Jeanette Winterson
Oranges are Not the Only Fruit
(Vntage)
Synopsis
This is the story of Jeanette, adopted by working-class evangelists in the North of England, in the 1960's. Brought up to preach the gospel alongside such spiritual giants as Testifying Elsie and Pastor Spratt, Jeanette is destined for the missionary field, but her high success rate of converts turns into a charismatic encounter with one girl in particular. Love and sex were not scheduled into her timetable, but at 16, Jeanette decides to leave the church, her home and her family, for the young woman she loves. Funny and tender, Oranges is a document of the wilder side of religious enthusiasm, and an exploration of the power of love.
Biography
Jeanette Winterson was born in Manchester, England, and adopted by Pentecostal
parents who brought her up in the nearby mill-town of Accrington. As a
Northern working class girl she was not encouraged to be clever.
She is the author of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, The Passion, Sexing
the Cherry, Written on the Body, Art and Lies, Gut Symmetries, The World
and Other Places, and a collection of essays, Art Objects.
Contributors Testimonials
Lesbian
coming of age novels are few and far between, but what does it matter
when Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges are Not the Only Fruit is on your
local library shelf? The mixture of belief, love, hate and self
discovery is a heady one, and Winterson’s clever storytelling enchants
the reader. I love this book for so many reasons, mostly because
I feel a strong personal connection to the story. No, I wasn’t
adopted by a loony evangelical Christian, but I fell head over heels for
a red headed girl from Accrington. Our love of books bound us together,
and the first book she gave me to read was Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.
Returning to London from a fleeting weekend visit up north, I read it
nonstop on the coach from Peel Street to Chorlton Street, the train from
Picadilly to Euston, and on the tube all the way home to Brixton. By the
end of the journey, I was a changed woman; more in love than ever with
my Lancashire lass, and a Jeanette Winterson fan for life.
Amy Lame
Oddly
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit was stocked in the library at the all boys
educational sink that was my school - Section 28 obviously meaning nothing.
Having been notorious on TV it became the new Lady Chatterley’s
Lover in the social hierarchy of the playground circa 1990. So I read
it, aged thirteen, as a literary dare. Something inside me exploded. I
could immediately relate to stultifying small town constraints faced by
the protagonist Jess and the appalling conflict of being part of a religious
household and yet knowing that your sexuality makes you a secret outsider.
Winterson’s prose was as electric and witty as, my then hero, Victoria
Wood and I found myself repeating lines in garbled northern tones to my
bemused teachers. It marked the beginning of the realisation that I was
gay and despite rejection faced by Jess filled me with incredible excitement
and hope for the future.
Simon Swift