in my opinion, completely insufferable and irritating in her manner, coming across as selfish and showing no growth in character throughout the book. The idea of the Stanley's meeting of historical figures throughout the book is interesting and fits with the narrative of his journey of self discovery but is quite disjointed from the rest of the narrative. Overall, I would recommend Evaristo's work, but personally wouldn't recommend this book.

[Johnny · Rating 1 out of 5]

My spoiler review:

Under the motto "they can't all be gems" comes this rather disappointing "Soul Tourists" by Bernardine Evaristo. Coincidentally, another book that begins with someone's death (I really know how to pick them these days ...) but this time written in a gritty reality instead of a fluffy young adult style (one chapter is even literally a copy of the coroner's report).

Almost indecipherable dialogues contribute to a dark and slow reading experience. But shortly after that, the reality changes into pure surrealism. Prose alternates with either poetry, or lyrics. I still have no idea what they are supposed to be; I guess they are mostly the inner dialogues of the two main characters. A man and a woman, by the way, whom I have no problem seeing as best friends, but I just can't imagine them as lovers. And that's exactly what they become in this book, sadly enough; totally unexplainable, though. They are two people I couldn't care less about.

When one of them - after an orgasm - suddenly has a vision in which he finds himself suddenly in the body of William Shakespeare, my mind spontaneously shortcircuits (and believe me, I'm really not making this up ...). The story has this couple going on a road trip, a trip from England to Australia, a story which I thought would fit in nicely after "The Last Summer of Us" by Maggie Harcourt. But this is no road story, this is one of those modern pieces in a museum that makes any normal person think, "Is this art ?!"

I was glad when I finished the book, and that at least the characters finally came to the conclusion that they did not fit together, as well.

[Betty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Soul Tourists is a road trip story with a twist. Well, with a few twists. Not only does Bernardine Evaristo depart from the typical storyline of road trips, she also plays with form. This is a book that combines prose, verse and scripts. I love the way she mixes forms in her books - The Emperor's Babe, for example, is written in vivid verse. Bernardine Evaristo's writing style is the most distinctive and interesting I've read in a long time.

Stanley Williams has just lost his father, who spent his life wishing he was living back in Jamaica. He's working in banking, having lived his life to his father's expectations. With very little concept of his own identity, he meets Jessie O'Donnell. Jessie has many identities: barmaid, former singer and comedian, a bold older woman bitten by the travel bug. She is determined to drive from London to Sydney, where her son lives. The unlikely pair begin to travel across Europe, where Stanley sees the ghosts of figures from black history: Shakespeare's Dark Lady, Pushkin and his Ethiopian great-grandfather, and Mary Seacole, amongst others. This road trip features clashing personalities, and not all of them are of this mortal realm.

This is another brilliantly unique book from Bernardine Evaristo, and I highly recommend it.

[Fran · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book rather difficult. The changes in prose style and the introduction of ghosts was difficult to manoeuvre but as the book progressed this got easier. Although often Evaristo chooses an unusual style of writing, I found this exceedingly difficult given the distinct lack of explanation given. The two main characters are unsympathetic and uninteresting at best, however the vehicle they provide for learning about black history in Europe is useful. These are the most interesting parts of the book and makes the book itself worth reading.

[Lea Dokter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though Evaristo's prose is stunningly poetic, the narrative lost my enthousiasm halfway through. I did, however, deeply appreciate what to me was the main theme: the questioning of what European culture/value/heritage really means, and its inextricable interconnectedness with Africa and colonialism.

[Judith Van Laere · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlike anything I've read before. Got me hooked, though.

[Georgia Swadling · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars - so very wickedly weird but evaristo’s writing and characterisation is golden true to form. i’m glad her writing developed and evolved for the more full-bodied ‘girl, woman, other’ because this was interesting but slightly lacking in …? something?
romantic/sexual chemistry between s + j was very much told not shown which was one of my big stopping points; controversially i did like the random supernatural element, i just wish i’d enjoyed the main relationship a bit more. there was all this supposed magnetism that just didn’t come to fruition for me BUT it was refreshing to see a disjointed relationship in a novel not magically resolve itself and have the two go their separate ways

[Abi · Rating 3 out of 5]

not too sure about this one... Evaristo is a very clever, talented and witty writer and im really looking forward to getting to Girl Woman Other. but i dunno if this one was wasted on me a bit.. i feel like a lot of it went over my head. i got a bit lost in the past and present + the experimental style so maybe it’s just me being dense. also the characters are supposed to be like, mismatched but i still didn’t really get why they felt connected to each other

[Hannah O'Reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

It does have a lot of mixed styles and the form isn’t regular but I really enjoyed this and you just have to accept it and not try and solve every slightly random sentence or word - Evaristo’s style is just so gorgeous I think this element just took centre stage over the somewhat jumbled structure. Also love the “road novel” if that’s even a thing, exploring lots of different environments and landscapes with two interesting and complex characters at the middle of it all

[Gemma W · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to get into this. The constant shifts in style, formatting, and perspectives were confusing at first. I did get into the swing of it. I enjoyed the playful way in which she uncovered parts of European history.

