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Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? [Paperback]

Jeanette Winterson (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (199 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Publication Date: 12 April 2012

In 1985 Jeanette Winterson's first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, was published. It was Jeanette's version of the story of a terraced house in Accrington, an adopted child, and the thwarted giantess Mrs Winterson. It was a cover story, a painful past written over and repainted. It was a story of survival.

This book is that story's the silent twin. It is full of hurt and humour and a fierce love of life. It is about the pursuit of happiness, about lessons in love, the search for a mother and a journey into madness and out again. It is generous, honest and true.

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Product details

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage (12 April 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 009955609X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099556091
  • Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (199 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Jeanette Winterson
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Review

"Vivid, unpredictable, and sometimes mind-rattling memoir... This book... which had been funny enough to make me laugh out loud more times than is advisable on the No 12 bus - turns into something raw and unnerving" (Julie Myerson Observer )

"This is certainly the most moving book of Winterson's I have ever read... but it wriggles with humour... At one point I was crying so much I had tears in my ears. There is much here that is impressive, but what I find most unusual about it is the way it deepens one's sympathy, for everyone involved" (Zoe Williams Guardian )

"In the 26 years since the publication of her highly acclaimed first novel, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson has proved herself a writer of startling invention, originality and style. Her combination of the magical and the earthy, the rapturous and the matter-of-fact, is unique. It is a strange and felicitous gift, as if the best of Gabriel Garcia Marquez was combined with the best of Alan Bennett... This remarkable account is, among other things, a powerful argument for reading... This memoir is brave and beautiful, a testament to the forces of intelligence, heart and imagination. It is a marvellous book and generous one" (Spectator )

"Both inspiring and appalling, its cruellest details only made digestible by the restrained elegance of Winterson's prose" (Independent on Sunday )

"An essential new book... she is a natural memoirist. The first half is a mature retelling of her masterwork, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit... The second half is a wry, urgent account of her hunt for her birth mother... Pressed on by the need for self discovery, the prose doesn't miss a beat... it feels risky and alive" (Evening Standard )

Book Description

The shocking, heart-breaking - and often very funny - true story behind Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
235 of 240 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? 27 Oct 2011
By Susie B TOP 50 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
Although one should never buy a book for its cover, I must admit that I was drawn to this book by the photograph on the front and by the title: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?' Jeanette Winterson chose this title because it was her adoptive mother's response to the news that Winterson was gay - so the title might just as easily have been: `Why me? What have I done to deserve a daughter like you?' Speculation aside, I must say that whatever the title, I am glad that the author decided to write this memoir.

In 1985 Winterson published her first novel: `Oranges are not the only Fruit' and this novel was acknowledged to be partly autobiographical. It tells the story of a girl who was adopted in her infancy by Pentecostal parents. When I read `Oranges' years ago and found out that it was partly based on fact, I thought the worst bits were most probably the fiction parts- not so. Winterson's book tells us that her childhood wasn't quite as that depicted in `Oranges' - it was worse, and that she found it necessary to invent kind people like Testifying Elsie. She writes: "There was no Elsie. There was no one like Elsie. Things were much lonelier than that".

This new book is full of wonderful stories, some funny, some very sad, some that must have been painful to write about. For the reader it may sound amusing to hear of Mrs Winterson striding past Woolworth's shouting "A Den of Vice"; past Marks and Spencer announcing that "The Jews killed Christ"; or marching past the funeral parlour and the pie shop saying "They share an oven" - but Winterson must have had very mixed feelings at the time. She goes on to tell us how Mrs Winterson was not a welcoming woman: "If anyone knocked at the door she ran down the lobby and shoved a poker through the letter box".... Read more ›
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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Astonishing, soaring and pithy prose - read it 20 Nov 2011
By B. A. V. MIDDLEMAST-NEAL
Format:Hardcover
I am a recent convert to Jeanette Winterson, having seen her interviewed for the first time a year or so ago, and been intrigued.

This is the 4th of her books that I have read and is my favourite to date. She has a way of using words that makes prose sing like poetry. Each sentence is exquisitely pared down and no word is left to chance; each is chosen specifically and carefully for its effect.

She was appallingly uncared for and unloved as a child growing up in the house of the awesome Mrs Winterson (her father is all but absent throughout her formative years, although he shares the house with them). Her mistreatment is dealt with in a cool and objective detachment which belies her rage and fear of rejection.

