Inscribed to half-title: "David / Jeanette Winterson." Age-toning to textblock, else fine. Cover illustration by Canadian artist Anita Kunz. Jessicas extraordinarily strong will and heart enables her to rebel against her fanatical, cult-like upbringing. Although many consider the novel to be "queer fiction," Winterson has adamantly objected to the label, arguing, "I've never understood why straight fiction is supposed to be for everyone, but anything with a gay character or that includes gay experience is only for queers." Originally published in the UK in 1985, the novel garnered Winterson the prestigious Whitbread Award for a First Novel. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit: With Geraldine McEwan, Elizabeth Spriggs, Freda Dowie, Peter Gordon. Semi-autobiographical, the coming-of-age story follows the protagonist Jeanette as she grows up in an English Pentecostal community with the realization she is a lesbian after falling in love with a recent covert, the already tenuous balance of her strict household crumbles and Jeanette is forced to reconcile her sexuality with her faith. "Going back after a long time will make you mad, because the people you left behind do not like to think of you changed, will treat you as they always did, accuse you of being indifferent, when you are only different." Inscribed first US edition of award-winning English writer Jeanette Winterson's debut novel. Octavo, publisher's illustrated stiff paper wraps. New York: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1987. Winterson, Jeanette Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |