Sexing the Cherry

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Summary: Wonderfully written, inventive, imaginative journey in time!
Review: "Thinking about time is to acknowledge two contradictory certainties: that our outward lives are governed by the seasons and the clock; that our inward lives are governed by something much less regular -- an imaginative impulse cutting through the dictates of daily time, and leaving us free to ignore the boundaries of here and now and pass like lightning along the coil of our time, that is, the circle of the universe and whatever it does or does not contain." -Jane Winterson

This work is an exploration of fantasy and reality -- and of which may be which. Starting out at a certain point in time, veering backwards and forwards from that point, and all along the way, sampling little vignettes about the situation at that point and of how fantasies might come to bear. What a magical journey of discovery there is in this wonderfully written work. What sparkling characters there are inside, with multi-faceted dimensions to each one. What a thought-provoking odyssey this book is, and what a fresh way to present these travels.

This author is exquisitely talented, and is eminently capable of producing wonderfully beautiful prose. Reading her words is a joy in and of itself. Her settings are bold, her characters are compelling, and she does not fill either her pages or her plots with minutia. This work is very much like an opera -- breathtakingly beautiful arias abound, strung together with plot-enhancing threads which glitter and glimmer. Take the journey, and savor it -- and think about the inherent themes and concepts. Highly recommended!

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Summary: This book fires the imagination, yet warms the heart.
Review: A delightful little book filled with mirth, quirky images, and lively prose. With much of the action set in the 17th Century, the story revolves around the adventures of two main characters, the mysterious Dog-Woman and her adopted son Jordan. For readers familiar with Winterson's work, it will come as no surprise that gender politics dominate much of the intellectual landscape, especially the tenuous nature of romantic love. However, it is the lightness and warmth in the story that make it a pleasure to read.

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Summary: Beautiful Prose and a Distinct Voice
Review: Although I haven't liked Jeanette Winterson's more recent novels, feeling they were simply "style over substance," I loved both THE PASSION and SEXING THE CHERRY. I thought both of these books were highly creative, very imaginative, very different and both also contained beautiful, beautiful prose written in an extraordinarily distinct voice.

SEXING THE CHERRY is unlike any book I've ever read before (except for THE PASSION). The plot revolves around a grotesque figure known as the Dog Woman who, one day in seventeenth century England, finds a baby boy floating in the Thames. Feeling that "Thames" is a bad name for the boy, the Dog Woman names her "adopted" son Jordan instead, after the river.

Jordan eventually leaves London to travel the world with a character named Tradescant, one of the gardeners at the court of King Charles II. As Jordan and Tradescant travel, Winterson explores the theme of time and time's effect on love, especially the fact that time can be circular and interweaving and as well as linear and that it can loop back and forth and twine about itself as well. In short, Winterson uses her plot in an attempt to show us that love is timeless, that actions are repeated...over and over and over again. Perhaps all time is "happening" right now.

Winterson takes us on a journey with Jordan, through time, through love, through fantasy, through fairy tales, through symbolism, through surrealism, and, at the book's conclusion, we are in present-day London...again with the Dog Woman and Jordan (who is now a navel cadet named Nicholas Jordan).

Although I preferred the seventeenth century story over the modern day one, I do realize that both are necessary for Winterson to fully explore her theme and she does a marvelous job throughout the book of juxtaposing the fantastic against the mundane, the shimmeringly beautiful against filth and squalor. And her exploration of, and attempts to shatter the boundaries of time in this book are simply fascinating. This book may seem, on its surface, to be rather simple, but that simplicity holds a much deeper meaning. Plot, in this book, is only used in the service of theme. Readers who don't take the time or make the effort to explore this deeper meaning are really cheating themselves and missing something special.

This literary exploration is all the more stunning when one realizes that the book, itself, is short...my copy has only 162 pages and the print is rather large. Don't be fooled by the book's slim size, however. Winterson packs a lot into SEXING THE CHERRY and it's a book that will leave you thinking for days and will be next to impossible to forget, not that you'd want to anyway.

I recently read an interview with Winterson in which she said she has abandoned the literary form she used in writing THE PASSION and SEXING THE CHERRY, feeling she'd taken it as far as she could. I don't understand that; surely a writer as imaginative as Winterson has no limit to what she can come up with and I'm sorry we won't be seeing more books like this one, but I have to respect her decision. Only she knows what she feels she can write.

I would certainly recommend SEXING THE CHERRY (and THE PASSION) to readers of experimental fiction, literary fiction and anyone who simply wants to read something brilliant and entirely different from anything they've read before.

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Summary: Poetic.
Review: Amazingly lyric and poetic. If you loved this, you'll love I Was Amelia Earhart by Jane Mendelsohn. And vice versa.

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Summary: Imagistic flights of fantasy
Review: Anyone who enjoys magical realism as was made famous by Garcia-Marquez will find Winterson infinitely more lush in her style, and human in her subjects. I have not been so delighted with the raw talent and imagery of a writer since JK Huysmans. The fact that this woman is writing, publishing, and being appreciated in the modern age is gratifying.

The story is of Jordan, a young man drawn to adventure and seafaring ways (who helps Tradescant bring the first pineapple back to England), and his feisty, larger-than-life mother. Alternately told through the two viewpoints, this pre-Colonial work of historical imagination and loving sensitivity is not to be missed. It may revolutionize your ideas of what heights imagistic (and postmodern) writing can achieve.

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Summary: I don't fully understand it and I don't care. It felt great
Review: As graduates conducting historical research years ago, there were few authors using an early modern historical context that didn't annoy us. We couldn't read them without becoming pedantically irritated by the niggling feeling that they'd not quite evoked the right spirit of the time.

This feels sufficiently 17th century for me.

That aside, the swirling stories, sometimes as sharp and as real as the office around me, at other times feelng like dreams I can scarcely remember, never failed to engage me.

At times I tried to grasp all of the ideas, images and threads of the story. In the end I gained far more pleasure by standing back and just enjoying a rich, moving and beautiful tapestry

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Summary: Rich, Imaginative, Comical
Review: CHERRY was my first experience reading Winterson. Once I got used to her spare, comical style, I was pulled straight into her magical abyss, intoxicated by it. The novel is absolutely beautiful, reading like a dream of sorts, with colorful images and characters, clever dialogue (common in all of Winterson), and intensely questioning and philosophical ideas raised. You must buy and read this book--to get a feel for Winterson, if nothing else.

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Summary: Don't let the title scare you away from this medeival romp.
Review: Don't let the title fool you--it has to do with cross-breeding cherry trees. This medieval romp by acclaimed British author Jeanette Winterson pulls you into an Elizabethan world where the royal botanist first introduces the banana to England and a grotesque dog breeder living in the swamp that lurks around the Thames saves a moses-like baby. This unpredictable, Orlando-esque tale pulls you through the centuries to the modern day where the sex- and fruit- swapping characters reincarnate to save each other again. Precise, sure language and strong characters make this book perfect for both the avid odd book reader and for anyone who wants to try something a bit experimental

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Summary: Enticing architecture of language and narrative
Review: Easily one of the best books I've ever read. Winterson masterfully molds words like rebar to form a breathtakingly powerful constuction of a story. Winterson wields, rather than uses language. The reader is envboleped in a world wherre words are tactile with weight, smell and taste. And, this, is perhaps the best way to describe her writing. Winterson sculpts, constructs images and scenes from wrods that have bnoth weight and movement--so that the end result is an arousal machine that seduces both mind and body. The reader walks away covered in phrases, images, and scenes. And long after the text has washed away, familiar sounds and smell will bring the reader back to Winterson's world.

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Summary: This book is mystical....
Review: i can't think of a better word to describe a book that is a lyrical fairy tale that is mysterious and dreamy. She is an amazing author both in her choice of words as well as in her character development. I love the concepts of love and time that are set forth in the book--it is a fairy tale for adults. This book reminds me of other "magical realists" like garcia marquez, angela carter, laura esquival.