Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson | Book Discussion

[Jean]

This is the thread to chat all about our July/August 2018 book club read Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson.

You can start sharing your thoughts and feelings on the book at any point in your reading experience. If you are including specific details about the plot beyond the blurb please use this text to keep any spoilers hidden unless expressly opened by another member to read - you can let everyone know what point in the book the spoilers pertain to beforehand: <*spoiler*>This is the text that will be hidden.<*/spoiler*> (remove the asterixes*)

[Jean]

So I don't know if anyone else has finished or started this book yet but when I picked up a few days ago I could not put it down! This has to be one of my new favourite books, I adored it. Jeanette Winterson's writing is as stunning as usual and full of so much feeling. I also liked the way she used to fairy tale to elucidate on what was going on in the protagonist's story. There is so much more to say but I think I need time to process it all and better articulate the effect it had on me.

[Billy]

Dear Jean,
Thank you very much for sharing your fantastic comment with us! I picked up 'Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit' 45 minutes ago! I will start reading it today! I am giving my best wishes to you!
Sincerely,
Billy
Portland, Maine USA

[Cecile]

I have just downloaded the book and will start reading it today as well :)
Thanks for the comment Jean, I can't wait to find out by myself!

[Bree]

I have recently finished it too! I also enjoyed the fairytales alongside. I had no idea what 'nowt' meant, coming from Australia, so I had to look that up as everybody said it haha

[Embla]

I read it last year. I'm not sure if I'll read it again this month, I don't have much time to do so. When I read it I really enjoyed it. It didn't take me long to finish it. The story and the characters are really interesting. I really liked the writing style as well.

[Billy]

I truly enjoyed completing my reading of the fantastic novel 'Oranges are Not the Only Fruit' on 7/13/2018! I feel that Jeanette Winterson wrote very beautifully creating Jeanette and other fascinating characters! Thank you very much for the opportunity to read this fabulous novel! I am really looking forward to reading our next book!

[Cecile]

I'll copy my review here, now that I've read other reviews I feel like I should read it again to appreciate it more...

I struggled to get into the story at the beginning (maybe for the vocabulary and language used that I found difficult to understand sometimes), but then rushed to finish it after the third chapter.

I can't really tell if I liked it or not, the story had left me with a sad feeling but also a lot of questions about the numerous references made.

It is full of great reflexions and quotes that you want to write down and remember. The one I relate to the most is the following :
“I have a theory that every time you make an important choice, the part of you left behind continues the other life you could have had.”

[Jess]

I loved this book! The humour, the fairy tales, the characters. All wonderful. I want to be Jeanette Winterson's friend!

This is up there with my favourite books of the year alongside The Goldfinch and Middlesex

[Helena]

My favorite parts of the book have to be Jeanettes accounts of her childhood! In my opinion Winterson really captured the way children think and see the world and how even when little Jeanette didn't quite understand what was going on, the reader was still able to figure it out. Specifically, I loved how Jeanette described her mother and all her eccentricities that are normal to her yet hilarious to the reader.

[Jenny]

I loved this so much, it is wonderful how Jeanette manages to find so much hope and humour in a horrible situation. Coming to this as a heterosexual person who was raised religiously, I was heartbroken by the homophobia in this novel considering it's so autobiographical. I think whatever your sexuality it is important to read about because even though I am privileged enough to not experience it I think reading about it is the closest I can get to understanding and empathising to some small degree the pain of betrayal and rejection. Winterson has always been good at showing through her writing how gender and sexuality should be accepted in all forms and this was so wonderfully written moving between reality and fantasy. I wish everyone would read it. Has anyone read Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Would be interested to read it after this.

[Evelyn Jones]

This book was wonderful! I loved the interludes of the fairy tales and the innocence of Jeanette at the beginning of the book accepting her mother's eccentricities and the life of the church that she was born into

[Amina]

Am I too late to start reading the book and join you on the discussion? Everybody seems to have finished it.

[Alexandra P]

I very recently joined the group and wanted to finish the books I was already reading, so I’m only now starting it myself! (It happened that the book itself let me to this group). We can always chat about it afterwards!

[Jean]

Evelyn Jones wrote: "This book was wonderful! I loved the interludes of the fairy tales and the innocence of Jeanette at the beginning of the book accepting her mother's eccentricities and the life of the church that s..."

No ^_^ I think people have just been sharing their feelings at the end (not that you have to wait until you finish) we're reading it until the end of August :D.

[Meonicorn (The Bookish Land)]

I finished the book today, and enjoyed it.

As a autobiographic fiction, I felt so sad when reading it, heart broke by the fact that denied by her own community, no body to rely on, and even betrayed by friends. But I often got lost during the stories from her imaginations in between.

In the beginning of the book, when the characters discussed things from the Bible, I had hard time to figure things out (as I am not familiar with Bible at all). But once I got to the part she went to school, and had to deal with all the school teachers, things picked up for me.

The whole went to school and not fitted in thing was like a prelude for she discovered her sexual orientation. I especially enjoyed [Spoiler up to Chapter EXODUS](view spoiler)[ when she submitted her needlework to school and her teacher did not appreciate it. "what could I do? My needlework teacher suffered from a problem of vision. She recognised things according to expectation and environment. If you are in a particular place, you expected to see particular things......if there was an elephant in the supermarket, she'd either not see it at all, or call it Mrs Jones and talk about fishcakes. But most likely, she'd do what most people do when confronted with something they don't understand: Panic." This was the point where I changed my view of the book, although I felt this saying about panic was so true, the way she said it was just very humous, (hide spoiler)]

And I liked how she was able to show how people wanted things to be their way despite the fact was in the opposite direction. For this I like the quote "My mother had painted the white roses red and now she claimed they grew that way". I found myself always enjoyed these simple statements a lot throughout the book.

[Hattie]

I'm a little late to the party (but finished it in time for the end of August PHEW). I'm still trying to decide how I feel about this book in all honesty... there were parts of it I loved; I really connected with her account of her childhood and felt really heartbroken by how her community reacted to her exploration of her sexuality, finding much of this writing to be so beautifully executed. However, there were other parts in which I feel like I missed the full inference and Winterson's intended message; I think maybe I'll need a little more processing time to really decide how I feel about it! Nonetheless, I really enjoyed being part of my first Feminist Orchestra Bookclub read! Thanks for having me :)