Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
by Jeanette Winterson
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Read in October, 2007
recommended to Lishesque by:
Lucia
You need a lot of patience for Jeanette Winterson's weird little Beowulfesque tangents, but if you can get past that, there a little gems of brilliant clarity scattered throughout.
For me, this bit redeems all the boring parts:
"But where was God now, with heaven full of astronauts, and the Lord overthrown? I miss God. I miss the company of someone utterly loyal. I still don't think of God as my betrayer. The servants of God, yes, but servants by their very nature betray. I miss God w...more
For me, this bit redeems all the boring parts:
"But where was God now, with heaven full of astronauts, and the Lord overthrown? I miss God. I miss the company of someone utterly loyal. I still don't think of God as my betrayer. The servants of God, yes, but servants by their very nature betray. I miss God w...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in December, 2005
To be perfectly honest, I never would have picked this book up to read if it hadn't been assigned for a class in Women's Studies. However, now that I've had the opportunity to read one of Winterson's works, I'm hooked.
This is an autobiographical, coming-of-age story with England as the backdrop. Winterson knows how to blend quirky humor with the deeper human emotions of sadness, grief, and love - and she does it perfectly. The narration is first-person, and the story bounces back and f...more
This is an autobiographical, coming-of-age story with England as the backdrop. Winterson knows how to blend quirky humor with the deeper human emotions of sadness, grief, and love - and she does it perfectly. The narration is first-person, and the story bounces back and f...more
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Read in May, 2007
“What constitutes a problem in not the thing, or the environment where we find the thing, but the conjunction of the two; something unexpected in a usual place (our favorite aunt in our favourite poker parlour) or something usual in an unexpected place (our favourite poker parlour in our favorite aunt). I know my sampler was absolutely right in Elsie Norris’s front room, but absolutely wrong in Mrs Virtue’s sewing class. Mrs Virtue should either have had the imagination to commend me for m...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
queer folks, survivors of religion, and other misfits
This is a witty, melancholy little book about growing up
in a different world than the other kids, only to find out
that you don't belong in that world any more.
Jeanette is brought up by a religious fanatic mother, and
dreams of being a missionary one day. So obsessive is the
spiritual fervor surrounding her that when she goes
temporarily deaf, it is weeks before she receives medical
attention, as everyone supposes it is just the Lord
working in his mysterious ways. She takes h...more
in a different world than the other kids, only to find out
that you don't belong in that world any more.
Jeanette is brought up by a religious fanatic mother, and
dreams of being a missionary one day. So obsessive is the
spiritual fervor surrounding her that when she goes
temporarily deaf, it is weeks before she receives medical
attention, as everyone supposes it is just the Lord
working in his mysterious ways. She takes h...more
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favorite excerpts:
"I miss God. I miss the company of someone utterly loyal. I still don't think of God as my betrayer. The servants of God, yes, but servants by their very nature betray. I miss God who was my friend. I don't even know if God exists, but I do know that if God is your emotional role model, very few human relationships will match up to it."
"As it is, I can't settle, I want someone who is fierce and will love me until death and will love me until death and kn...more
"I miss God. I miss the company of someone utterly loyal. I still don't think of God as my betrayer. The servants of God, yes, but servants by their very nature betray. I miss God who was my friend. I don't even know if God exists, but I do know that if God is your emotional role model, very few human relationships will match up to it."
"As it is, I can't settle, I want someone who is fierce and will love me until death and will love me until death and kn...more
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Read in September, 2007
This book was intriguing. It is a coming of age story of a girl adopted by a pentecostal evangelist. The author tells the story in the first person, along with short bits of fairy tales. The fairy tales continue the story - and you realize what is happening to the main character by what happens to the main character in the fairy tales.
The author makes some incredible observations of what it is like to separate badly and thoroughly with your family. "Going back after a long time will...more
The author makes some incredible observations of what it is like to separate badly and thoroughly with your family. "Going back after a long time will...more
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Read in January, 1998
This I definitely read in Ireland, and we all know the tragic story of my failure to make it to Galway to hear a reading of hers in those days. Anyway, Ireland was when I read her library, more or less, if I remember correctly. It was the heady days of JW. And with this book I remember thinking--much like I did later when reading Ghostwritten by David Mitchell--its a first book, and she knocks it out of the park for what it is--but clearly there is so much more to come, and yes of course ther...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
lovers of the comic and incongruous
A thoroughly charming memoir/novel that crackles with a wise, witty, and generous voice. The fanciful touches transcend mere cutesiness to tell a time-worn heroine-leaving-home story from a fresh perspective. The central conflict of Winterson's memoir is the clash between her identity as a lesbian and the fervent ecclesiastical community of her mother. However, the take on this conflict was not as I expected. Far more interesting, she depicts a band of passionate outsiders, replete with true...more
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Read in October, 2007
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a very funny, insightful, and thought provoking novelized memoir. Winterson recounts her experiences growing up under her mother’s puritanical rule, praising Jesus and condemning the infidels – who are most everyone else. It is in this environment where Jeanette also happens to realize her relatively unorthodox sexual orientation which, as you can imagine, goes over like the devil himself. Winterson brilliantly negotiates the line between being hyp...more
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Read in April, 2007
Oranges are not the Only Fruit is a autobiographical novel by Jeanette Winterson. A short, beautifully written story about the struggle the protagonist faces while growing up in an evangelical family, coming to terms with her homosexuality and then trying to reconcile her strange family and her sexuality.
Winterson is such a talented writer that the book is both hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time. The mother is irritatingly obnoxious and yet endearing at the same time.
