Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson (2001) Paperback

Jeanette was adopted by a set of very religious pentecostal parents who lived in North England. Her mother adopted her so she could grow up to become a missionary and donate her life to God. Jeanette was only allowed to read one book, she could recite Bible verses and sing many songs unto the Lord. They went to church everyday and Jeanette grew up loving the Lord and evangelizing.

Jeanette's mother was abusive, locking her out of the house and beating her for her own good. She frequently said that God lead her to the wrong crib. As Jeanette grows up alienated in school because of her religious fervor, she begins to realize that she is different. Her religion sets her apart but more than that, Jeanette realizes she was attracted to the same sex.

This semi-autobiographical, coming of age, novel was written in 1985, when the author was 24 years old. Winterson writes that the true story is too painful to recount and much worse than this fictional retelling. Each chapter is named after a book of the Bible, starting with Genesis and ending with Ruth. Oranges is an amazing book and an incredibly fast read. I took it on vacation with me and I read it in two days.

I was drawn in by Jeanette's story and her Biblical mother. Her mother and her religious fervor reminded me a lot of my strict Baptist grandmother. My grandmother was so religious that she refused to attend her own sons wedding because he married a Catholic girl. My grandmother never hit me but I was afraid of her for a long time and felt like the outsider in the family. In many ways my experience mirrored Jeanette's.

The characters in Oranges are well-developed and Jeanette is the unorthodox heroine of her own story. Parts of the novel are quirky and some parts are awful and I admit I was intrigued when poor Jeanette was being exorcised of the devil. I found myself hoping the main character would find compassion and love from someone in the church. This book left an indelible mark on my soul and I don't think I will ever forget it.

"Everyone who tells a story tells it differently, just to remind us that everybody sees it differently. Some people say there are true things to be found, some people say all kinds of things can be proved. I don't believe them. The only thing for certain is how complicated it all is, like string full of knots. It's all there but hard to find the beginning and impossible to fathom the end. The best you can do is admire the cat's cradle, and maybe knot it up a bit more."

Oranges are Not the Only Fruit won the Whitbread Prize for first fiction and was made into a film by the BBC in 1990.

From a literary perspective. I'd rate the first half of this work with five stars and the second half with three. I found this heavily autobiographical novel in a free box and gave it a try based on the cover, knowing nothing about the author or the overall arc of the book. I read through it easily and quickly and enjoyed it overall. The first chapters occupy the mind of a girl being raised by a zany Pentecostal mother; they were marvelous in voice and incident (and reminded me sharply for the first time in many years of some remarkable puritanical neighbors where I grew up in Pittsburgh in the 50s who blighted their son's life with a prohibitively severe religious and family culture). The book is extremely entertaining and well worth reading for its early chapters. Later chapters, as the girl grows into her late teens slide into more prosaic diction--still interesting but not on the literary level of the early chapters. More and more as the book progresses, there are long interruptive passages of knightly tales of the Holy Grail that bear some obvious comparison to Winterson own labor as emerging lesbian feminist, but I found myself skimming these rather than getting into them.

In her debut novel, first published in 1985, Jeanette Winterson managed to achieve two important goals: one, to impress the reader with her autobiographical story, and two, to create her own style and voice, which she developed in her later works.

At the level of the narrative, the reader is completely taken in by the life of an orphan girl raised in England of the 1960's by the strictly religious mother to be a preacher and a missionary. The world outside the church community, which, despite the presence of pastors, has a strong matriarchal feeling, and the men seems somehow obscure and dispensable, is for little Jeanette absolutely incomprehensible.

