Reviews - Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

4.22k reviews for:

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Jeanette Winterson

3.72 AVERAGE

appleprint's review

medium-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

333milyd's review against another edition

2.0

Not what I expected

amysmithlinton's review against another edition

5.0

This book is like a delicious fever-dream that leaves you ravished but not unhappy, with vivid images, high passions, and sheer family weirdness swirling around and around. It's a memoir-ish novel told round-about, meandering, indirect (all the more delicious for the detours, you ask me) about Jeanette, the adoptive daughter of an awful, freakishly religious mother who seems destined to bring people to the Lord...until she falls in love by accident with another girl.

Here's one delightful selection from the chapter entitled "Deuteronomy"
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And if that's not your cup of tea, look elsewhere.

zararam's review against another edition

5.0

This one was like when you’re swimming in the ocean and it’s just deep enough that you have to float and a wave crashes over you and then you get that calm moment but you eventually have to come back up and maybe get slapped in the face by another wave. Happy pride!

(In other words, really good and raised questions I enjoy pondering, like what does the romantic love I want look like or what do I have to be grateful for?)

dragonrider29's review against another edition

3.0

Not the easiest book to read as I found it to be, at times, utterly bewildering. However, there is no denying that Winterson knows how to write and she occasional creates a sentence so beautiful and profound that it stops you in your tracks. Would the promise of these sentences make me read more by the author, I'm not really sure but I am glad I finally read 'Oranges'.

b_alexandra's review against another edition

4.5

As it is, I can’t settle, I want someone who is fierce and will love me until death and know that love is as strong as death, and be on my side for ever and ever. I want someone who will destroy and be destroyed by me.

molekilby's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

An interesting book that looks at LGBTQ+ issues against a backdrop of religious fervour. The lengths they went to in order to ‘cure’ the person. I enjoyed the narrative in the ‘real’ world, especially the descriptions of shops and people in the town. I didn’t really get the fantastical story, may have been an allegorical parallel.