I wasn't particularly bought into the two main characters, and found both a bit annoying, but I enjoyed the journey.

[Rachel Isabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whoa, definitely a non book
a giant, complex, confusing, beautiful poem
fantastic ... still processing ... need to read once more ... need to go back and trace the street signs that act as chapter markers, lots of yield signs towards the end

witness a beautiful love, grow like a plant under the sun, sparkle
witness it crumble, entirely, painfully, end.

awesome, challenging, sad

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5
I loved some of Evaristos’ other work but didn’t get in so much with this one. I liked the idea but I’m not good at keeping up with the constant switching of poetry, and novel styles! And also I missed quite a bit of meaning owing to not interpreting the prose so well.

[Florence · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some of the worst fiction I've read in a long time. A mix of forms and narratives make it hard to stay involved with the story and the unbelievable, contrived protagonists.

[Lujza · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far the most poetic work I have read by Evaristo.

[Tala🦈 (mrs.skywalker.reads) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nieprzyjemnie się zaskoczyłam, bo Girl, Woman, Other to jedna z moich ulubionych książek. Cóż :(

[Kayla Doris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love her other books but couldn’t actually finish this one where the structure was all over the place.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stanley’s father has been struggling with life ever since his wife died. He has taken to the bottle. Stanley does what is in his power to assist, but there comes a time… The inevitable happens, and though it might be inevitable, it is no more east to deal with.

Stanley is black. He seems to be less conscious of his Jamaican origin than we might expect. He is very much a Londoner, whereas his father was ever conscious of his Jamaican roots. His father’s death shakes Stanley. He meets Jessie, also of Caribbean heritage, but from Leeds and apparently working class, different therefore from Stanley’s Blackheath ways. They hit it off together, her comely figure featuring large in Stanley’s priorities.

The novel then becomes a road movie. Stanley and Jessie take off in a car to travel. One feels that they are seeking themselves as much as new experience, but the car takes them across Europe and into the Middle East. We follow them. We observe them. I theory at least, we share their experience

But these are no conventional travellers. They meet other people along the way, but crucially they explore different styles of everything as well. Bernadine Evaristo has the two lovers explore their experience via prose, poetry, screenplay-like dialogue and other less conventional forms. It is all very poetic, with the language used often incorporating local terms, presumably to spice up the authenticity. But it has to be said that the admixture of styles does get in the way of getting inside the characters. It is as if language itself has become the goal of their travels.

The poetry is often sublime, sometimes prosaic. The situations explored by the travellers is sometimes familiar, sometimes not, sometimes credible, sometimes not. We feel that they are searching their lived experience and history for who they are, or who they might be. But throughout I felt that they might be looking in the wrong place. Out of the head might be better than in…

Soul Tourists is quite an inconsistent read. Anyone looking for a conventional trip will be disappointed by the frequent changes of style and viewpoint. It is an examination of language, but before the end of the book, we begin to wonder exactly whose story we are in.

[mo (sie) · Rating 2 out of 5]

totally not a fan. i love bernardine evaristo, but this was not it for me.
i really liked the premise of the road trip and the ghosts, but i didn't think it was very well done. there was a lot of very forced carpe diem talk and i just didn't understand why stuff was in verse. i do understand that unhealthy relationship dynamics don't always take two, but i feel like while jessie's problematic aspects were (thankfully) treated as such and stanley understood he had to leave, his fatphobia and misogyny were never adressed. neither was the fact that his job has more of a negative impact on the world than his being unhappy. i thought the set up with his dad's death was well done but there was no pay off, i thought the ghosts felt random and their significance to the story forced, although i did enjoy learning about black european history.

all in all too much and too little at the same time. early 2000s mentality shone through (in a bad way) and there was little interesting discussion of many of the topics that were touched (racism, domestic abuse, loss, tourism).

[Laura Saga · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aunque la premisa me pareció muy interesante, la ejecución me ha resultado pobre. El personaje de Jessie no termino de encontrarlo sentido. Creo que era un catalizados para lanzar a Stanley al mundo, pero a medida que avanza la relación más lastre se hace. Es cierto que en el libro Stanley se encuentra con otros negros europeos cuando se aleja de ella, pero hay tanto espacio dedicado a Jessie... ¿Es la figura del negro europeo desarraigado? No termino de entenderlo. Entre los grandes aciertos del libro destaca la forma de narración que combina prosa, versa, diálogo, carta... Dota a la novela de fluidez, espontaneidad y ofrece cambios de perspectiva útiles que enriquecen, especialmente, a Stanley.

[Lea · Rating 1 out of 5]

i genuinely hated everything about this (except maybe the epilogue)

[Snorki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked Girl, Woman, Other, so decided to try another by the same author. If I'm honest, I didn't like this one as much. The central character is Sydney, a black Londoner whose father - with whom he has had a difficult relationship dies at the start of the novel. Sydney then meets Jesse, a freewheeling spirit who persuades him to leave his steady job and go with her and her aging car on a road trip - all the way to Australia. As they travel, we see their relationship develop, blossom, strain, but Sydney also starts seeing ghosts, specifically, ghosts of black people who have played prominent roles in local history (starting in Europe but also moving onto North Africa as the novel progresses). Sydney has never heard of any of these people - and neither have most of us, making the point about people of colour being written out of history. It's quite an interesting book but there were periods when I wasn't particularly engaged, so I was left with a sense of this being a good idea and interesting exploration of the theme, but it didn't really deliver as well as - say - Girl, Woman, Other

[Louise (Louus_library) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I LOVE Bernardine Evaristo and her writing style. This is the last book of hers that I had left to read and it saddens me to say that I didn’t love it as much as her other books.

