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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
“…my mother didn't want books falling into my hands. It never occurred to her that I fell into the books — that I put myself inside them for safe keeping.”
I am so upset at myself for taking 3 whole months to read this one. But I am SO glad I finished reading it TODAY. This specific week. At this specific point of time in my life. It makes the most sense.
“I thought, ‘If I can't stay where I am, and I can't, then I will put all that I can into the going.’ I began to realise that I had company. Writers are often exiles, outsiders, runaways and castaways. These writers were my friends. Every book was a message in a bottle. Open it.”
New fav book
I am so upset at myself for taking 3 whole months to read this one. But I am SO glad I finished reading it TODAY. This specific week. At this specific point of time in my life. It makes the most sense.
“I thought, ‘If I can't stay where I am, and I can't, then I will put all that I can into the going.’ I began to realise that I had company. Writers are often exiles, outsiders, runaways and castaways. These writers were my friends. Every book was a message in a bottle. Open it.”
New fav book
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
As lovely and complex as you’d expect from Jeanette Winterson. It’s a memoir without the self-congratulatory tone so many strike. It’s a journey and a return, although the ending felt far too abrupt, the self-discovery interrupted. But that’s exactly what you’d expect from Jeanette Winterson, isn’t it?
Didn’t realize this was a memoir, didn’t connect well with the material took a while to get into
emotional
medium-paced
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
I love Jeanette Winterson even more now, which I didn't think was possible. So greatful for her stories and generosity. Writing has been her way of surviving her own greif, pain, and even madness, but she is also offering love and hope with everyone who reads her.
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
I loved the way this was written, first book I've properly got into in a while! Very emotionally complex and messy, just a study of people which I love.
There is something invasively upsetting yet comforting about combing through the uncertain, perplexing, and troubling snippets of Winterson's life.
As per JW's style, this familiar swinging of continuity and timelines allows her to tie these inklings of confusing feelings that span over the entirety of lives together so that she is able to set up and ask the questions that evoke the most troubling feelings in her readers that leave us with a new level of understanding, but not answers.
Reading WBHWYCBN is like reading the omitted sections of Oranges Aren't the Only Fruit, yet it reaches beyond what that book is capable of covering and continues the expansion of her experiences yet it predictably and heartbreakingly ends in the way we all knew was coming: that there are no real answers or cessations in life (suffering, as Mrs Winterson paints it as). Even in all the major conclusions in the book, uncertainty prevails after all the emotions and reasoning have occurred and run through. Perhaps this is what is most upsetting about any autobiography, but especially JW's; that even after sifting and collating everything, we aren't particularly sure of everything, and that we end up with only one slice of the depiction of their unexplained lives.
In the end, I cannot help but ask whether or not there is the option to be happy, normal, or either.
As per JW's style, this familiar swinging of continuity and timelines allows her to tie these inklings of confusing feelings that span over the entirety of lives together so that she is able to set up and ask the questions that evoke the most troubling feelings in her readers that leave us with a new level of understanding, but not answers.
Reading WBHWYCBN is like reading the omitted sections of Oranges Aren't the Only Fruit, yet it reaches beyond what that book is capable of covering and continues the expansion of her experiences yet it predictably and heartbreakingly ends in the way we all knew was coming: that there are no real answers or cessations in life (suffering, as Mrs Winterson paints it as). Even in all the major conclusions in the book, uncertainty prevails after all the emotions and reasoning have occurred and run through. Perhaps this is what is most upsetting about any autobiography, but especially JW's; that even after sifting and collating everything, we aren't particularly sure of everything, and that we end up with only one slice of the depiction of their unexplained lives.
In the end, I cannot help but ask whether or not there is the option to be happy, normal, or either.
4.5 to be coherent TT
"I made up stories and forgot about the cold and the dark. I know these are ways of surviving, but maybe a refusal, any refusal, to be broken lets in enough light and air to keep believing in the world - the dream of escape."
"The whole of life is about another chance, and while we are alive, till the very end, there is always another chance."
like many of the books ive been reading, this one came at the right time for me.
ive also been telling the lost child in me a story. i also feel about my mom that she's my monster. this book was indeed a message in a bottle, and im glad it reached me, im glad i opened it.
"There is always the return. And the wound will take you there. It is a blood-trail."
"I made up stories and forgot about the cold and the dark. I know these are ways of surviving, but maybe a refusal, any refusal, to be broken lets in enough light and air to keep believing in the world - the dream of escape."
"The whole of life is about another chance, and while we are alive, till the very end, there is always another chance."
like many of the books ive been reading, this one came at the right time for me.
ive also been telling the lost child in me a story. i also feel about my mom that she's my monster. this book was indeed a message in a bottle, and im glad it reached me, im glad i opened it.
"There is always the return. And the wound will take you there. It is a blood-trail."
emotional
reflective
medium-paced