This is a disturbing and beautiful memoir which brims with hope and love. Read it.
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A moving, funny, unreliable literary "memoir" 1 Dec 2011
By Mr. D. J. Sellers
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Jeanette Winterson's narrative - part-memoir, part-reflection on the multiple lives we lead - is a fascinating tour through the projections of a complex mind. She talks repeatedly about the non-linearity of our lives, about the illusion of time and our multi-directional movement through it: how remembered experiences are as real to us now (realer?) as they were when we first had them. What I feel she's doing is setting herself up as the ultimate unreliable narrator. She isn't out to con her readers, or herself; simply, she's acknowledging life's ever shifting pattern and the impossibility of pinning down people or places, or the past (and present) itself.

What I'm saying is, don't read this as autobiography. Read it as another layer of stories, inspired by events, but aware of the stories behind it, and those still to come.

It's funny and raw. Outstanding moments for me included the dog biscuit factory, the time she took her pal Vicky home to Accrington for Christmas - Vicky's first encounter with End Time!!! - and the description of how Winterson tried to kill herself.

I loved it. I think JW would be the most amazing dinner guest!
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65 of 69 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Wise, amusing and insightful 29 Oct 2011
By Bookworm
Format:Hardcover
Jeanette Winterson's experience of growing up without knowing her birth parents is wise, amusing and insightful. Her descriptions of working class family life, poverty and social history are reflective and to the point without being overtly judgemental or self-pitying. Her straightforward style of prose makes this book accessible to a wide range of readers.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, brutal, honest and sad 10 Jan 2012
By Adrenalin Streams
Format:Hardcover
This autobiographical work covers Jeanette Winterson's childhood up to the age of 16 (when she left home), and then skips to a few years ago when she reconnects with her birth mother. Winterson was adopted by parents who belonged to a small Pentecostalist sect with very strict rules about how life should be lived. Her mother, who believed that books were effectively evil, but read them herself, appears as a woman trapped by her own personality failings and doomed to lead an unhappy life, a life she wants to ensure Jeanette shares. A rebel, Jeanette Winterson suffers frequent beatings and psychological cruelty and finally gets kicked out of home when her lesbianism is confirmed. The author describes her early life with beautiful clarity - it was brutal and yet it helped her to become an author. She hates her mother (and to a degree her father) but cannot help but be influenced by her and, to an extent, sympathises with her. However, it is also clear that she has been unable to escape her either, and Winterson's lack of ability to conduct lasting personal relationships is partially laid at her mother's door. The latter part of the book looks at Winterson deciding to meet her birth mother, including the sickening fear involved in doing so, and learning that she was not the evil woman her mother had portrayed her as being. However, we also learn that despite the warmth of her rediscovered birth mother and "real" family, Winterson cannot engage with them to any depth, although the relationships are a work in progress.... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Jeanette Winterson speaks very eloquently of her adoptive life and at the same time really gets to the nub of the issue - the underlying lost loss and what it feels like to... Read more
Published 12 hours ago by Josie Gould
4.0 out of 5 stars Nice read
It was a truthful and refreshing read, a sad but happy ending book.I would recommend it, I know feel I want to read Oranges
Published 1 day ago by kim
4.0 out of 5 stars oranges continued
Well written but felt it was just a more in depth version of oranges with a bit of an extension.
Published 2 days ago by Mrs. Rowena Gee
3.0 out of 5 stars Okay
Not as good as some of her other books, I think. And the Kindle version has several typos, I hate that!
Published 3 days ago by Judy Skeats
4.0 out of 5 stars Honest
Very honest account from Jeanette. Funny but sad , enjoyed it. Now on to her next bk - what a writer she is!
Published 3 days ago by deb
4.0 out of 5 stars Well written book . Really enjoyed .
I really like the way Jeanette Winterson writes . It is structured in an unusual way but all the more interesting for that.
Published 4 days ago by Elaine kingston
4.0 out of 5 stars Biography
Jeanette has spoiled us with masterpieces so this is a bit disappointing in comparison.
It is biographical and talks about the journey to accept herself, form her as a person,... Read more
Published 5 days ago by Anti
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful
Jeanette Winterson is an amazing writer. What an incredible childhood! The fact that she survived to be as 'normal' as she appears is just astonishing. Read more
Published 16 days ago by Lesley Watts
2.0 out of 5 stars Boring
Sorry I just couldn't get into this book. Was just about nothing really. Had to read it for book club may be just not my thing.
Published 21 days ago by ballet123
5.0 out of 5 stars Not put down able
I came to "oranges"late having missed the fame of the TV programme. I gave a child for adoption and the pain of that somehow linked me to this book. Read more
Published 28 days ago by D Littler
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