Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

This is the spoiler free review for Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, a coming of age story about a young lesbian trapped in an ultra religious household. The spoiler full review can be found at Amanja Reads too Much.Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is the story of a young Jeanette, named after the author, who is raised by an extremely religious mother and their cult of Christianity church. She discovers at a young age that she may be a lesbian but that is strictly forbidden by the church.She's so young and sheltered when this happens that she doesn't even have the word lesbian in her vocabulary. All she knows is that she's doing something that feels right to her but also makes her feel guilty and ashamed.This story follows her as she navigates discovering her sexuality and how she deals with being told it's a sin.It's Winterson's first novel and shows all the promise that is to come from her later works. Written on the Body and Sexing the Cherry are both brilliant works of art from her miraculous molding of language and we can see the seeds of that in Oranges but they have not fully developed.She's still finding her style and finding her message.For me, Oranges is incredibly relatable. I am a bisexual woman who was raised by a very religious mother. When I came out I was told I was going to hell and that my "choice" was a sin punishable by eternal damnation.I can definitely find common ground in this story of young Jeanette dealing with this same conflict of going from believing in god one second, thinking that he loves you like all his children, and then being told that he doesn't. That you're not worthy, that you're flawed, that he created you incorrectly.I realize that I'm in the minority here, most people are not from this exact background and will find this story less familiar. I can assure you though that it is accurately portrayed.If you are looking to see an account of this kind of life that is accurate without exaggeration, Oranges is a great place to start. I will always encourage literature that broadens the public perception of LGBTQ+ people.Additionally, if you fall within any part of the LGBTQ+ community you are worthy, you are enough, you are not flawed, and there are communities out there that will be much healthier for you than any that tell you otherwise.You did not choose to be LGBTQ+ but you can choose who your family is.

A girl is adopted into a very conservative Christian family, the mother being a functionally mentally ill person who lives for the church, and is forced to come out as gay while being emotionally, and physically tortured by the church, her mother, the pastor, and everyone around her. At times funny, at times brutally sad, it's an interesting look at one woman's path to being herself while fighting those around her.

Jeannette Winterson's autobiographical first novel, "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit," won a Whitbread Prize for a First Novel when it came out in 1985, but I'm not sure it would now. Winterson writes beautifully, but the novel doesn't really hold together and to me felt like it wasn't finished.It would be unfair to label "Oranges" as a coming out novel because it is far more delicate and thoughtful than that. Better to think of it as a autobiographical bildingsroman like "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." If you're looking for lurid sex scenes, this is not the book for you. Instead it is an often hilarious account of religious zealots living in a slum in northwest England. Winterson writes reflectively about about her alter-ego's growing awareness of who she is and what will be her relationship to her religion, her family (mostly her mother), and her community.Winterson starts interspersing fables into the narrative as her character becomes more aware of her difference. I found these unnecessary and distracting. To me they felt like filler for what is a fairly short novel. I would have been happier with the narrative without them and would probably have given the novel an extra star if she'd left them out. But the through story is a good read.

Sometimes I think it's a huge advantage for a writer to grow up in weird or even miserable circumstances. A normal, happy childhood produces normal, well-adjusted minds while misery and strangeness, while suffocating some, gives the putative writer not only an original outlook on life but also a lifetime of material to mine.Jeanette Winterson had a truly strange childhood and emerged as a truly talented writer with an original and authentic voice that is heard on every page of this poetic and compelling memoir.Winterson was adopted by a working class couple living in a poor town in northern England. Her father was a quiet, self-effacing man and is practically a non-presence in this book. Her mother dominates every page. A fundamentalist Christian and neglectful and sometimes cruel mother, she devoted herself wholly to her weird strain of Christianity. Winterson expected to follow in her path and became an enthusiastic evangelizer and preacher in her own right -- but her sexuality got in the way. Neither her mother nor her church could accept her lesbian identity and Jeanette was ultimately forced to leave the safety of the cult and find her own way.There is a dogged but subtle working class humor in this book but it is always tinged with sadness. Winterson never quite rejects her upbringing -- in some ways she seems to long for it in all its nuttiness. But she cannot go against who she is, nor can she regard herself as evil.Mixed into the narrative, full of colorful characters masterfully evoked, are poetic reworkings on fairy tales and legends that cast a light and a shadow on the story. Winterson has a real ear for dialogue which brings her northern folk to life.Much of my reading consists unfortunately of cookie-cutter books that are put together either well or not so well but ultimately nearly all turn out to be forgettable. This one is unforgettable.

