Heartbreaking and funny: the true story behind Jeanette's bestselling and most beloved novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.
In 1985... read full description
In 1985... read full description
reviews
Dec 30, 2011
Petra X
rated it: 
If you read Oranges are Not the Only Fruit then this just reads like an early version before the editor said to her, "You can't write that, no one will believe you." The cliché goes that truth is stranger than fiction and this book is definitely stranger than Oranges. It is hard, for instance, to believe that the author, as an adult, never addressed her mother as anything but Mrs. Winterson.
Small personal anecdote that has nothing whatsoever to do with the book other than i More...
Small personal anecdote that has nothing whatsoever to do with the book other than i More...
3 comments
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(17 people liked it)
Nov 19, 2011
Karen
rated it: 
What a fierce child young Jeanette must have been. A small warrior, blazing with desire for life, battling the sheer bloody awfulness of her upbringing and the narrowness of her surroundings, protecting herself from further rejection by preventive strike. Spiky.
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SPOILERS!!
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The first half of this book feels raw; but this can only be the illusion created by the rough language, the short More...
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SPOILERS!!
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The first half of this book feels raw; but this can only be the illusion created by the rough language, the short More...
8 comments
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(7 people liked it)
Nov 21, 2011
Jennifer
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By Zoe Williams, The Guardian
Jeanette Winterson's memoir is written sparsely and hurriedly; it is sometimes so terse it's almost in note form. The impression this gives is not of sloppiness, but a desperate urgency to make the reader understand. This is certainly the most moving book of Winterson's I have ever read, and it also feels like the most turbulent and the least controlled. In the end, the emotional force of the second half makes me suspect that the apparent artlessness of t More...
Jeanette Winterson's memoir is written sparsely and hurriedly; it is sometimes so terse it's almost in note form. The impression this gives is not of sloppiness, but a desperate urgency to make the reader understand. This is certainly the most moving book of Winterson's I have ever read, and it also feels like the most turbulent and the least controlled. In the end, the emotional force of the second half makes me suspect that the apparent artlessness of t More...
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(3 people liked it)
Feb 05, 2012
Sally
rated it:
"Oranges are not the Only Fruit" is easily one of my all time favourite books. I read it as a young adult when literature was a new and exciting discovery and it was incredibly influential. As a result, despite having never read any other Jeanette Winterson, she has always interested me, and I can't help but feel an affection towards her.
"Why be Happy..." is much more than an autobiography, and it doesn't simply rewrite a more honest account of the fictionalised s More...
"Why be Happy..." is much more than an autobiography, and it doesn't simply rewrite a more honest account of the fictionalised s More...
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(2 people liked it)
Feb 05, 2012
Jaylia3
rated it:
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal might have been a sad memoir, but it’s not because the prose is fiercely beautiful, deeply reflective and empoweringly honest, and because while Jeannette Winterson may be wounded she’s a survivor who doesn’t regret the rough course her early life took. Born in 1959, she grew up in the harsh world of north England’s working class where being paid on Friday meant there might be no heat, light or food by Thursday, where bathrooms were in the backyard and whe
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Jan 09, 2012
Brunhilde
rated it:
Brilliant title - courtesy of Jeanette's adoptive mother - for an engrossing book. Winterson's prose for me has the same quality as Virginia Woolf - although the number of pages may be few, this is not reflected in the time the book takes to read, for each immaculately-crafted sentence requires lengthy reflection, appreication and makes ripples in your mind. This is to some extent the non-fiction version of Wintersons' first success, 'Oranges are not the only Fruit', giving the skinny on the ext
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Dec 11, 2011
Alistair
rated it:
Absolutely brilliant ! At last a proper book by a proper writer .
This is supposedly the real story behind her autobiographical novel " Oranges are not the only fruit " but it is much more than that .
The world of her northern poor childhood and her adopted mad baptist depressed mother and father is painfully recreated and is Dickensian in its character creation . What suprised me was that it is a world of living memory barely forty years ago
Although her childhood soun More...
