Lara

by Bernardine Evaristo

Book by Evaristo, Bernadine

Genres: Poetry, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical, Novel In Verse, Africa, London

147 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

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

[K.J. Charles]

A verse novel about the various branches of a family tree--Brazilian, Nigerian, German, Irish, English--converging on London over generations to produce the Nigerian-British Lara. We scamper up and down the family tree and its disparate parts, the various miseries of poverty, the inexorable wearing-down of time, the cruelty of English xenophobia that afflicts all the immigrants, as well as the racism that sears Lara and her father. But there's also defiance and pride and beauty, and Lara finding herself as a synthesis of her ancestry and a person in herself, ready to head back to Heathrow and claim this stupid island as her home.

Remarkable, and a far more meaningful understanding of what 'British' actually means in practice than any amount of cricket-and-crumpets nonsense.

[Rebecca R · Rating 5 out of 5]

The phrase 'novel-in-verse' tends to make my heart sink, so I began reading with some reluctance. I was won over very quickly though to Bernardine Evaristo's innovative and vibrant narrative. The fragmented lyrical style perfectly suits the nature of reminiscence and evokes a haunting and moving sense of displacement.

The scope of this novel is ambitious and goes back several generations in Lara's family to reveal a variety of cultural origins that blend and swirl together to confuse Lara's own sense of cultural identity. Though a lot of the stories are tragic tales of poverty, loss and despair, the overall tone is actually positive and life-affirming as Lara becomes empowered to embrace the cultural identity she has inherited.

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book.
Somehow when I first discovered Lara, I missed the fact that it is a novel-in-verse. I was a bit annoyed when I ordered a novel about a mixed-race girl (Nigerian father, English mother) exploring (herself through) her ancestry and received a book of poetry. Then I actually read it.
Absolutely loved it.
Lara is many stories: of how England came to be with expats from Ireland, Germany, Nigeria, etc.; how Lara's immediate family came to be; and how Lara herself came to be (in a coming of age type of story).
I'll definitely read this again.

*the edition I read is the one that was released in 2009 which is longer than the original release.

[Tisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bernadine Evaristo is wildly talented. Lara is a novel in verse, and tells the story of two young people who fall in love in 50s London. She's white; he's a Nigerian exchange student. They and each member of their family experience the nuances of exile, particularly Lara, the middle of eight bi-racial children, poetically adept, confused by assimilation demands, and desiring, more than anything, the stories of her Nigerian heritage her father represses. Stunning!

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. An interesting, original, semi autobiographical novella about Lara, the fourth child of a mixed race couple. Lara was born in England. Lara’s mother, Ellen, is white with Irish and German ancestry. Lara’s father Taiwo, is Nigerian, with Brazilian ancestry. Living in England in the 1950s and 1960s as a mixed race couple is vividly described. Lara sadly learns that whilst she might be a light brown colour, to the white English people, she is black.

The story is told by a number of voices of Lara’s clan and is easy to read and understand. It’s written in verse.

Here is an example, with Lara’s white grandfather Leslie, stating:
“My wife and my mother can’t stand each other.
It’s not quite knitting needles drawn at dawn,
Or rat poison slipped into cups of afternoon tea,
But if I’m caught between their frozen smiles - it’s chilly.”


‘Lara’ was originally published in 1997 and extensively revised in 2009.
Bernardine Evaristo was joint winner of the 2019 Booker Prize.

[Yara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I‘m obviously too dumb to understand why the heck this book had to be written in verse. But I really liked the story.

[Céline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I‘m probably a bit too harsh with my rating, it is really just a personal preference.
However, It was so interesting to learn about all the pasts and fates of the families and how they are so different and yet alike. I’ve never read any book like this before!

[Elizabeth McGine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never write reviews but cannot let this book go by without comment. For me this book is perfection. It's the book I wish I'd written. A family's history in verse holds up the beauty that we have in all our family stories, gives power and raw beauty to the everyday. Magic x

[Gail Nyoka · Rating 5 out of 5]

It takes real skill to pull off a novel in verse. This is perfectly done. The characters were well drawn - immigrants to England from different parts of the world who all had their own struggles and strengths.

[Klara Van Vlaenderen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ik weet dat het straf is om zo'n verhaal in verzen te stampen, maar geef mij toch maar gewoon proza. Wel mooi!

[John Newcomb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this lyrical poetic novel. Lara travels through time and countries considering all of the people from Brazil and Ireland, from Nigeria and Germany, who mix in London’s melting pot to produce Lara. Best read allowed I found.

[caterina · Rating 5 out of 5]

In questo libro compare il nome "Portobuffole", what can I say

[Becky Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I am amazed how powerful this book is and how much history it packs into its pages. Lara was a text for a university module on postcolonial British literature. It's novel in verse format put me off, so much so that I left it as the last text to be read on the module.
I have been so pleasantly surprised by this book and the writer's talent. The handy family tree at the beginning of the book was great as it can be hard to keep track of the many characters. I am genuinely impressed with the amount of contextual information, emotion and relevance that has gone into this novel. The verse form works well and serves to highlight some key points in the text.
A surprising 5 star review from me!

