Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
challenging
funny
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
He was always happy. We were happy together, and if he noticed I am bigger than most he never mentioned it. He was proud of me because no other child had a mother who could hold a dozen oranges in her mouth at once.
How hideous am I?
I know it took me about two weeks to finish this book, but in all honesty it has nothing to do with the book in itself. It is a fairly short one, less than 200 pages total and I actually started reading it because it was this short. I wanted something quick, or at least, that was the original plan. I just was not counting on my workload to slap me in the face, burying me under piles of work by the end of this month. But if you need greater testimony of how easy it is to immerse yourself in this book, consider the fact that it took me around four hours to read more than a hundred pages (and finish it, too)—and I did not break a sweat doing so. I mean, my neck is hurting a bit, but reading is hard to do anyways.
So, yes, bad tactical decision but completely worth it.
"Let the world mate at its own accord," she said, "or not at all."
But the cherry grew, and we have sexed it, and it is female.
This book is beautifully written. It was my first Jeanette Winterson's and I can very much understand now why so many people like her writing style so fervently. It is certainly unique, with just the right dash of poetry for it to be genuinely attractive without being incomprehensible (or purple.) For those times when the story was losing me a bit, it always had me under its grip by its prose.
That being said, I cannot state that this book would be for everyone. For some brief moments, I did think it might not even be for me. Still, it always managed to grasp me back again. I think it is realistic to claim that it will not be suit everyone's tastes.
All times can be inhabited, all places visited. In a single day the mind can make a millpond of the oceans. Some people who have never crossed the land they were born on have travelled all over the world. The journey is not linear, it is always back and forth, denying the calendar, the wrinkles and lines of the body.
It has to be ironic claim this book is gritty and realistic. People are flying, time is shifting, witches are living with dogs, after all. Nonetheless, it gives you the strange, unsettling sentiment that all of this might have very well happened during the time of Oliver Cromwell. Just do not go around to read if you are actually interested in the historical and political aspects of this period. It is more like the most realistic fairy tale you might one day read about—although, I would not recommend reading it to children before bed.
It can be very graphical, crude, and dirty (just like England during the Restoration!) but it is also magical.
I have not read a book dealing with magical realism since I had to read [b:The House of the Spirits|9328|The House of the Spirits|Isabel Allende|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1358615501s/9328.jpg|3374404] for school around... four years ago. Too long, if you ask me. In fact, I think this distance from the book affected some of my early reads. Feeling detached from the genre, it took me a while to understand what was happening. Probably because a small of part my mind kept insisting this was historical fiction. Oh dear me, it not historical.
It lacks, in fact, a sense of having time at all. It floats around the place, around the pages, while you read about moments you are not sure when they are happening. All that it matters in this story is that something is happening and you might as well pay attention to it for it might not repeat itself. Except that it does. Not in the sense that everything comes (what comes around comes around and all that) or that resurrection is a genuine possibility. No. What this book preaches is something more genuine: there is no future or past, only the now. Rightfully so, for whatever it is occurring now is already a part of the past and we cannot know what might come next. There is no better place than the present even when you are not sure when exactly this present is.
So, yes, not historical even though it can be about our history (both personal and universal.) It is time-shifting, mind-boggling fiction. And it was very good.
The future and the present and the past exist only in our minds, and from a distance the borders of each shrink and fade like borders of hostile countries seen from a floating city in the sky.
How hideous am I?
I know it took me about two weeks to finish this book, but in all honesty it has nothing to do with the book in itself. It is a fairly short one, less than 200 pages total and I actually started reading it because it was this short. I wanted something quick, or at least, that was the original plan. I just was not counting on my workload to slap me in the face, burying me under piles of work by the end of this month. But if you need greater testimony of how easy it is to immerse yourself in this book, consider the fact that it took me around four hours to read more than a hundred pages (and finish it, too)—and I did not break a sweat doing so. I mean, my neck is hurting a bit, but reading is hard to do anyways.
So, yes, bad tactical decision but completely worth it.
"Let the world mate at its own accord," she said, "or not at all."
But the cherry grew, and we have sexed it, and it is female.