This is supposedly the real story behind her autobiographical novel " Oranges are not the only fruit " but it is much more than that .
The world of her northern poor childhood and her adopted mad baptist depressed mother and father is painfully recreated and is Dickensian in its character creation . What suprised me was that it is a world of living memory barely forty years ago
Although her childhood soun More...
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(2 people liked it)
Nov 19, 2011
Moira
rated it:
This book came in the mail today, I opened the package, opened the book and looked at a few pages randomly, started reading, and about half an hour later turned back to the beginning so I could start reading it properly. That's as good a star ranking as anything, I think.
This book isn't really a memoir, (but then again, if you expect linear storytelling from Jeanette Winterson....): it skips twenty-five years of her life in an "Intermission" and the end is so open-ended a More...
This book isn't really a memoir, (but then again, if you expect linear storytelling from Jeanette Winterson....): it skips twenty-five years of her life in an "Intermission" and the end is so open-ended a More...
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(10 people liked it)
Jan 03, 2012
Peter
rated it:
Brilliant! There is a lot of story here that is similar to Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, revolving around her youthful battles with her headstrong (possibly insane) adopted mother Mrs Winterson. However, the shockingly weird Dickensian-Religious childhood that Jeannette Winterson endured is endlessly interesting to read about and so it didn't bother me that I had read many of those episodes before in a different fictional incarnation. Here it feels more real as its not cut with the fairytale a
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(2 people liked it)
Jan 21, 2012
Sam
rated it:
It's difficult to find memoirs like this sometimes, pages of a person's life told in a honest way without resorting to typical descriptions, emotions or events.
What I love about Winterson is that she doesn't shy away from anything; these are difficult memories but she goes for it and with incredible balance. It's not a matter of being on her side or the side of her mother(s), but is rather a carefully considered meditation on a life that has so many interpretations, it'd be easy to re More...
What I love about Winterson is that she doesn't shy away from anything; these are difficult memories but she goes for it and with incredible balance. It's not a matter of being on her side or the side of her mother(s), but is rather a carefully considered meditation on a life that has so many interpretations, it'd be easy to re More...
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(1 person liked it)
Jan 07, 2012
Dona
rated it:
This is a brutally tough read, and one of the best books I've read in a long time . It's a non-fiction account of a heartbreaking childhood, told in brilliantly lucid prose that gives the reader as real a sense as possible of being a child who no one really wants, being raised by a fervently religious and coldly unloving and narcissistic foster mother. It is filled with poetic and philosophical observations that make sense in the context of the narrative, and inspires me to keep writing. The hon
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Jan 09, 2012
Christine
rated it:
Well, it isn't really surprising that I loved this. It certainly revisits familiar territory for anyone who follows JW's website, or her fiction for that matter, but as it circles around it offers a lot more insight - both personal and intellectual/emotional.
It is a more detailed, and more real (perhaps?) telling of her childhood - up to the leaving - and so it shares a lot with Oranges, obviously. Then it skips a lot of years and lands around 2006 or so and tells the story of her f More...
It is a more detailed, and more real (perhaps?) telling of her childhood - up to the leaving - and so it shares a lot with Oranges, obviously. Then it skips a lot of years and lands around 2006 or so and tells the story of her f More...
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Nov 13, 2011
Everett
rated it:
Wow. Another awesome novel from Jeanette Winterson, honest-tragic and funny. I like that she calls this a cover version of her life, and that Oranges was another cover version. I find it really simplistic to call this the true "oranges," as the reviewers at The Guardian and The Independant have done, when the artist herself considers memory a capricious device. What I like most about this novel is how its journal-like, fragmented format creates a complete work that feels neither amateu
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(1 person liked it)
Dec 10, 2011
Mel
rated it:
This was passed to me by someone who had heard the review on Radio 4 and liked the title. He didn't read it himself...simply past it to me after a very short conversation after his purchase!