As a child, she does not have a reason not to believe her mother... but growing up as an intelligent child with inquisitive mind, she begins to ask questions. First quietly, only in her mind, then more openly, when she encounters other reality (at school and in her town), and finally, confronted with her own sexuality which is unacceptable by (although, as it appears, not unknown to) her church, she decides to step out of her life as she knows it, go beyond her very limited experience and start afresh (very brave; I could not help thinking though that her being lesbian seemed to be an obstacle but in a way was helpful because it was the real push to struggle for her own identity; for a girl who would marry it would be probably less difficult to settle down quietly and stop asking questions, like it was for Melanie, Jeanette's first love in the novel). The oranges from the title become the symbol of the forced limitations...
The book is full of general thoughts, and although there is no great philosophy, the discoveries of adolescence are put into great words. Winterson's voice sometimes sound incredibly bitter and she paints the characters with certain cruelty. Although the book if full of funny anecdotes, it is a sad kind of humor, I hope this was a catharsis to write it. The author admits that we create our own history and memories are what we remember and shape ourselves, therefore far from objective report of the past...

Formally, the novel is divided into chapters bearing the titles of the initial books of the Old Testament. There are also many religious metaphors and similes throughout. Winterson uses simple, short sentences which gives the book the clarity. Interchanging with the main plot are short tales, which remind me of things I imagined and put on paper when I was a child... They are a great insight into the mind, fears and fantasies of a sensitive girl and look very real, although are obviously conceived at the same time as the whole novel (although it would be nice to think that Winterson incorporated her real childhood creations) as they run in parallel with the plot and are inseparable from it.

I think that for anyone who wants to become familiar with Winterson's prose, this is the best place to start.

Oranges was a heart-wrenching, spare novel that leaves a lot of things intentionally unsaid or underexplained, which is a refreshing antidote to a lot of our contemporary writing and commercial movies. A common flaw in many first novels in overexplaining, tying of all the lose ends, perhaps due to overworkshopping in writer's workshops. I found that I could not put the book down, even though you quickly get the idea what kind of community and rigid family the girl lives among, and what will probably happen to her once her sexuality is discovered. The book was upsetting and disturbing to me similarly to the books by Flannery O'Connor. As a writer, I enjoyed some interesting literary devices, such as the description of a scene in first person with her own mother where the author uses the phrasing "pursued by a mother," as if the girl were at once herself and a stranger watching the scene with a daughter and a mother in it. Unlike at least one of the reviewers, I found the dream and fantasy scenes added an interesting textural layer.

This quirky novel tells the story of Jeanette, who is
adpted into a very devout, Evangelical house in
England. As she grows, she begins to realize how
different she is from the people around her, whether
it's the reaction of teachers and students to her
religious views at the public school (the 'Breeding
Ground,' as her mother calls it) or her "unnatural
passion" for young Melanie who works at the fish stall
in the local market.

Her views of God, religion and the search for
perfection are all challenged by her desire to learn
more about herself. At one point, she is locked into
a room for 32 hours to "purge her of the demons" when
her church discovers her relationship with Melanie.
Through all the obstacles, she remains true to
herself.

This book is filled with both humor and drama, as well
as strong characters: the strong-willed Mother whose
ideas of God and religion make an imprint on
Jeanette's view of the world; Elsie, the only woman
who seems to truly understand what Jeanette is going
through and how to deal with it; and Jeanette herself,
a sharp young girl with strong opinions of right and
wrong and learns that it is okay to be different.

