Written on the Body

I think this book is an excellent work! Jeanette Winterson weaves the fabric of modern relationship and she uses it to emphasize the value of true love. I love the way she tells the story! She employs a lot of figures of speech and the invisible feelings become something that the reader is able to obtain. Also, every question mark she puts would carry some philosophical meaning and would make me ponder for a while. This book is really full of content and also literary technique.

With some of the most compelling language ever used to describe love and eros, relationships and death, Jeanette Winterson has penned a true original. This novel also has flashes of wicked humor and searing insight. You'll want to underline passages to return to later.

JW writes fluently and well .... BUT at times she is shamefully self-indulgent: "I looked into her hands and thought 'here is the campfire that mocks the sun'"? puh-lease! skip the middle bit with the anatomy-waffle. the first few examples are interesting but as with any gimmick it loses its appeal and becomes predictable, merely an exercise to be completed. the ending was good, though - unexpected.

While I enjoyed reading this book it's obvious that the proclaimed "genderless" narrator is a woman. The author is going to have to do more than not use gender specific pronouns, etc., to make this story genderless.

This book reads like a dream! I have read Written on the Body twelve times and passed on several copies that have been passed on again and again. I have a moderately sized book collection yet, aside from Siddhartha, I find this book in my hands when I yearn to read and feel simultaneously. It's brilliant. Thank you Ms. Winterson!

I was introduced to Ms. Winterson through this title, and found the book intriguing due to her style and language risks. Shifts in tense and voice are often used as a disguise; this results in a Woolf-like stream of consciousness effect that is startlingly moving. Read it again!

The style is obnoxious. You never care for any of the characters, because they are not good people. They are adulterors with STD's. I read the whole book and after each page I was impressed with myself for getting that far.