This book is beautifully written. It was my first Jeanette Winterson's and I can very much understand now why so many people like her writing style so fervently. It is certainly unique, with just the right dash of poetry for it to be genuinely attractive without being incomprehensible (or purple.) For those times when the story was losing me a bit, it always had me under its grip by its prose.
That being said, I cannot state that this book would be for everyone. For some brief moments, I did think it might not even be for me. Still, it always managed to grasp me back again. I think it is realistic to claim that it will not be suit everyone's tastes.
All times can be inhabited, all places visited. In a single day the mind can make a millpond of the oceans. Some people who have never crossed the land they were born on have travelled all over the world. The journey is not linear, it is always back and forth, denying the calendar, the wrinkles and lines of the body.
It has to be ironic claim this book is gritty and realistic. People are flying, time is shifting, witches are living with dogs, after all. Nonetheless, it gives you the strange, unsettling sentiment that all of this might have very well happened during the time of Oliver Cromwell. Just do not go around to read if you are actually interested in the historical and political aspects of this period. It is more like the most realistic fairy tale you might one day read about—although, I would not recommend reading it to children before bed.
It can be very graphical, crude, and dirty (just like England during the Restoration!) but it is also magical.
I have not read a book dealing with magical realism since I had to read [b:The House of the Spirits|9328|The House of the Spirits|Isabel Allende|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1358615501s/9328.jpg|3374404] for school around... four years ago. Too long, if you ask me. In fact, I think this distance from the book affected some of my early reads. Feeling detached from the genre, it took me a while to understand what was happening. Probably because a small of part my mind kept insisting this was historical fiction. Oh dear me, it not historical.
It lacks, in fact, a sense of having time at all. It floats around the place, around the pages, while you read about moments you are not sure when they are happening. All that it matters in this story is that something is happening and you might as well pay attention to it for it might not repeat itself. Except that it does. Not in the sense that everything comes (what comes around comes around and all that) or that resurrection is a genuine possibility. No. What this book preaches is something more genuine: there is no future or past, only the now. Rightfully so, for whatever it is occurring now is already a part of the past and we cannot know what might come next. There is no better place than the present even when you are not sure when exactly this present is.
So, yes, not historical even though it can be about our history (both personal and universal.) It is time-shifting, mind-boggling fiction. And it was very good.
The future and the present and the past exist only in our minds, and from a distance the borders of each shrink and fade like borders of hostile countries seen from a floating city in the sky.
What on earth have I just read? I've no idea, really. I really enjoyed parts of this - the fairytale and myth interludes - and particular characters, like the Dog Woman, but I struggled with the interlinking narratives and the crossover meanings between sections. I think this might need a certain level of concentration I didn't have within me at the moment or is best served by rereading. Either way, I will probably have to give it another shot to cement my opinion, but it's not currently one of my favourites from Winterson.
adventurous
challenging
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Confusing at times but all in all a very funny and enjoyable book. The way time was handled was very interesting and unique. Had a nice mix of incredibly beautiful prose and silly humorous parts. My favorite section was the one about the 12 dancing princesses.
i liked this book better than i thought i would.. but i often got lost in the imagery..
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A mixed bag.. at times masterfully written with incredible imagery, and others I had no idea wtf was going on.
Parts of this, notably the twelve dancing princesses' stories reminded me of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, but Sexing the Cherry has the benefit of also having a plot and characters. I found the Dog Woman to be the best narrator, as I was charmed by her fortitude and her protectiveness of her son and her country. Also charmed by the blurring of time that occurred near the end of the novel and would have liked more of that. I appreciate Winterson's writing when it's set in the distant past but enjoy her contemporary writing more. I also enjoy when she writes philosophically, here about time, religion, and gender ("This conspiracy of women shocked me...They think we are children with too much pocket money."...also a quote I can't find now about men being eager to show off for women with heroics, but reluctant to share the mundane work of daily life, which is more often what women want). I'm certain a second reading would uncover even more to like and to mull over.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
ja, uhm. ik weet niet of dit te maken heeft met de vertaling, maar dit boek viel nogal tegen. not at all like her other stuff.