Anyhow, this is the first book I've read by Jeanette Winterson. I knew she'd written Oranges are not the only fruit, but while I new it had been televised the book had never appealed to me.
Well, I am a changed person. I loved the writing. The topics resonate with me. I was not adopted. More...
Anyhow, this is the first book I've read by Jeanette Winterson. I knew she'd written Oranges are not the only fruit, but while I new it had been televised the book had never appealed to me.
Well, I am a changed person. I loved the writing. The topics resonate with me. I was not adopted. More...
Feb 20, 2012
Dymphie
rated it: 
Beetje springerig verhaal over haar jeugd, met regelmatig treffende filosofische/psychologische bespiegelingen. Dat springerige heeft te maken met hoe ze is en hoe ze tijd wil zien: zoveel mogelijk als niet-lineair. "ik schreef het verleden en ontdekte de toekomst".
Ze is een boeken en bibliotheek mens, maar dat is niet verwonderlijk voor een schrijver. Ze wijst woorden veel belang toe en daar kan ze wel gelijk in hebben.
Eigenlijk bestaat het uit twee delen: haar jeugd tot More...
Ze is een boeken en bibliotheek mens, maar dat is niet verwonderlijk voor een schrijver. Ze wijst woorden veel belang toe en daar kan ze wel gelijk in hebben.
Eigenlijk bestaat het uit twee delen: haar jeugd tot More...
Feb 14, 2012
I've read about 25% and if I were to judge now, this book would be in the 3-star range, which sounds uncharitable, given what Ms. Winterson has gone through. My problem was that the book didn't seem to hit a stride for me. It seemed to be a hybrid -- not quite a memoir, not quite an essay, moving quickly back and forth through first person singular and first person plural tense. Some of it was intimately personal (it was as if her pain was happening NOW), yet other parts were very distanced.
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Jan 29, 2012
Terryann
rated it:
i loved ms. winterson's tale of loss and redemption. after growing up in strange situation after being adopted by an odd, possibly crasy mother, jeanette suffered from her identity as well as her background. jeanette is very honest and very funny (blackly so) and gives the reader a real sense of what it must have been like to grow up where she did. i love that she didn't try to lie and give us a happy ending (even though i love happy endings!) but that she did show that she is happy. just no
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Jan 07, 2012
Ann
rated it:
I read this book in a day and it's one of the best books I've read in some time. I thought it might be depressing but it's not. Although parts are a bit harrowing it is also uplifting and much of it is very funny. Jeanette Waterson is probably not the easiest person to know but despite that is honest with no illusions about herself. What comes over very powerfully is her love of books and their influence on her life. The ending when she has tracked down her birth family though not conventionally
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Feb 15, 2012
Fran
rated it:
I’ll start with a disclaimer, ‘I don’t normally read autobiographies’, but this is no normal autobiography it’s by an amazingly talented and my all time favourite writer. (Wow, how she’d hate to read that and not live up to it.)
I love fiction, I live by fiction, I understand the rules of fiction, but life still catches me out. And autobiography is life, isn’t it? It’s been crafted into a micro-format that supposedly covers 50 years (even though 25 are openly omitted) but to put 25 year More...
I love fiction, I live by fiction, I understand the rules of fiction, but life still catches me out. And autobiography is life, isn’t it? It’s been crafted into a micro-format that supposedly covers 50 years (even though 25 are openly omitted) but to put 25 year More...
Feb 06, 2012
Kim
rated it:
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal van Jeanette Winterson is een aanrader. Ik las eerst Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit: het verhaal van de jeugd van Jeanette Winterson, maar dan hier en daar wat aangedikt. Geen echte autobiografie dus. Dat is Why Be Happy wel.
Jeanette Winterson werd als baby geadopteerd door Mrs en Mr Winterson. De Mrs is een overheersende vrouw die de bijbel letterlijk gelooft en enkel zeker is van Het Eind der Tijden. Mr Winterson komt weinig voor in Oranges More...
