Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Aug 10, 2011

lori rated it:

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 know that love More...

0 comments like (13 people liked it)

Nov 10, 2008

Lishesque rated it:

You need a lot of patience for Jeanette Winterson's weird little Beowulfesque tangents, but if you can get past that, there are 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 be More...

3 comments like (11 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2011

Ariana rated it:

When I was a child, I had found a pair of gloves in the middle of the street in my cul-de-sac. They were black and worn with a little embroidered heart at each wrist. I slipped them on and flexed my fingers, amazed at how nicely they fit. I took them home and put them in my sock drawer, only taking them out on Thursdays for my bike ride down the street to piano lessons.

This book is exactly like those gloves. I found this book while on a field trip for pre-college English class, cramm More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 06, 2011

K.D. rated it:

This coming-of-age story about a teenage girl discovering that she is a lesbian is a literary gem worth reading. This will make the readers understand what's going on inside the mind of a teenager confused about his or her sexuality.

Just like Francoise Sagan, French, who was 17 when she wrote her first hit novel, Bonjour Tristesse, Jeanette Winterson, British, wrote this phenomenal book Oranges Are Not The Only Fruitsat a tender age of 24. The only difference is that Sagan was not ab More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 13, 2007

Sundry rated it:

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.

More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 15, 2008

Claudia F. rated it:

Gawd-alive, I love this woman's work. I've now read her books totally out of order, but who cares? I'm on a memoir kick at the moment. This is one of the best memoirs I've ever read, and, honey, I've read a few! So funny, it will make oatmeal shoot out of your nose. But, also, so beautiful and tender. It discusses the pain and desire of trying to belong in a completely unique way. This woman is a master!

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 17, 2008

Brandy rated it:

You know what? No, I'm not going to bother saying much about this. It's Jeanette Winterson. The people who like her will already want to read this; the people who don't like her won't be swayed by this fictionalized memoir (or memoir-ized fiction). It's great. That's really all you need to know.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 10, 2009

Leela rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 29, 2009

Rumoku rated it:

I always wondered how to reconcile homosexuality and religion. For the most part, you can't. Homosexuality, according to most religions, is an aberration. The protagonist of this story (who for the life of me I can't seem to remember) had the same problem: if God loves all, why can't I be loved for what I am? I had a friend who was in the same sort of predicament. As gay as a rainbow, he was, but a nice chap through and through, but he couldn't be gay and religious at the same time. He oft More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 11, 2009

elisa rated it:

maybe i went into this book last time with high expectations, and this time with low expectations; i found that i actually enjoyed reading it this time around. i found it funny and quirky and really revealing. the passages that last time felt out of place and unnecessary to the story i felt gave extra insight and tied everything together well. goes to show how much of a book is about the reader and their mindset. this one didn't get a fair shake on my last review.

a quote i liked More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 11, 2007

Bethany rated it:

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 t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 21, 2010

Joe rated it:

Oranges are not the only fruit, a book ruined by its author. And well, itself. When I began reading it for the first time, I enjoyed it; Jeanette was a witty character, though a tad hard to relate to, and her life as a girl trying to break free of a small town is a story many of us can understand.
What hurt the book for me was its pretence, emphasised in Winterson’s ludicrously self gratifying introduction. It is difficult, for someone used to the more modest comments of authors such as Woo More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 18, 2010

Mrsgaskell rated it:

This engaging novel is a semi-autobiographical coming of age story set in the north of England. Jeanette is the adopted daughter and only child of a working class, fanatic evangelical Christian mother. The father, although residing in the household, is mainly notable for his absence. Jeanette’s mother is grooming her daughter to become a missionary, and teaches her to read using the Bible. She sends her daughter to school (“The Breeding Ground”) reluctantly, only because she must. As Jeanette ma More...

0 comments like

Sep 26, 2010

Corey rated it:

Brilliant! I can't believe that I lived for 30 years before discovering this book on goodreads. I wish I had read this book as a teenager, around the time when I was seeking out all sources of information about strong women and alternative lifestyles (hence the huge Ani Difranco fetish which I haven't entirely grown out of yet). I loved the humility, humor and strength of Jeannette Winterson's voice in this book. I loved her refusal to apologize and her unfaltering acceptance of herself when More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 14, 2010

coinoperated rated it:

Jeanette Winterson is fast becoming my favourite author of the moment. Frankly, I thought The Passion was overrated and I couldn’t wait to be done with it, but I enjoyed Oranges are not the only Fruit immensely.

The novel focuses on a young girl, Jeanette, who is reared in an obsessively religious home until she falls foul of her family and community with her ‘sinful ways’. It’s not the first novel about religion’s intolerance of homosexuality, but it could well be the most entertaini More...

0 comments like

Apr 10, 2010

Heather rated it:

I only recently discovered GoodReads (I know, it's like I've been living under a rock!), and I've been reading lots of their lists. It occurred to me that perhaps as a good lesbian I should try reading more gay fiction. I've read some, of course (including Stone Butch Blues, which I shared a little bit about in my last Top Ten Post) But really, if I don't want to have to give back my toaster oven I should have a passing knowledge of important works in the GLBT genre.

With th More...

0 comments like

Mar 25, 2010

Amarpal rated it:

"i could have been a priest instead of a prophet. the priest has a book with the words set out. old words, known words, words of power. words that are always on the surface. words for every occasion. the words work. they do what they're supposed to; comfort and discipline. the prophet has no book. the prophet is a voice that cries in the wilderness, full of sounds that do not always set into meaning. the prophets cry out because they are troubled by demons.
the ancient city is made of More...