I came to Jeanette Winterson quite late, and have no idea what took me so long. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, her first book, is the fourth Winterson I've read in as many months.It’s probably because, knowing the one-word ‘what is this book about?’ preconception subject matter of ‘Oranges’ I mistakenly assumed it was a book devoted to lesbian erotica. Or, perhaps as Winterson amusingly suggests in her prologue to my 2009 digitised edition or perhaps truthfully suggests – she is, after all clear to remind us she is a writer of fiction, of novels:When Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit was first published in 1985 it was often stocked in the cookbooks section with the marmalade manuals.” (from the Introduction)As is known Jeanette Winterson had a harsh beginning. Adopted by an extraordinarily eccentric couple (particularly the dominating Mrs Winterson), fervent Pentacostalists, Mrs W’s life-plan for the adopted baby was to raise her to be a missionary. The extraordinary creative, imaginative, hugely intelligent child Jeanette turned out to be was never quite going to fit into classic missionary mode. Though close acquaintance with the Bible and the English Hymnals did bring her into early contact with a rich, lustrous, poetic language.“Best of all, she had a collage of Noah’s Ark. It showed the two parent Noah’s leaning out looking at the flood while the other Noah’s tried to catch one of the rabbits. But for me, the delight was a detachable chimpanzee, made out of a Brillo pad,; at the end of my visit she let me play with it for five minutes. I had all kinds of variations, but usually I drowned it”Sex was not really part of Mrs Winterson’s mission statement for the little girl, but when Jeanette showed herself to have, along with all her other qualities, a passionate nature that was challenge enough for Mrs W – who abjured sex. The fact that Jeanette’s passions were directed towards other women proved to be several steps too far.“Deuteronomy had its drawbacks; it’s full of Abominations and Unmentionables. Whenever we read about a bastard, or someone with crushed testicles, my mother turned over the page and said ‘Leave that to the Lord,’ but when she’d gone I’d sneak a look. I was glad I didn’t have testicles. They sounded like intestines only on the outside, and the men in the Bible were always having them cut off and not be able to go to church. Horrid” The facts of Jeanette’s life – of course subjectively experienced as well as observed by her writerly sense – are expressed in another book (wonderful) “Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal”, Winterson’s autobiography.THIS book, by contrast, though it uses ‘what she knows’ – herself, and her own life in this case, as springboard, is NOT autobiography, it is a novel, genre literary fiction, even though the central character is called ‘Jeanette’ and her mother is Mrs Winterson.Winterson rather tartly (and quite probably correctly) wonders if, had she been a young man using his dysfunctional background as springboard, the critics would have been quicker to realise the work fiction, literary fiction, and indeed fiction where the novel’s form is being explored. It shouldn’t have been too much of a stretch to ascertain this as woven into the twentieth century Lancashire working class Pentecostal narrative, are various myths and legends, Arthurian, Grail, and the chapter titles are Old Testament biblical, and allude to the overall feel and flavour of particular books of the bible“The priest has a book with the words set out. Old words, known words, words of power. Words that are always on the surface. Words for every occasion. The words work. They do what they’re supposed to do; comfort and discipline. The prophet has no book. The prophet is a voice that cries in the wilderness, full of sounds that do not always set into meaning. The prophets cry out because they are troubled by demons.”The book is a journey towards individuation and authenticity : the Heroic Quest, that deep myth which underpins much literature. And literature itself provides many of the magical tools which help the hero – another version of Excalibur, in factJeanette Winterson is a wonderful writer – inventive, rich in imagery, playful, dark, heart-breaking, shocking and more than a touch shamanic. And how she demonstrates this in her introduction:“Reading is an adventure. Adventures are about the unknown. When I started to read seriously I was excited and comforted all at the same time. Literature is a mix of unfamiliarity and recognition……as we travel deeper into the strange world of the story, the feeling we get is of being understood…..it is the story (or the poem) that is understanding usBooks read us back to ourselves"Yes. That was a hairs up on the back of the neck moment, for this reader.Oranges works absolutely brilliantly as a fine, quirky, comedic page turning roman a clef, a girl’s journey to young woman. And is also something of depth and richness as well as brilliant sparkle