Stanley is grieving the death of his father and is wondering if there is more to life than his nine-to-five banking job. He meets Jessie, a singer-cum-comedienne and she manages to persuade him to quit his job and go on a European road trip with her. These two are polar opposites and go on a journey that weaves in and out of black history told by ghosts that Stanley can see.

It’s a mixture of normal chapters, prose and poetry that leaps from the present to the past in incredibly vivid language. Overall, I was to recommend you an Evaristo book it wouldn’t be this one because for me it was a bit touch and go. I know we shouldn’t compare books but Girl, Woman Other and Blonde Roots are on a completely different level – it’s potentially my love for her other books and high expectations that let me down. Evaristo’s lyrical writing always creates amazing imagery which is great, especially here because of all the European places they visit.

I guess the reason that it’s called Soul Tourists is because even though Stanley and Jessie were travelling together, they kind of both wanted to do completely separate things. I didn’t really understand their relationship and their personalities didn’t mesh well together at all. I got quite frustrated by Jessie’s character towards the end. I found it quite difficult to get into, because I kept confusing the past and the present, but started to enjoy it towards the end once I’d got into the groove of it and there were parts that made me laugh out loud.

[Anne Tucker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I blew hot and cold withv this book - there was such a plethora of different styles ... as an early BE work, i imagine she was experimenting with her writing. It was fulfilling but unusual and didnt make for easy reading... the story itself was really not my cup of tea until each of them began to get 'visions' (perhaps the best way to describe them) of Black characters from history who have become almost entirely unknown "written out" because of silent racism. The best known of these is Mary Seacole - and I learned a lot more about her than I new before, particularly that she was forbidden to work in Crimea with Florence Nghtingale (unclear who forbade her) so ended up treating soldiers who had managed to get from the Balkans to Turkey, badly wounded and with disease. There were a number more, who all appeared at particular times - eg a Black servant/lover ofthe wife of King Louis 16 at Versailles - the child born from this affair hidden away in a nunnery as she was clearly not white; a famous Balkan Menelek who rose to high prominence in the Ottoman court; Pushkin's grandfather .... and a few others. This made the story more digestible for me, as the story otherwise, of a couple with very different outlooks attempting to drive overland to Australia.
Some nice poetry, and several sections of written call and response featured in the style.
However the book petered out a bit unsatisfactorily in my opinion. She is a much stronger writer now!

[Sandra T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Soul Tourists by Bernardine Evaristo
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars

Stanley Williams wonders whether there's more to life than his daily nine-to-five grind. One night, he meets Jessie. She swoops Stanley out of his soulless life and off on a rollercoaster road trip across Europe.

This is the first time I have not given 5⭐️ to a Bernardine Evaristo book. It is not the book's fault; the writing is stunning and flawless, as expected from this author, and the variations in writing style were just fine, but this one was too heavy on the poetry too often for *my* liking. Goodness knows I loved the free-form verse in Girl, Woman, Other, but this was all lot.
I loved the historical aspects of the story; I probably enjoyed the ghosts more than I did Stanley and Jessie, the two main characters, whose relationship really got on my nerves in the end.
I realised that I am so glad that my introduction to Bernardine Evaristo was Manifesto, then Mr Loverman and Girl, Woman, Other. If Soul Tourists had been the first book I'd read by her, I doubt I would have fallen in love with her writing the way that I have.

[Esther Pickering · Rating 3 out of 5]

Personally this is my least favourite of the work I've read by Evaristo (Girl, Woman, Other; Blonde Roots; Mr Loverman; The Emperor's Babe) but it's still a firecracker in its own right. I didn't love either Stanley or Jessie but I do feel Evaristo really brought them to life, and it's the bringing to life that's her job, not creating likeable characters. The premise and the various settings lent a dynamism to the story, and I actually enjoyed the structural shifts in dialogue and prose (though I understand why some might find them distracting).

Only rating it three stars as I found I was keen to get to the end. I never really felt like picking it up.

[Nikolah Ibbetson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A confusing read! All over the place. Trying to look at people’s relationships and sense of belonging, where you come from, the history of immigrants and race and how they have been treated, parental child relationships all put together in an odd way.
The ghosts are an interesting concept,
Not as good as her later work. Seemed to play and experiment with lots of different writing styles… dialogue, poem, thoughts. To many for me and took a while sometimes to figure out what was going on. There is a bit about the sea bed….

[Nichole Jackson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mind Trip

I’m not sure if the writing style was meant to decline like Stanley’s mental health but I struggle with this book.

From the synopsis I loved the premise of the book but it took a turn that I didn’t expect.