"People like to separate storytelling which is not fact from history which is fact. They do this so that they know what to believe and what not to believe. This is very curious." (p. 93) This "autobiographical" novel challenges us with the nature of reality. Do we take seriously the naively precocious narration of young Jeanette, brought up in a social "reality" most readers would find suspect? Whose eyes tell us the truth? Even when the narrative breaks into the mythological, truth dances tantalizingly out of the shadows, but still evades, no matter how we try to seduce it.
If nothing else (and it is =MUCH= else), we encounter our own challenge of existing within social constraints that seemingly resist our attempts to alter them. In the young Jeanette we reflect on the naivete of one who does not recognize any other way to be, who only eats oranges, who cannot really imagine living outside the lines.
Jeanette grows up, finds love and discovers that her love receives no approbation from her family or community. Her love mobilizes all the "Holy" to try to fit her back into their mold for her life. As she matures, the story becomes less certain, more questioning of itself. Increasingly, we encounter interludes of mythological material, which move the story along, exposing even a deeper truth.
And perhaps that upsets the fruitbasket entirely. Jeanette's mother is virtually unbelievable. I would consider her two-dimensional, except I've met her. Well, not that same woman, but her spiritual twin. And in real life, she was two-dimensional, at best. Truth, so cleaned & dried & pressed becomes surreal, and what little bit of "reality" remains maps into a mere two dimensions. Flattens. And Jeanette's young life is so flattened, that only the trauma of forbidden love can give her depth. But even that cannot be told in mere words, it must be shown in yet another layer of story, lest truth escape disguising itself as language.
A magnificent book, and a fun read. Fast. Best read twice, in rapid succession.

Published in England in 1985, this first novel (autobiography?) is a story of a girl adopted as a baby into an evangelical Christian family in the Midlands, and raised with good humor and matter-of-fact, everyday, unquestioned love ("I cannot recall a time when I did not know that I was special"), strict religious teachings, a lot of structure, strong opinions coming from all corners. As a child, she's proud of her eccentric, high-achieving mom; she's her best student, too. The household and small community is a bubbling stew of English coziness, friends and neighbors, superstition, religious fervor and misinformation, vulgarity, harsh pronouncements and oddly good-natured fanatical beliefs.
The girl soaks it up -- to a point. Things begin to come apart, inevitably, and later still, as a teen, there's the narrator's growing knowledge that she is passionately, yearningly, and quite happily in love with a girl her age named Katy -- and no amount of exorcism will change that. The affair proceeds. Winterson is smart enough to put it all together with grace and humor. Her bright and resourceful protagonist travels a great and difficult path, avoiding all the predictable plot formulas. No whining or self-pity, either.
There is incisive wit, a smart and brave presentation of the (sometimes appalling) facts; very good use of myth, history and politics, fairy tales, Bible and church miscellany; amazing observation. This is a detailed and often funny picture of a truly strange household, a great girl, and there's a lot of love -- in this wonderful novel.

I suppose one mistake that people make about this book is that it is meant to expose the evils of christianity. That may be true, but I don't think that it was the author intended. It seems to be more of a moral dilemma of humanity's inhumanity towards man. Or rather to ask the question of what happens when an unstoppable force meets the immovable object.

Jeanette, adopted and raised by a domineering christian woman, is brought up to believe that there are only the Godly and the Heathens. By the age of seven that she will become a missionary and is even rewarded by her mother for scaring other students with stories of hell and damnation.

By the age of fourteen, she is throughly misunderstood at school and micro-managed at home. She soon finds solice in a young women who she brings to the church.

However, once her mother catches on to the romance, they are called to repent. Jeanette refuses to deny her love and is subjected to threats, starvation and imprisonment. Delirious, she agrees to reform but is soon drawn back into homosexuality by another young convert.

Fearing further mistreatment, Jeanette leaves home, forcing herself to accept that she will never fit within the high standards and expectations of her learnings.

Highly recommended for any gay teenager or young adult who is struggling to come out from a religious background, although you don't need to fit into that catergory in order to get some value out of this story.

An equally successful mini-series was aired in Britian in 1990 by the same name and follows the book very closely. Also recommended.