This book is short, personal, intensely readable and beautifully written - not unexpected since Jeanette Winterson is Professor of Creative Writing at Manchester University. In 178 pages she explores the conflict between Christian fundamentalism and same sex relationships. Is it possible to be a Christian AND a lesbian? Is it possible to be lesbian AND a Christian? For me the great charm of the book lies in the descriptions of the characters and their conversations. We knew these people as caricatures before reading this book, now we know them as flesh and blood, warts and all. Whilst Jeanette Winterson says nothing defamatory about the Elim Pentecostal Church in Accrington (where she was brought up to become a missionary) her revelations must be an embarrassment to every thinking Christian. In my opinion, this book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in religion and LGBT issues. As a side comment, the introduction contains much wisdom about the art of writing (and remembering). How much do we really remember of our childhoods? How much do we edit those memories in our mind?The only thing that prevents my giving this book five stars is the inclusion of various fairy tales which are not particularly interesting and don't appear to be relevant to the thrust of the book (unless I've missed something). I was also confused by the chapters being named after the first few books of the Old Testament. I didn't see any connection (unless once again I've missed something.).

Jeanette Winterson's book was very successful when it was published. At first, I couldn’t understand why. Female homosexuality is hardly the stuff that could, by itself, propel a book to the best-seller list in 1985, almost twenty years after the sexual revolution of the Sixties.To make matters worse, the love life of the main protagonist is neither explicitly described nor sentimentality analyzed. We just know that she “did it”.To make matters even worse, Jeanette Winterson flies at a tangent into a world of medieval fantasies. Descriptions and situations are dealt in ways that are neither poetic nor atmospheric. We are informed of what’s going on, but we never feel it.Reflections on life in general sprout here and there as in a jungle where readers must progress with mental machetes. The plot (if you can call it that) is more like an unruly, dishevelled diary. It does not really end : it fizzles out.So, why do I feel (as do many others) that “Oranges” will stick in my mind, and stay with me ?To start with, it is well written. Perfect, well-balanced sentences, irreproachable grammar and syntax, but this is not unusual.The main reason, I suspect, lies in the fact that the main character is neither the narrator, nor her deranged mother : it is Pastor Spratt. He is the epicentre of a dictatorial, intolerant, imaginary world where human warmth and charity have no place. It’s easy to imagine what would have happened to Jeanette in the Middle-Ages (and beyond) : one more witch burned at the stake, and Pastor Spratt conducting the church choir while the girl died in unspeakable agony.Terrifying religious nuts like Pastor Spratt have always been around, and are still very much with us. Nowadays, they have a tendency to be replaced by political nuts, but the tactics remain the same : self-righteous indignation, outrageous lies and accusations, followed by ostracism and persecution for those who do not agree, all this in the name of equality and tolerance.“Oranges” is not a novel about lesbians, it’s a masterful warning about the evils of fanaticism and brain-washing.

