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romcomapologist's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
“But the only thing left to do was to tell the story again.”
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse
brisingr's review against another edition
5.0
2nd read: 11th July - 15th July 2022
Imagine finishing a novel with: I love you. The three most difficult words in the world. But what else can I say? and expect me to survive and not be changed at an elemental level. This is my 2nd favourite book by Winterson, and in a list of read books longer than ten, it means something. Just beauty and love, love and beauty.
1st read: 15th May - 16th May 2021
After over a month of obsessively thinking about this novel, I think it's time to bump up the rating.
Metaphors can feel like a hug, like a nod of understanding sometimes, and I think only Winterson would be able to pull off something like that.
Imagine finishing a novel with: I love you. The three most difficult words in the world. But what else can I say? and expect me to survive and not be changed at an elemental level. This is my 2nd favourite book by Winterson, and in a list of read books longer than ten, it means something. Just beauty and love, love and beauty.
1st read: 15th May - 16th May 2021
After over a month of obsessively thinking about this novel, I think it's time to bump up the rating.
Metaphors can feel like a hug, like a nod of understanding sometimes, and I think only Winterson would be able to pull off something like that.
kstephens22's review against another edition
4.0
"We are lucky, even the worst of us, because daylight comes."
"Fastened to the rock. That was the town crest here at Salts; a sea village, a fishing village, where every wife and sailor had to believe that the unpredictable waves could be calmed by a dependable god. Suppose the unpredictable wave was God?"
"Fastened to the rock. That was the town crest here at Salts; a sea village, a fishing village, where every wife and sailor had to believe that the unpredictable waves could be calmed by a dependable god. Suppose the unpredictable wave was God?"
sundayfever's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Beautiful little luminous read. About found family hope in the darkness, and the power of love. Enjoyed it more than I expected to.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse and Death of parent
fluoresensitive's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
It's literally about love and stories, and loving someone enough to tell them stories and how nothing is true and everything is true, and. Yeah.
peachybee53's review against another edition
4.0
The writing style of this book is witty and endearing. It's been a little while since I've read fiction which I really enjoyed but which didn't leave me in tears, so this was a nice change; it left me feeling warm and refreshed.
My only downfall for this story was that I struggled to keep up with the alternating narrators, but that's a me-problem and not a book-problem. I will be rereading to better understand it, but overall just a little gem of a book.
Some favourite quotes:
"Tell me a story, Pew. - What kind of story, child? - A story with a happy ending. - There’s no such thing in all the world. - As a happy ending? - As an ending.”
"There it is; the light across the water. Your story. Mine. His. It has to be seen to be believed. And it has to be heard. In the endless babble of narrative, in spite of the daily noise, the story waits to be heard."
"I don't think of love as the answer or the solution. I think of love as a force of nature - as strong as the sun, as necessary, as impersonal, as gigantic, as impossible, as scorching as it is warming, as drought-making as it is life-giving."
My only downfall for this story was that I struggled to keep up with the alternating narrators, but that's a me-problem and not a book-problem. I will be rereading to better understand it, but overall just a little gem of a book.
Some favourite quotes:
"Tell me a story, Pew. - What kind of story, child? - A story with a happy ending. - There’s no such thing in all the world. - As a happy ending? - As an ending.”
"There it is; the light across the water. Your story. Mine. His. It has to be seen to be believed. And it has to be heard. In the endless babble of narrative, in spite of the daily noise, the story waits to be heard."
"I don't think of love as the answer or the solution. I think of love as a force of nature - as strong as the sun, as necessary, as impersonal, as gigantic, as impossible, as scorching as it is warming, as drought-making as it is life-giving."
ambientcrows's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
paulineg's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
daisydostoevsky's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
4.0
What is it about Winterson that really reminds me of Anne Carson? I struggle to find a word - it's not "simplistic," but it is simple, and yet so allusive. Not exactly philosophical, but deeply profound. Equally plural as it is precise.
I'm thinking about this (Carson):
"perhaps you know that Ingeborg Bachmann poem
from the last years of her life that begins
"I lose my screams"
dear Antigone,
I take it as the task of the translator
to forbid that you should ever lose your screams."
And how closely it resembles this (Winterson):
"He doubted her. You must never doubt the one you love.
But they might not be telling the truth.
Never mind that. You tell them the truth.
What do you mean?
You can't be another person's honesty, child, but you can be your own.
So what should I say?
When?
When I love someone?
You should say it."
In its sincerity.
I think that's the word I'm looking for: sincere. Both women write like a heart beating, that is: rhythmic, sometimes syncopated, but sure of itself. Syntax, grammar be damned, the words will follow their own measure. You only get these with experienced writers, those who have come to trust their own instinct to create. So as a reader, you come to trust them, too. I buy every Winterson I see at the bookstore, I never look for a blurb, barely check the back cover. From such a good storyteller, I don't care what the story is. Just pick me up and whisk me away!
Lighthousekeeping is a weird one, but not for a Winterson. It's just that formally it loves to play.
Winterson has a penchant for the second person, her narrator oscillates between telling the story to you, the reader; you her mother; you her adoptive father; you her psychiatrist; you, her lover; you - herself. I love this fluidity. It reminds me of Woolf's narrators who embody a character whenever they so please.
Time is fluid in this novel, too. Analepsis and prolepsis abound. In the span of a sentence you pass through three generations. If I was being daft I'd call it magical realism, but I don't really think that's what she's trying to do...
I mean, genre? Forget about it. Is it fantasy, historical fiction, confession, romance, queer, or what? It is what the story is. That's it. If I was a narratologist I'd give myself an aneurysm trying to put it in a box.
Only a queer woman could have written something like this, because she would have embodied this fluidity all her life, so she would already have the repertoire for such an advanced practice of imagination.
There are plenty more formal elements to add to the list of reasons why this book stands out among others: the allusions, the blatant theft of historical figures to be played with like barbie dolls, her vocabulary of pleasure; these all deserve a good looking over. But like I said I'm not a narratologist and I think that's not the point anyway. When you are sincere, you don't have to explain yourself. Sincerity is implicitly felt. Just read it, and you'll feel it, and that's that. The end. Simple as listening to the heart beating in your chest.