This novel has often been criticised as Winterson's best now that she has gone on to write several powerfully experimental novels. This is implying that she should have remained in these more familiar regions of experience or stuck to a slightly more conventional mode of narrative. What's tremendous about this novel is the way it works as a perfect springboard for the kind of fiction that is being so negatively criticised for its inventiveness. This is a story about a girl who is struggling with the conventions of a restrictive Pentecostal community in a small spot of England, but it is also about the interplay between reality and fiction in people's lives. Jeanette's fables are established to be as valid as the complex religious practices of her family. The characters of the novel constantly differ to a fictional artifice to hold together the reality they cannot understand. Tension builds when the fictional worlds that people struggle to hold into place contradicts other people's realities. This novel is a tribute to the fight for independence and survival. She powerfully asserts that there is a necessary space for these fictional parts of people's realities despite the conflict it will inevitably create. She suggests that the reality built in fiction is also the truth of our own fictions accepted as reality. The interplay of these two creates a living reality.

Perhaps because I am recovering from Christianity, I found this book ripe with insight into the confusion and dichotomies that rip at the individual torn between the realities of life and the mythologies and strange insular world of evangelical Christianity. Jeanette Winterson demonstrates a brilliant understanding of this confusion and the tensions created before and after breaking free from that strange little world. Her portrayal of the dilemmas and the breaking free is superbly done. On the flip side, I can understand how those who have not been on the inside of fundamental/evangelical Christianity (and by this I mean your standard "religious right")and come out might have difficulty fully appreciating the portrayals in this book. Anyone coming out of a narrow, insular group and turning to a more "normal" society, especially as a lesbian, is likely to go through the kinds of turmoil so ably portrayed in this book.

This story of a young girl discovering her homosexuality within the oppressive confines of a strict Pentecostal society left me with mixed feelings. I felt that Winterson exposed the hypocrisies inherent in the Church's "love the sinner, loathe the deed" mentality (as well as many other attitudes) with an extremely sharp sense of satire - a real strength of the novel. She also brings many of these revelations across with a gentle humour which intensifies their irony as it brightens the novel. However, I felt that the depiction of the central character's "coming out" was somewhat detached and passionless. I also found Winterson's juxtaposition of fantastic "King Arthur"-style episodes with the main narrative to be somewhat crude; they could have been woven in with more fluidity and made their parallels with the story more apparent.

As a criticism of the Church's often hypocritical views on love and sexuality, this novel was bitingly effective. But as a really human story of a young woman discovering with her sexuality, it was curiously unemotive.

All of Jeanette Winterson's novels are intelligent and worth reading, yet none of her later works have ever quite equalled this, her famous first novel that created a sensation in the UK in the mid 1980s. For one thing, almost none of her later writings show the fine sense of humor in this autobiographical Bildungsroman about a young lesbian growing up near midcentury among fundmentalist parents in the poor North country of England; for another, Winterson's themes here seem less abstracted and more organic. ORANGES owes debts to the magical realism associated with British writers like Angela Carter, yet it also plants its feet squarely in the comic realist tradition of Dickens and Pritchett. Its central ideas and themes about imagination, love, family, and community are dealt with a happily light and intelligent hand.

Jeanette Winterson's first novel is a comical, moving look at an adopted child growing up in the midst of religious fanatics. It is very well-written and the descriptions of people and places are so vivid as to just jump right off the page, taking you along for the ride, to experience the ups and downs of Ms. Winterson's life along with her. It's one woman's realization of her Unnatural Passsions (her mother's name for homosexuality) that are in no way acceptable in the Pentecostal church. The scenes based around this particular aspect of the novel add an ironic tone, which I love. Wit and wisdom can be found throughout the book, making "Oranges..." at times a very thoughtful read. The only flaw in this book, as others have stated, is the awkward fairy tale bits that just didn't seem to belong there at all. Other than that, it's a heartfelt semi-autubiographical novel of a gay woman (though this is by no means a "gay" book...I'm straight and it made not one bit of difference to my enjoyment of it) and also a great humourous look at religion and all of its contradictions and excesses.

It was good.
However: each word did not resonate in my brain endlessly, it was not the most beautiful thing ever written or read, it did not reveal universal truths that had been hidden to me before.
On the other hand: I didn't find the characters cartoons, you cannot dismiss it as simply being a "fruitcake" novel, and the writing was not just quirky, it was truly original and memorable.
I wouldn't rush out to read another of her books, but neither would I avoid them. It was a nice, thoughful, well written book that was sensible short and to the point--so many novelists just don't know how to edit--and I really liked those fables that were woven into the story.

