Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
by Jeanette Winterson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jeanette WintersonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-08-20
ISBN: 0802135161
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Grove Press
Book Reviews of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Book Review: In her head she was still queen, but not my queen any more.
Summary: 5 Stars
"We stood on the hill and my mother said, `This world is full of sin.' We stood on the hill and my mother said, `You can change the world.'"
Jeanette is an orphan child adopted my a fanatic Evangelical woman who believes that the child is sent to her by God. Jeanette's mother raises her with three strict ideas in mind for her- one, that she will be a missionary child... two, that she will be a servant of God... and three, that she will be a blessing. Her strict moral upbringing causes her severe grief when her mother has to enroll her into school at the age of seven. The children, the teachers, and even the administrators find her preaching attitude a bit unnerving. As a child her only friend is an older woman named Elsie Norris who is a bit of an eccentric, and her life is completely dominated by her mother's quest to convert all of the heathens in the world.
But when she is 14 she meets a young woman from the fish market who will compromise everything that Jeanette knows about herself, but does not bring her to lose her faith in God. Rather the opposite, through a series of events during this friendship she finds herself being drawn closer into the fervor of her faith. It is not until the affair comes to a climax that Jeanette really begins to question the path her mother has set her on.
"He turned to me.
`I love her.'
`Then you do not love God.'
`Yes, I love both of them.'
`You cannot.'"
The book skillfully touches on the controversy of homosexuality in the Christian community, and deals with many of the biased points of views of that religion that still exists to this day. This is a tremendous book. The story has such depths of drama, pathos, and heartbreaking desire that it is impossible not to get swept up in the story. The clever use of narration that Winterson uses is periodically punctuated with fairy tales, Arthurian references, and Alice in Wonderland references as well- something that surely surprised and delighted me, a literary fan from way back. It's no surprise that this debut novel won the Whitbread Prize for first fiction when it was published in 1985. This book has definitely secured me as a Winterson fan for life.
Summary of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Winner of the Whitbread Prize for best first fiction, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a coming-out novel from Winterson, the acclaimed author of The Passion and Sexing the Cherry. The narrator, Jeanette, cuts her teeth on the knowledge that she is one of God?s elect, but as this budding evangelical comes of age, and comes to terms with her preference for her own sex, the peculiar balance of her God-fearing household crumbles.
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