0 comments like

Sep 17, 2009

Laura rated it:

I think I need to go back and reread any of Jeanette Winterson's books that I read when I was younger. I really enjoyed the tone that Winterson writes in that is the kind of quirky right-on-the-money tone that startles a guffaw out of you in the middle of a dull or somber situation. This book was her first and is autobiographical. It tells of Winterson's upbringing in an extremely Christian evangelical family where she was primed to be a missionary. At the same time that Winterson is deeply More...

0 comments like

May 29, 2011

Vasha7 rated it:

A growing-up story told with a lot of comic verve. I can't figure out quite how autobiographical it is -- sometimes I think, if this was literally true would you dare to write it? But the narrator is named "Jeanette". She obviously loves her mother but her mother would not be ''at all'' pleased by this book. A bit unusual -- like most growing up stories it inevitably involves leaving home, yet in the last pages she comes back to visit her mother again. Her mother is more vivid than jus More...

0 comments like

Aug 11, 2011

Chloé rated it:

As a big fan of Winterson's other novels (Written on the Body being my favourite), I was excited to read this. But, interesting as it was (since it was semi-autobiographical), I didn't enjoy it half as much as her others. Maybe because her writing style in this one isn't as smooth and alluring, due to it being her first novel. I wanted to know how the relationship and her mother was to develop, but I didn't fall in love with the story.

The best bit for me was the frustration when her mother, who More...

0 comments like

Aug 19, 2010

Shana rated it:

You either love or hate Jeanette Winterson's writing. I happen to love it. Anyone whose read her stories knows her superior skills at wordplay. What starts as a rambling sentence turns into pure reality. Jeanette, the main character, is an adopted orphan who is raised within the structure of the Pentecostal Church. As a little girl she is almost brainwashed into living within her mother's fanatical world. I don't doubt her mother's love for her, but you come to find out that Jeanette's adoption More...

0 comments like

Jun 22, 2010

Daveski rated it:

Sometimes, I'd like to read some really crappy books. It's fun to mock things, to pick them apart. I've considered reading Twilight for just this reason, but haven't yet been able to go through with it. When faced with an incredible novel like this, however, I'm at a bit of a loss for words. Simply summarizing the plot doesn't do much good, and the lavishing of praise upon the author's skill has already been carried out by people with much richer vocabularies than I. The main purpose of the More...

0 comments like

Jun 09, 2010

Patti rated it:

I loved the first third of this novel, Jeanette Winterson's celebrated semi-autobiographical lesbian coming of age story. Dealing with Jeanette's experiences growing up with a devout Pentecostal mother who raises her to be a missionary, the first scenes read like a far superior precursor to the absurd family memoirs that became so popular in the early 2000s (David Sedaris' Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Augusten Burroughs' Running with Scissors, etc).

As the novel follows J More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 30, 2011

Sarah rated it:

A fairly quick read, I managed to squeeze most of it in during quiet camp-site moments at the Benicassim festival. I made the mistake of reading the author's introduction first, & almost threw the damn thing away in disgust at how self absorbed & conceited she came across in it. Its one thing to describe a book as ground breaking & as being so unique in prose style that it changed the world...but not when your talking about your own book. Even more so when, on reading, its likely your audience m More...

0 comments like

Sep 01, 2011

Ally rated it:

I have long heard about Jeanette Winterson; after recommendations from writers and literary scholars alike, it was high time I read "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit."

Set in England, "Oranges" is the first-person account of a girl adopted in an evangelical family who, as an adolescent, discovers that her sexuality is not compatible with the belief system of her community. She is cast out, condemned; her own mother is shamed by her sexual preference and cannot bear to More...

3 comments like

Jul 08, 2010

Sarah rated it:

This is an odd, fascinating, and disjointed book. It's not entirely linear, which actually works very well for a fictionalized memoir; memory is often fractured, and features digressions and unfinished thoughts.

There's definitely a lot going on, and I feel like this is probably a book that should be re-read several times in order to really get the depths of it.

If for no other reason, it is worth it for this passage:

I miss God who was my friend. I don't even

More...

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 22, 2009

Nikki rated it:

I liked this more than I liked Sexing The Cherry. It just seemed to flow easier, to come together better. There were fewer moments where I sat up and said, 'that's beautiful', but it worked better for me as a whole -- the weird Arthurian/fairy tale interludes notwithstanding, even. I'm wary of labelling it autobiography or memoir, based on what I read, though goodreads reviews tell me that's what it is -- at least semi-autobiography.

Jeannette Winterson's writing is lovely. At parts I More...

0 comments like

Dec 04, 2011

Lauren rated it:

I read this book when it first came out, and am reading it again in preparation for a review I'll be doing shortly for Truthdig.com of her new book, "Why be happy when you could be normal?" -- which is, I am told, autobiographical. Reading it for a second time held just as many pleasures as the first reading did, perhaps more.

This book is a corker, as my old Nan used to say. The coming-of-age story of Jeanette, our first-person narrator, a British girl adopted by particu More...

0 comments like

Oct 11, 2011

Kathryn rated it:

It's not that I didn't like Oranges..., it's that I had a number of issues with it that made it hard to read and as such took away from the book.

Jeanette is a young girl who lives with an arguably "extremist" mother and a much more relaxed father (Think Hyacinth and Richard in Keeping Up Appearances), both of whom are actually her adoptive parents. She's brought up in a community which has a church with equally extreme members, much to the suspicion of others in the area. T More...

0 comments like

Jul 01, 2011

Petra X rated it:

Thinly-veiled memoir of the author's youth growing up with a religous nutter of a mother and a father whose character was subsumed entirely by his monster of a wife's.

I don't know why some girls become lesbians, presumably most are just made that way, but I do think some become that way through choice. In the book its almost as if there was one thing calculated to offend the mother and the entire community of zealots as a mortal sin, but not offend anyone else in the world, the only More...

2 comments like (15 people liked it)