Winterson's first novel is a compelling story that presages her talent for finding themes that aren't last year's, or even today's, but cut the edge of tomorrow.
No less importantly, it's the first look at a word smith of the finest calibre. Every word has import and can build, nuance by nuance, into breathtaking metaphors that only emerge after you've finished the book and find yourself thinking about it. I like to read Winterson out loud, because hearing words and reading them are two different experiences.
This book is a must read because the true high art of lesbian-themed writing is found here.

Winterson's first novel is a compelling story that presages her talent for finding themes that aren't last year's, or even today's, but cut the edge of tomorrow.
No less importantly, it's the first look at a word smith of the finest calibre. Every word has import and can build, nuance by nuance, into breathtaking metaphors that only emerge after you've finished the book and find yourself thinking about it. I like to read Winterson out loud, because hearing words and reading them are two different experiences.
This book is a must read because the true high art of lesbian-themed writing is found here.

Winterson's quirky first novel is a blend of autobiography, fiction, and fable. The main character, Jeanette, grows up in a firmly religious household and seems destined to become a missionary. As she interacts more with the world outside the religious community, she finds other avenues of possibilities, and as she matures, she realizes her desires for other women, much to the horror of her family and community. Winterson's style is magical, and the structure of this novel arounds chapters in the Bible is brilliant. I didn't find myself as drawn into the book as I was with Winterson's "The Passion" or "The World and Other Places", but that certainly it's a detraction.

Only the MC is way braver, tougher, and smarter than I am, and she figured it all out a lot younger than I did. But the harsh mother, the fundamentalist upbringing, and the pain of having your love demonized is very familiar to me.

Also Jeanette Winterson's writing makes me swoon.

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit courageously tackles a topic not addressed often enough in real literature; the struggle between one's family and self as sexuality develops contrary to "normal" expectations. Jeanette Winterson deftly paints the story of a young girl's travails as she comes out to her devoutly evangelical mother with humor and pathos. The characters are all too real, especially to anyone with a background in deeply Christian communities.

Winterson is an adept enough storyteller, however, her narration leaves something to be desired. The fairytales interspersed with the main storyline are interesting and add a magical, childlike touch to the story, but aren't fully integrated into the novel. As a result, they distract from the book rather than further developing it. This novel is a good first effort and a worthwhile read, but not quite a literary marvel.

A semi-autobiography.

The story of a girl's coming out.

A truly believable story. Jeanette a little girl, is adopted by a Penecostal Family and has a strict moral upbringing, under the guidance of her new mother. She becomes a well, respected member of the church, a Sunday School Teacher, a promising evangelistic preacher and missionary. Until at the age of fourteen she has an affair with a woman and becomes torn between her religion and her sexual desires and she is made to repent.

Now, I hear of a television mini-series by the same name, that follows the book. Aired in Britain in 1990. I'll have to look for it.

Jeanette Winterson has an easy writing style and a good eye for embracing the reality of Church and her condemnations for her unorthodox sexual practices.

This book exposes the religious extremism and evilness of the Pentecostal Church and I highly recommend it for anyone coming out within the church and dealing with their own sexuality. A must read.

I give it five stars *****

Michael Estey

Jeanette Winterson's semi-autobiographical novel is one of the most beautifully written story of a middle-class girl struggling to come to terms with her own sexuality, creativity, passion vs. her family/society's inflexible "formed opinions". The story of the persecution of a girl because of her sexual preference (in this case, lesbianism) is not new. It's how Ms. Winterson presents her story. Fresh. Alive. Witty. Funny. Heartbreaking at times. Imaginative. Almost like you were holding a piece of someone's soul in your hands rather than merely a book. I noticed that one reviewer mentioned that the book's sexual nature is vulgar. I do not find this so. Even if it is, so what? Life is vulgar. Only those fond of sweeping the dirt under the carpet so that it stays out of sight (or those who drive lesbian girls from their house/church and pretend they don't exist) will disagree with the innate vulgarity of all life. This book is the antidote for that kind of sanitized thinking. This book exposes that sanitized Christian middle-class thinking is weird, almost alien when observed sanely by a third party standing on the outside. This book celebrates life. Read it.

