Amazon.co.uk Review
Jeanette, the protagonist of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit and the author's namesake, has issues--"unnatural" ones: her adopted mam thinks she's the Chosen one from God; she's beginning to fancy girls; and an orange demon keeps popping into her psyche. Already Jeanette Winterson's semi-autobiographical first novel is not your typical coming-of-age tale.

Brought up in a working-class Pentecostal family, up North, Jeanette follows the path her Mam has set for her. This involves Bible quizzes, a stint as a tambourine-playing Sally Army officer and a future as a missionary in Africa, or some other "heathen state". When Jeanette starts going to school ("The Breeding Ground") and confides in her mother about her feelings for another girl ("Unnatural Passions"), she's swept up in a feverish frenzy for her tainted soul. Confused, angry and alone, Jeanette strikes out on her own path, that involves a funeral parlour and an ice-cream van. Mixed in with the so-called reality of Jeanette's existence growing up are unconventional fairy tales that transcend the everyday world, subverting the traditional preconceptions of the damsel in distress.

In Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Winterson knits a complicated picture of teenage angst through a series of layered narratives, incorporating and subverting fairytales and myths, to present a coherent whole, within which her stories can stand independently. Imaginative and mischievous, she is a born storyteller, teasing and taunting the reader to reconsider their worldview.

In my goodie bag at the unconvention - been wanting to read this for a long time.

Very readable, Jeanette Winterson portrays in a deceptively simple way the difficulties of growing up under a religious cosh.

I had wanted to read this for years - ever since I saw the adaptation on tv - I just never got around to getting a copy - thank you Mytilus for releasing it.

RELEASE NOTES:

Will release during the meet up.

Caught at Hudsons meetup. Really very good.

Brought to January meet-up yesterday. I, too, have been meaning to read it for ages so I snaffled it!

Came today with the mail. I like the title and the cover (it's different from the picture). Let's see if the inside is as interesting as the outside...

Thanks for this Katisha50!

I don't think i will read it, so i don't want to keep it any longer in my bookcase, it's not fair to the book. So i will give it to mafaldaQ who will travel to Lille, France and will release it there...

I hope to find a fine reader.

RELEASE NOTES:

mafaldaQ will release it at her way to a paneuropean meeting at building 9 or 11, in Centre universitaire – Economie d’Education Permanente...