Sexing the Cherry - Jeanette Winterson

8	Listal rating

Manufacturer : Vintage
Release date : 6 September 1990
ISBN-10 : 0099747200 | ISBN-13 : 9780099747208

Fiction (5), Britain (1), Unread (1), Metafiction (1), Different Cover (1), British Lit (1), 20th-century (1), Female Author (1), 1001 Books TBR (1), English (1), Classic (1), 2005 (1)

Description

Set in 17th century London, Sexing the Cherry is about the journeys taken by the boisterous Dog-Woman and her son Jordan: journeys across seas to find bananas and pineapples; journeys through time that weave snatches of the present with tales of Charles 1 and Oliver Cromwell; journeys in search of the self. As mothers go, the Dog-Woman takes Set in 17th century London, Sexing the Cherry is about the journeys taken by the boisterous Dog-Woman and her son Jordan: journeys across seas to find bananas and pineapples; journeys through time that weave snatches of the present with tales of Charles 1 and Oliver Cromwell; journeys in search of the self. As mothers go, the Dog-Woman takes some beating. She's a giant, wrapped in a skirt that could "serve as a sail for some wartorn ship" and strong enough to fling an elephant into the air. She's hideous too, with smallpox scars on her face where fleas live, a flat nose and black, broken teeth. To top it all, she's a "fantasist, a liar and a murderer". But her son, Jordan, is proud of her--who else has a mother who can hold a dozen oranges in her mouth at once?

Like the best of Winterson's writing, such as Oranges are not the Only Fruit and The Passion, the novel is engaging, ambitious and contrary. Alongside a hearty historical realism, young girls swoon in locked towers that don't exist, islands slip sideways in time and mysterious diseases wipe out towns and cities. Even though Sexing the Cherry is short, it is impossible to read it in a straight line--fairy tales and dreams run in and out of the text and it's hard to resist chasing them. There is an exceptional playfulness at work too--an unravelling of the most solid of historical facts and fantastically unconventional fairy tales in which princesses smash the skulls of their princes with silver candlesticks or become worn and grey "like old sweaters". --Jane Honey ... (more) (less)

Written by

Jeanette Winterson

Lists


	3 votes 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die Pt. 3 (182 items) by chuckmuck Published 1 year, 3 months ago 2 votes Judging Books By Their Covers (67 items) by chuckmuck Published 8 months, 1 week ago 2005 Books (28 items) by Hibiscus Last updated 1 year, 11 months ago View all lists

Loved by

mildlydiverting

Added
2 years ago
Position : 18 / 21

View all

Ratings of Sexing the Cherry

8/10
5 global ratings

Hibiscus

sarah

elishe

mildlydiverting

Kenny_Shovel

5
want this

Kevin L

chavaleh

Meropi

mutedheartbeats

Reviews of Sexing the Cherry - View all - Post review

Hibiscus

[Book] Sexing the Cherry

Posted : 1 year, 11 months ago at Dec 29 20:48

There are many quotable passages in this beautifully written and poignant novel, which at first read like a fantasy or a fairy-tale, but the novel complicates the stereotypes and blurs the line between reality and fantasy. Time and space, history and geography have different meanings in Winterson's vision of the world, and it is in her world that dwells the lovable characters such as the giant Dog-Woman, the boy who doesn't need a boat to sail the seven seas and the eleven dancing princesses who fly out of their window every night to dance in a floating city. Behind the fantastical characters, however, are the very real environmental and feminist issues that the novel is really concerned about. In the end, Winterson's tales are about what is means to be a woman, a man and a human being in ...Read more

Rating : 8/10

0 comments