Okay, I'm only joking. I have absolutely nothing against lesbians or oranges. Please do not be offended and send me hate mail if you like oranges.

But what's true is that I did not like this book.

I'm all for sexually nontraditional and unconventional people having the courage to be themselves. But the writing here is hollow, emotionless, and dull.

The second half was an improvement, because it got to the essence of what she was trying to say, and there was also less dialogue.

The title, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, is a symbol. Before you even open its pages (with the understanding that Jeanette Winterson is a lesbian), it is assumed that the title symbolizes that there are different types of sexuality, not just man and woman. But it’s a little more complicated than that.

Oranges are also a symbol for the evangelical religion. The narrator eats oranges throughout the book, and early on points out that, to her mother, “Oranges are the only fruit." The narrator loves oranges, though her mother constantly encourages her to eat them, just as she loves their religion throughout childhood, and off and on, conflicted, through adolescence. After the narrator is caught for a second time in bed with another woman, her mother and the pastor stand in her room debating what to do with her; oranges fall from the tree outside the window and land on the windowsill, as if in mockery, and she offers them an orange. They try to get her to repent, but she instead says, “I’m leaving the church,” and then contemplates what to do for work, promising herself she will not work at a fruit stand, with all the varieties of fruit for sale. This indicates a transition. The narrator is not going to be an orange, as was forced upon her, but she also isn’t going to overcompensate jump into anything opposite. At the end of the book, her mother finally recognizes, “Oranges are not the only fruit.” At this point the narrator is back for Christmas, after being banished by her mother for several years, though she says it in response to certain members of the congregation chooses other religions. Thus, oranges symbolize both conventional sexuality and the evangelical religion. Winterson has rebelled against the absolution of both since adolescence, and now her mother learns to accept.

Style:
The first half of the book in particular was written in a choppy, blunt style, and there is never anything poetic—beautiful sounding with care for use of words—about Winterson’s writing. The very beginning is marked with indented lists, occasionally capitalized first letters of words, and entirely capitalized words too, to show shouting or significance. Throughout were many sentence fragments. It was magazine-like, and overly simplistic. It occurred to me that Winterson, living as a lesbian, and therefore outside of conventional social norms, thought that she could write outside of grammatical standards as well. She does not pull this off.

I did really like her style on the bottom of page 151 to the top of page 152 (Grove Press reprint of Pandora 1985 edition) when she describes finding out that her friend is dead, and then immediately gets forced out of the house, having trouble breathing, to have to deal with selling ice cream, as she just parked her truck out there minutes before and there is a line. There’s dialogue here, by church members ordering ice cream while briefly commenting on the death. I got the impression she is in a dizzy-shock-whirlwind, but without her actually coming out and saying that. She shows the reader her emotion her, rather than tells it.

Character development:
Winterson portrays the mother fairly well. Consistent. I get that the mother is eccentric and selfish. She portrays the narrator fairly well also, and in the places where there isn’t dialogue, but the character’s thoughts, her style of writing—journalistic, fragmented, simplistic—works with her character, that of a boyish, down-to-earth, someone impassioned yet also passively-aggressively disinterested adolescent girl.