Jeanette Winterson werd als baby geadopteerd door Mrs en Mr Winterson. De Mrs is een overheersende vrouw die de bijbel letterlijk gelooft en enkel zeker is van Het Eind der Tijden. Mr Winterson komt weinig voor in Oranges More...
Nov 04, 2011
Tee
rated it:
So many mixed emotions. Jeanette Winterson is my favourite author. I'm not exactly sure why this is so. Mostly because I adore her writing and her words punch me in the stomach and make me feel things that not many other authors have. I also think I love her because she connects me to other people who are like-minded. I generally always love someone if they are a Winterson fan. It ties me to an era in my life where I was besotted with somebody who read her books also. Jeanette makes my heart pal
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Dec 30, 2011
KDJ
rated it:
Honest account of childhood experiences, left her still struggling in future years. Damage done when young seeks to destroy us even when older. The need to come to terms with everything that had happened in her young life caused so much pain and destruction in her older life. Yet she wins through, begins to overcome and books are the driving force of her rehabilitation and subsequent discoveries. I will probably read this book again, only much slower. very harrowing and very moving.
Jan 18, 2012
Wan Ni
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This autobiography lends a sneak peek into Winterson's childhood and psyche. Through her lyrical prose she recollects the specific incidents in her past that befuddled her, killed her, and rebirthed her. Even though these incidents are piteous, she does not intentionally inspire pity. She narrates from a distance, rationalizing and yet at the same time, she does not shy away from exposing her sore spots. She is wise enough to know of her longing, her desire to belong, and how she may have spent
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Dec 28, 2011
Julia
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This is a great read. JW reviews her own work, reviews her life in a candid fashion (these both overlap) and tells a good story at the same time. In addition to her 'life story' JW's themes include, philosophy, religion, psychology and sexuality. She explores the boundaries between fact and fiction at the level of literary reflection and through her own narrative. This is also a literary book,I highly recommend it.
Feb 11, 2012
Holly
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Beautifully written; wonderful prose, and yet the style was alternative to usually layouts of straight-up chronology; it felt more realistic as she gradual pulled up different aspects of her life, and left it to you to pull them all together. Delightful read, although certain parts felt a little annoying, but those are probably just due to her reaction to how the situations in her life played out. Very good.
Nov 14, 2011
Karen
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I really like Jeanette Wintersons writing style, very episodic and fragmented. This book makes sense of her life, I found myself thinking about identity, what makes you who you are, growing up in a small close-knit community, how the emotional patterns of your parents are inevitably transmitted to you, how "everything is imprinted with what it once was." I also learned a surprising amount about Accrington.
Feb 21, 2012
Kris
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This is one of the hands-down best book I've ever read. I've always loved Jeannette Winterson's passionate, intelligent writing but here she transcends her own oeuvre. The story of her childhood, her adoptive mother's aggressive depression, at times tragic, at times comic, is simply astonishing, not only in her telling, but in her deft ability to forgive. I recommend this to anyone.
Jan 23, 2012
D
rated it:
Well written, very funny, and easy to read: it took only a few hours. The description of (the antics of) Mrs Winterson are hilarious. The review in LRB seems to question the veracity and/or sincerety of the account (it is presumably autobiographical) but that does, imo, not diminish the value of the book as an entertaining story. Recommended.
Feb 02, 2012
Cass
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This is an easy, enjoyable read - the 1st 2 thirds more so than the last. the first half of the book is an excellent social & industrial history of the NW of england, the cotton mill towns in particular. JW refers to her adopted mum as Mrs Winterson throughout and the home life and church life scenes are predictably poignant as well as laugh out loud funny in places. The last 3rd of the book which focuses on tracing her real mum is less enjoyable
the sections on literature A-Z her rea More...
the sections on literature A-Z her rea More...
Nov 15, 2011
Elisabeth
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So terrifically heart-opening; speaking the words for what deep religion leaves in us so deeply with more force and plainness than I've yet learned. A strange atmosphere hangs around it: I couldn't tell if I was terrified of her voice or felt infinitely sheltered.
