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A review by harriet_dolby
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
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? It's complicated
4.0
I really enjoyed this book and in a small number of pages it covered a lot of topics such as religion, lesbianism and grief. This book was originally recommended to me under the pretext of feminist literature and I would say it falls under that but it is a lot more than simply that. I have lots of good quotes which I will include below
-Christina rosettes friend once face gave her a pickled mouse in a jar, for a present
-I had stumbled on a terrible conspiracy. There are women in the world. There are men in the world. And there are beasts. What do you do if you marry a beast? Kissing then didn’t always help. And beasts are crafty. They disguise themselves like you and I
-Whelks are strange and comforting. They have no notion of community life and they breed very quietly. But they have a strong sense of personal dignity. Even lying face down in a tray of vinegar, there i something noble about a whelk. Which cannot be said for everybody.
-the song was called. You don’t need spirits when you’ve got the spirit
‘Some men turn to whisky, some women turn to gin, but there ain’t no better rapture than drinking the spirit in. Some men like their beer, others like their wine, but open your mouth to the spirit, if you want to feel fine.
Not whisky rye not gin and dry not rum and coke for me . Not brandy fizz but a spiritual whizz puts the fire in me’
-she stroked my head for a long time, and then we hugged and it felt like drowning. Then I was frightened but couldn’t stop. There was something crawling in my belly. I had an octopus inside me.
-it’s an all purpose rainy day pursuit, this reducing of stories called history. People like to desperate storytelling which is not fact from history which is fact. They do this so they know what to believe and what not to believe
Very often history is a means of denying the past. Denying the past is to refuse to recognise its integrity. ... to suck out the spirit until it looks the way you think it should.
- people never had a problem disposing of the past when it gets too difficult.
-memory. The imperfect ramblings of fools who will not see the need to forget. And if we can’t dispose of it we can alter it. The dead don’t shout. There is a certain seductiveness about what is dead
-the past. Once it could change its mind, now it can only undergo change.
- when I look at a history book and think of the imaginative effort it has taken to squeeze this oozing world between two boards and typeset, I am astonished. Perhaps the event has an unassailable truth
- walls protect and walls limit. It is the nature of walls that they should fall. That walls should fall is the consequence of blowing your own trumpet
-the days lingered on in a kind of numbness, me in ecclesiastical quarantine, them in a state of fear and anticipation
-if there’s such a thing as spiritual adultery, my mother was a whore
- the devil had attacked me at my weakest point:my inability to realise the limitations of my sex
-Christina rosettes friend once face gave her a pickled mouse in a jar, for a present
-I had stumbled on a terrible conspiracy. There are women in the world. There are men in the world. And there are beasts. What do you do if you marry a beast? Kissing then didn’t always help. And beasts are crafty. They disguise themselves like you and I
-Whelks are strange and comforting. They have no notion of community life and they breed very quietly. But they have a strong sense of personal dignity. Even lying face down in a tray of vinegar, there i something noble about a whelk. Which cannot be said for everybody.
-the song was called. You don’t need spirits when you’ve got the spirit
‘Some men turn to whisky, some women turn to gin, but there ain’t no better rapture than drinking the spirit in. Some men like their beer, others like their wine, but open your mouth to the spirit, if you want to feel fine.
Not whisky rye not gin and dry not rum and coke for me . Not brandy fizz but a spiritual whizz puts the fire in me’
-she stroked my head for a long time, and then we hugged and it felt like drowning. Then I was frightened but couldn’t stop. There was something crawling in my belly. I had an octopus inside me.
-it’s an all purpose rainy day pursuit, this reducing of stories called history. People like to desperate storytelling which is not fact from history which is fact. They do this so they know what to believe and what not to believe
Very often history is a means of denying the past. Denying the past is to refuse to recognise its integrity. ... to suck out the spirit until it looks the way you think it should.
- people never had a problem disposing of the past when it gets too difficult.
-memory. The imperfect ramblings of fools who will not see the need to forget. And if we can’t dispose of it we can alter it. The dead don’t shout. There is a certain seductiveness about what is dead
-the past. Once it could change its mind, now it can only undergo change.
- when I look at a history book and think of the imaginative effort it has taken to squeeze this oozing world between two boards and typeset, I am astonished. Perhaps the event has an unassailable truth
- walls protect and walls limit. It is the nature of walls that they should fall. That walls should fall is the consequence of blowing your own trumpet
-the days lingered on in a kind of numbness, me in ecclesiastical quarantine, them in a state of fear and anticipation
-if there’s such a thing as spiritual adultery, my mother was a whore
- the devil had attacked me at my weakest point:my inability to realise the limitations of my sex
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief and Homophobia