I thought the book was hollow, not deep. It was more matter-of-fact, and a recounting of events where an emotional journey had to be imagined more than it was imparted. I like the writing of Poe and Dostoevsky, who connected the readers to the emotion of their characters with intense writing and sudden changes in style and events, from dull, dull, dull, to pop!, thus forcing the reader to feel shock. I felt connected with their characters, and to their characters’ emotions, in a way I do not with Winterson’s narrator and main character. It is not my type of book. I prefer drama, not the feeling of lounging on the floor as a teenager, chatting lackadaisically with a friend.

The person who recommended this book to me said this about it: “What made me think of Winterson as an interesting case is that she complains bitterly about being read as a memoirist. She feels that that's a way critics have of diminishing the artistic achievements of (mostly women) novelists.”

I read this book as a memoir. Winterson’s picture is on the front cover, underneath artwork of an adolescent girl with religious symbolism around her. Winterson is a lesbian, as is the narrator. I know nothing of Winterson’s life, but I imagine she is at least using this book as an expression of one major theme in her own life—being sexually unconventional and having the courage to be herself in an unaccepting family and community. This, of course, does not make it a memoir. Maybe she complains bitterly about being read as a memoirist because she blames that category, rather than herself, for her lack of artistic achievement?

Reading Jeanette Winterson is experiencing the state of mind to be an analytical observer and to be a dazzled tripper simultaneously. In Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Winterson's debut novel, the events are well-objectified and never get emotional while they could be; the author and the readers remain in the position to analyze them. At the same time, the arbitrary, not-clearly-outlined story penetrates into the audience's mind almost unconsciously, as if it was diminishing the line between the protagonist's life and the audience's one, between the book's world and the real world.
The autobiographic coming-of-age ugly-duckling (sort of) story progresses back and forth, with flashbacks/flashforwards, dream sequences, and the-Middle-Ages-esque fairy tales which thematically parallel the protagonist's quest for life. Well-thought ideas regarding existence, history, and sexuality are inserted here and there.

Yo, Shakespeare was England's master of both tragedy and comedy, but Winterson brings both to the present in a post-modern autobiographical story that is no lightweight. Winterson has all the authenticity one can expect from someone sharing the bittersweet irony of general growing up AND realizing both one's unorthodox blossoming sexuality and the deep eccentricities and shortcomings of religiously close-minded parents. Her writing style is quite unique, which I found to be lively interspersed with her fantasies she uses to cope with her situations and her own deeply philosophical introspections. I loved her book, and I think anyone, who believes they could like an original, non-conventional writing style combined with the story of a curious girl who must become a rebel to her parents, neighbors, and church, because she's a lesbian will find a lot to learn and enjoy from Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.

I was charmed by this book. Ms. Winterson has written a story that is often tender, funny, wry and winsome. I am looking forward to reading more of her work and am absolutely thrilled to see that the store carries a videotape of the film version of this book that has received the same excellent reviews as the novel. Thank you, Ms. Winterson, for this lovely story.

Very interesting and engrossing coming-of-age story. I enjoyed this quick read of a girl who struggles between what she has been taught is right and what feels is right in her heart. The characters are entertaining. I also enjoyed the creativity of the names of the chapters as Old Testament books and how they apply to what was happening in her life. I will be reading more books by Jeanette Winterson.

Winterson's exploitation of her coming out as a lesbian against all odds--namely her overbearing mother and her church--sets a standard for all individuals still coming to terms with their own sexuality. In every respect, Winterson has reasons for insecurity. The same church that once embraced her condemns her for unorthodox practices; her friends mock and desert her; her mother who once expressed unconditional love towards her daughter, now disowns her. What then? Left with nothing but herself and her homosexuality, Winterson puts two and two together and creates her own world where oranges are not the only fruit. I truly admire her inner strength--if only the rest of us found love within ourselves when the world turns dark--we'd be much happier. I say, let your true self radiate from within. Life is too short to live by others' standards and criticisms.