This is the story of Jeanette, adopted and brought up to be a servant of God, by a mother intent on her child becoming a missionary to poor heathens.Jeanette loves her little church family, with its religious fervour and passion to save - they are her world and she is sure that her destiny it to spread the holy word, as her mother has always assured her.But when Jeanette falls in love with another member of her spiritual family - and that person is a girl - she cannot understand how their love can be wrong, even if it is labelled as an unnatural passion by her church.Can Jeanette's feelings really be unnatural? Does her destiny lie in another direction than as one of God's holy prophets? In the end she must question all that she has been taught to believe, leave everything she thought she knew behind, and make a new life for herself.******************************************************************Oranges are Not The Only Fruit is a book that I have been meaning to read for years and since I managed to get a bargain copy of Jeanette Winterson's autobiography, What Be Happy When You Can Be Normal? recently, I thought the time was ripe for to read the semi-autobiographical (and earlier) book first.Well, I was in for some surprises here, and am mightily sorry that I have taken so long to read Oranges. What amazing book!For those of you unfamiliar with the story, Orange Are Not The Only Fruit is the tale of Jeanette, an adopted girl brought up in an evangelical household and intended for life as a missionary. However, even though Jeanette loves her church and family, she finds that she is unable to fulfill her destined path, because she is a lesbian - someone who indulges in unnatural passions in the eyes of her church.Jeanette longs to belong and never having fit in at school (mostly due to her religious beliefs) means that she relies heavily on her church family to validate her existence, and it's quite telling that chapters are headed with biblical titles that fit perfectly with each stage of Jeanette's story. She adores being part of the crusade to save, is devoted to God, but comes to see that who she is can never be compatible with the beliefs of her family. To her, the love she experiences with another woman is pure and true and cannot be unnatural.Ultimately, Jeanette must make a decision - should she deny herself happiness and remain in the bosom of her church family, to keep her mother happy, or should she cut the ties of family that bind her and be fee to live as she wants? This is a hard choice for a working class girl with no money and nowhere to go, but she has been brought up to be strong and her strength of character is what carries her through.Many parts of this book are quite difficult to read. Jeanette's church almost entirely runs on the strength of some formidable women, who are certainly not afraid to take the fight of the Lord right to the doors of the heathen masses. You want so much to admire these women, but their utter conviction that they are right leads them into some very questionable acts that end in downright cruelty and smack of deep hypocrisy - and this leaves a very nasty taste in your mouth.But there is so much humour in these pages too - and this is what surprised me most about this book. Think Victoria Wood's style of Lancashire humour and you will understand why I found myself chuckling so much at the absurd statements and pithy asides Jeanette Winterson has coming out of the mouths of her characters.I also loved the whimsical way Winterson has with her writing. Some of this tale is told in the allegorical form of fairy tales that break up the main story. At first this seems a little strange, as it does not appear to relate to Jeanette's plight, but each tale has something important to say about her search for identity and freedom. I found the last tale particularly moving, as it addresses family ties and the ability of those we love to attach an invisible thread to us and draw us back, even when we thought we had escaped from our former lives.This is one of those books that simply needs to be read. Even if you just confine yourself to Jeanette Winterson's introduction to the book you will be doing yourself a huge favour. Her idea that you should "Read yourself as a fiction as well as a fact." as a way to explore who you are is a really compelling one, and her love of fiction shines out through her words - and I cannot but wholeheartedly support the idea that reading what you don't know is always sound advice.Get yourself a copy of this incredible book and read Jeanette Winterson's words for yourself.. You won't be sorry.By the way, the audio book of this modern classic is read by Jeanette Winterson herself and it is glorious, so if audio books are your thing then I highly recommend you check this one out.

This is my first Jeanette Winterson book and I missed the BBC series, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The most surprising thing to me was that, although the subject matter is quite bleak, this book is actually very funny and sprinkled with comic touches throughout.The story is about an adolescent girl (given the same name as the author, Jeanette, in the book) growing up in the early 1960s in the working class, Northern mill town of Accrington and her eventual escape at the age of 16 from her Bible-obsessed mother and the Christian sect, the Elim Pentecostalists, to which she belongs. But the extraordinary way in which her domineering mother behaves and the other eccentric characters that people the book tip it over into humour.For example, when her class is told to design a sampler to sew, all the other girls choose traditional flower motifs or ‘to mother with love’ type messages, but Jeanette chooses a sentence from the doom-laden Book of Jeremiah in the Bible ‘the summer is ended and we are not yet saved.’ The school actually writes to Mrs Winterson because they think Jeanette is too obsessed with religion. (Her mother is of course delighted). When Jeanette brings home a friend, her mother decides she likes pineapples and serves them obsessively with everything from then on because, as Mrs Winterson philosophically observes, ‘oranges are not the only fruit’ (one of several explanations for the title). Bible stories are lovingly recreated out of ‘fuzzy felt’. When Jeanette loses her hearing, her mother says it’s because she’s in a ‘state of rapture’ and doesn’t take her to the doctor.The only thing I didn’t like was the extracts of a fairy tale that appear at places interwoven into the main storyline towards the end and which I think are meant to represent Jeanette’s fertile imagination. I didn’t find them very interesting and I thought they distracted a bit from the main story.How far the events in this book are real or how much is made up, it’s hard to know. The author has said that she has edited her past to some extent and it’s better to read yourself as fiction than as fact. She has also said that her novel is not an autobiography. This difference may or may not matter to the reader. Mrs Winterson was never reconciled to her successful daughter and died five years after the book came out.