...more
Winterson is such a talented writer that the book is both hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time. The mother is irritatingly obnoxious and yet endearing at the same time.
...more
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Read in June, 2007
Middle of the night. Just finished the last book. See me in my p.j.s cruising the prime section of my bookshelves, where the novels I expect to reread reside.
I’ve read this book at least 3 times since I bought it shortly after it came out in paperback.
Jeanette, Jeanette. You are such a puzzle. Part of each of your books thrills me in that way a writer gets thrilled when she reads work she really would like to emulate. And then I find myself skimming other parts.
But I always admire ...more
I’ve read this book at least 3 times since I bought it shortly after it came out in paperback.
Jeanette, Jeanette. You are such a puzzle. Part of each of your books thrills me in that way a writer gets thrilled when she reads work she really would like to emulate. And then I find myself skimming other parts.
But I always admire ...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
fiction/memoir readers
This first book by Jeanette Winterson chronicles (in fiction form) her upbringing in the north of England by a Pentacostal mother, and her transformation from proselytizing missionary to lesbian outcast and all-round sinner.
Her writing is both hilarious and honest as she describes the single-minded fervor of her mother and other church members, and her subsequent lapse as she innocently falls in love for the first time.
Particularly amusing is the episode when she is finally forced to atte...more
Her writing is both hilarious and honest as she describes the single-minded fervor of her mother and other church members, and her subsequent lapse as she innocently falls in love for the first time.
Particularly amusing is the episode when she is finally forced to atte...more
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This book is strange...I don't think I would have enjoyed it if I had read it on my own. Its something you want to be able to discuss with others who are reading it. There are a lot of good issues that are brought up throughout this coming of age novel.
Favorite Quote from the book:
"I miss God. I miss the company of someone utterly loyal. I still don't think of God as my betrayer. The servants of God, yes, but servants by their very nature betray. I miss God who was my friend. I don't ev...more
Favorite Quote from the book:
"I miss God. I miss the company of someone utterly loyal. I still don't think of God as my betrayer. The servants of God, yes, but servants by their very nature betray. I miss God who was my friend. I don't ev...more
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Read in March, 2008
This has been sitting on my shelves for at least 5 years, unread. I'm glad I cracked it open. I'm definitely a fan of Winterson's self-deprecating voice and sarcastic wit, not to mention a sense of hopefulness that still comes through in this novel too. Although this is termed as fiction, it's almost more of a memoir, since the main character is named Jeanette and the story is about her coming-of-age (Winterson herself is lesbian, as is the main character in the novel). Even if these events and ...more
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Read in February, 2008
I recently reread this for my women's lit class, and while I understand that this should, by rights, be one of my all-time favorite books (it's Jeanette Winterson! writing about women, almost exclusively! and come on, there are lesbians!), it remains for me an upper-level-mediocre read. There are scenes (Melanie in the fish market) and characters (Elsie) I will always love, and devices/ motifs that do not leave me un-intrigued. But for no reason I can put my finger on, this novel - which is ...more
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Read in January, 2003
recommends it for:
Anyone who appreciates coming of age stories
It's obvious from the fact this book sold so well that I'm not the only person who got it. Of course, I got it in a very personal way not because I'm gay but because I had to make choices that disappointed my parents and I have no doubt I'm not alone there.
I don't recall the lesbian angle weighing down the story. Love is love after all. I'm sure if she had fallen for a Muslim her adoptive mother would have had a problem with that too. It comes across more in the television dramatisation but ...more
I don't recall the lesbian angle weighing down the story. Love is love after all. I'm sure if she had fallen for a Muslim her adoptive mother would have had a problem with that too. It comes across more in the television dramatisation but ...more
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Read in August, 2007
i will start off by saying this was absolutely the book to read when trying to get into jeanette winterson. I mistakenly started with the passion and was unprepared for the style and the involvement she asks from her reader. The story of an orphan growing up under the watchful eyes of a murky religious zealot and devouring readers like you and me makes for good reading.
I give this a weak four, but still definitely a four. it's definitely worth a read, if not for itself, then to enter the ...more
I give this a weak four, but still definitely a four. it's definitely worth a read, if not for itself, then to enter the ...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
Christians and Lesbians
I felt like Jeanette didn't evolve at all. That her entire life story is based on just hanging on and doing what you have to do. It seems like shes got no ambitions, no goals. I felt nothing at the end of this book other than a loss. It was too open ended. I was hoping for something more...exciting. It jumped around too much also. It makes me lose track of whats going on. It was well written, but missing a touch of excitement. I was just hoping for something more...I personally didn't like this...more
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Read in January, 2006
Jeanette Winterson is probably my favourite contemporary writer, but her debut novel failed to impress me. It feels like a simple story that would be engaging if it weren't buried in unnecessary literary mavericks. In The Passion and Sexing the Cherry I find the plaited strands of narrative intriguing and complementary (much more so in The Passion), but here they seem only to obfuscate the central story. A similar story is told in a song by Rose Polenzani, "Olga's Birth...more
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another charity shop find (every charity you could think of, and a lot more, had their own shop). the fact that this book was partially autobiographical makes me sad for the author, but also admire her. her early earnest evangelism was pretty funny and i loved her attempts to win a prize at school for her bible verses and wagnerian dioramas. the later parts of the book, where she, not very successfully, tries to find a way to reconcile her self with her rigid community were heartwrenching, thoug...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.77 (2522 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.77 (2401 ratings) number of reviews: 154popular shelves
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quote
"I don't know how to answer. I know what I think, but words in the head are like voices underwater. They are distorted."
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