Jeanette Winterson is a fresh new voice in what the book business would call "alternative literature" and "Orange Is Not The Only Fruit" (OINTOF), her Whitbread Prize winning first novel, is a striking if not altogether satisfying work which heralds the arrival of an impressive literary talent. This is a coming-of-age tale of young Jeanette who outgrows the religious fanaticism of her adoptive family to discover her own wayward sexuality in small town England. In my opinion, OINTOF could have been a more confident and intimate piece of work if Winterson hadn't used a tone of voice or style that tended towards caricature than realism. The people who made her growing up years such a horror - especially her mother and the priest - are so demented you can't quite take them seriously. Maybe they are genuine nutcases. Certainly, Jeanette saw them that way. Maybe it's down to Winterson's style which is inherently quaint and quirky, but by painting the landscape this shade of purple, she creates a strangely distancing effect that negates the heartbreak and poignance that lies beneath. The use of fables to break up the narrative is also a technique that doesn't work for me. They interrupt the flow, confuse and obscure rather than enlighten or add to the overall effect. I don't mean to pan the book because I rather enjoyed it. I just felt it could be better.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of the references in the novel were lost upon me because the Ms. Winterson's use of language and locations that are unfamiliar to me as an American (the novel takes place in England). In addition, Ms. Winterson' tale of coming to grips with her sexual orientation while being brought up in a religious family seems like old hat to me. However, my guess is that that story was somewhat groundbreaking when it was first published in 1985.

An impressive piece of work but irritating and ultimately unsatisfying. The structure is confusing - not really innovative, as many seem to think, just quirky - the inserted fables little more than pretentious nonsense. The characters, especially the mother, are caricatures, cartoon figures who only serve as opportunities for the author to demonstrate her superiority.
Worst of all, Jeanette, both as a character and as a narrator, has no empathy for others in her life. She betrays not the slightest sympathy for anyone who behaves differently than she wants them to. In some circles, this type of behavior is known as "sociopathology".
As a reader, this leaves one with no sympathetic or full-blooded chareacters, no social context, a plot that is as ordinary as they come, and a lot of fancy writing.
I know this is a minority opinion, but I must be honest: I found this book annoying and pretentious.

Jeanette Winterson tried very hard to connect the flaws she observed throughout her life to the biblical stories. A lot of biblical knowledge is required before reading this book, otherwise, this isn't a recommanded book for readers who aren't familiar with the Bible. Winterson intentionally uses the Old Testament's titles as the chapter names in the story, just to briefly describe every chapter by a glance of the chapter names; the problem is, if the reader isn't familiar with the Bible, the title is absolutely meaningless and it leads to confusions just like the context of the story. There are a lot of fables and tales to compare the protagonist's situation, which is the only part that doesn't make this book so boring. The rest of the story is purely boring; depicted how a homosexual girl changes throughout her life while being discriminated by the religious people, and how her mother finally changes to accept her daughter at the end of story!? I would only recommand anyone who is deeply regilious or having a sleepless night to read this book, because it has an fascinating effect that is to make the readers to fall asleep.
P.S.I wonder why couldn't the story itself be fascinating but the effect of it is!?

Not my typical choice of book but enjoyed it immensely all the same. Some excellent dark humour ... especially if you know the North of England. Deserves to be on the 1001 books you must read before you die list. 5 star.

Jeanette Winterson's "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" is this amazing, bizarre story written with dialogue that reaks of reality, juxtoposed with ethereal myths that seem far too interesting for meer symbolism. I read it five times. I recommended it to every one of my friends. It is an honest-to-goodness fabulous book.

This novel was an excellent, powerful piece of literature. Ms. Winterson did a great job, telling her story and connecting it with "fantasies". From the time, that I started reading, it was very difficult to put the book down because the book caught my attention. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to read autobiographies!! ENJOY!

This is my favorite book by this author. The innocence and coming-of-age aspect makes the main character fully sympathetic and compelling. The conflict with her religious upbringing is well-crafted. And Winterson's prose, as always, is delicious. Makes me proud to be a lesbian.Verge