[Apina_lukee_kirjoja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poetry can say so much more than prose. I suppose it's all the white space that does the talking and gives the reader time to reflect.

A fascinating family saga, also exploring how the bitter anger of disappointment manifests itself. But thanks to the form, there's no dwelling in negativity - life must go on, poetry pushes life forward. A life is but a brief moment in the saga of generations.

Somehow I now also have a more visceral feeling about what 'diaspora' means. The magic of it and the pain of it.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply amazing. I was pretty ready to not read it since I love novels and run from poetry. But the language was indeed beautiful and purposeful and the family's rich background and experience and history was plenty to keep me reading. Really loved it and want to read more by this author!

[Amberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

such a unique way of telling one's family history

[feste_thejester · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love books that fling the reader back and forth across history, especially up and down one character's family tree, and Lara does it exceptionally. Evaristo produced such fascinating narratives of Brazilian, English, Irish, German and Nigerian characters, and with her somewhat centreing this story around London, readers are invited to see active evolution and development, both through the ways in which London works as a backdrop for these characters, and how it integrates itself into their everyday lives - with each generation having to combat prejudices and social problems, from both external and internal sources.

As well as an excellent story, Evaristo, again, is fantastic in her style of writing. Whilst it's so complex and intricate, it's easily consumable, which only adds to the text's positives. This novel having being written in verse, too, is another commendable attribute. It's a book I felt I could read quite swiftly, but wanted to keep going on for hours anyway. I would happily spend days exploring this family tree in even more depth.

[Serendipity]

Lara is a semi-autobiographical novel in verse. It looks at the childhood and family history of Lara, a young woman born in the UK in the 1960s of Nigerian, English, Irish, German and Brazilian heritage. Through several generations of her family the reader can see the people and historical events that helped shape Lara. I loved mulling over the ways the past shapes us. The writing was gorgeous, the poetic elements really enhanced the storytelling (they didn’t make it difficult to read or comprehend) and the story itself was absorbing. There were certainly tough situations experienced by many of the characters regardless of race, but there was also a lot of love and joy as well - especially as Lara explored and embraced her cultural heritage.

[Susan Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. I liked this more than ‘Girl, Woman, Other’ as it seemed more cohesive, more autobiographical and more overtly poetic. (It is a verse novel and an excellent example of the genre). Fascinating stories. I appreciated having the family tree diagram in the front of the book otherwise it would have been too complicated for me. Note Goodreads should update this listing or create a new version of this book as the 2009 version, which I read, is apparently a third longer than this 1997 one. Also the later version has a much better cover.

[Isla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this much more than “Girl, Woman, Other”, perhaps because the characters were more relatable. Like “Girl, Woman, Other” it was very readable, and not really what one would expect from a verse novel language-wise. There is a certain beauty in the simplicity of Evaristo's prose, and she has a way with images which constantly makes you see the world through fresh eyes. I thoroughly enjoyed the structure of the novel too; Evaristo tells the story of a family across multiple generations, jumping backwards and forwards in time between the individual narratives.

[Maeve Devine · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I’ve ever read. THE WRITING?! Incredible. A beautiful, lyrical, voyage through a girl’s family tree which spans three continents.

“Finally, / I flip on an old hippy beach for a year / and stop. / Under the Asian sun my armour roasts, rusts, / falls off in bite, / is swept out by the tide. I watch it Bob off, / new / flotsam, / study the twinkle twinkles in the firmament of night, / go for a midnight dip, and emerge, the sun of all my parts” (150).

[Iris · Rating 3 out of 5]

It wasn't too bad I suppose? I'm not a huge poetry fan, and I believe I would have enjoyed this much more as a conventional novel (as opposed to the novel-in-verse that it is), but it was a decent read.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been devouring as much Bernardine Evaristo as I can find since I read Girl, Women, Other in January. I borrowed this longer version of Lara from the Library.
I really enjoyed the lyrical storytelling in verse and found the journey of self discovery really interesting.

[Noah Jai · Rating 5 out of 5]

ridiculously good. evaristo should have been recognised for her writing in the 90s when this book was published. the writing style is so good and different and each character is incredibly vivid, even those who only have a few pages dedicated to them. instant new fave tbh.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/4

[Wes Gilpin · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Georgina Gonzalez]

Una manera diferente de contar una historia, ciertamente me inspira su técnica.

[Sarbjit · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have not read anything like this before and found this work engrossing. What an imaginative way to journey through lives and time.

[Aditi]

36% through

Spent 2 months trying to finish it but it was so hard. Had higher expectations after Blonde Roots and Emperor’s Babe

[Annalena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very original style. I like the structure of the story and the memorywork it's doing.
Really recommend it if you like Evaristo's work.