Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
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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, the 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, the 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' ----Cressida Connolly, the Speactator
`Both inspiring and appalling, its cruellest details only made digestible by the restrained elegance of Winterson's prose' ----Fiona Sturges, Independent on Sunday
`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, the 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' ----Cressida Connolly, the Speactator
`Both inspiring and appalling, its cruellest details only made digestible by the restrained elegance of Winterson's prose' ----Fiona Sturges, Independent on Sunday
Book Description
The shocking, heart-breaking - and often very funny - true story behind Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
139 of 143 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?,
By
This review is from: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? (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". Let's hope no one was looking through it at the time. Winterson found refuge in the public library where she devoured books that she was unable to read openly at home; if she wasn't reading at the library, she would sit in the outside lavatory, or on the front step where she often found herself locked out overnight. When Mrs Winterson finds Jeanette's hidden cache of paperbacks, she burns them in the backyard. "F*** it" thinks Winterson, "I can write my own" - and the rest, up to a certain extent, is history. Winterson does well enough academically to get into Oxford, she gets her first book published and goes on to have a successful literary career. However that is not all. This memoir relates how Winterson falls in love with women, how her adoptive mother reacts to the knowledge that her daughter, instead of becoming a missionary, has become a lesbian and has paved her way to hell. We learn about Winterson's search for love and of her search for her birth mother and we learn a lot more in this honest, fierce, poignant and ultimately uplifting memoir. Wonderful. 5 Stars.
54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wise, amusing and insightful,
This review is from: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? (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.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful and revelatory,
By
This review is from: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? (Hardcover)
Jeanette Winterson's prose is a glorious place to let the mind bathe, and her insights into the difficulties of life naturally stem from her own troubled early life. Her struggles are elevated by an insight into what forges humanity and the bizarre strands of observation she makes are delightful and elegant.It's delightful to see her work soaring once more. Sherlock Holmes and the Flying Zombie Death Monkeys Sherlock Holmes and the Underpants of Death
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