Lancashire - Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

[chesilbeach]

LANCASHIRE
 
Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
 
Synopsis:
This is the story of Jeanette, adopted and brought up by her mother as one of God's elect. Zealous and passionate, she seems seems destined for life as a missionary, but then she falls for one of her converts. At sixteen, Jeanette decides to leave the church, her home and her family, for the young woman she loves. Innovative, punchy and tender, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a few days ride into the bizarre outposts of religious excess and human obsession.
 
 
Other Lancashire books:
The Dressmaker by Beryl Bainbridge
Mist Over Pendle by Robert Neill

[poppyshake]

I do intend to read all the county challenge books but will probably leave the ones I've already read until last. I read Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit last year (2012) so it's still .. relatively  .. fresh in my mind. This was my review of it.

Review: I read this straight after reading Jeanette's biography Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal and was interested to see how much of her real life experiences were in it because of course Oranges is her fictionalised account of it. There was a lot here that I had already read in the biography but equally there were a lot of things that were new. As it turns out Jeanette's adoptive mother Mrs Winterson is more bizarre and fearsome in real life than she is in fiction and I found the biog more enjoyable to read as a result. There's nothing funny about having a bigoted religious zealot as a mother but Jeanette has a way of telling it that makes it thoroughly entertaining. Though undoubtedly still a monster, Mrs W is shown to have more humour in Oranges and at times is a better companion to Jeanette. One story that I loved both in the biog and in this book was the true one about Mrs Winterson changing the ending of Jane Eyre (and for readers of Jasper Fforde this will have an added irony.) She used to read the story aloud to Jeanette and so disapproved of the ending that she amended it to suit her more pious views. So skilled was she that she managed this alteration without skipping a beat and Jeanette never suspected a thing until she read the book some years later.

The main theme of the story is the same ... Jeanette is growing up in Lancaster under the strict and rabidly religious gaze of her mother. Seeing no reason to question it, she grows up deeply religious. The church are her family and the Bible her guide for life. In contrast, her devotion makes her an outcast at school with both teachers and pupils (but as her mother says 'we are called to be apart'). Most of her essays, needlework and artwork have a hell and damnation theme  .. she makes the teachers nervous, the children terrified and the parents complain. One of the great characters in the book is Elsie Norris, an elderly church member who is a great friend and support to Jeanette. Jeanette makes a sampler for Elsie and enters it for the school art prize .. it doesn't win (not surprisingly seeing as it depicts the terrified damned with a white border and black lettering.) Jeanette is despondent, she thinks Elsie won't like it anymore because it's been slighted. Elsie pooh-poohs this saying that you can't expect the great unwashed to appreciate. Jeanette sighs and says that she wishes for once they would which angers Elsie ... 'She was an absolutist'.. she had no time for people who thought cows didn't exist unless you looked at them. Once a thing was created, it was valid for all time. It's value went not up nor down. Perception she said was a fraud; had not St Paul said we see in a glass darkly, had not Wordsworth said we see by glimpses? "This piece of fruit cake" - she waved it between bites - "this cake doesn't need me to eat it to make it edible. It exists without me". As Jeanette grows up she begins to question more and develop her own interests .. one of these is girls .. 'unnatural passions' as Mrs Winterson calls it. She makes the mistake of confiding in her mother or at least broaching the subject with her .. all seems well until Jeanette next goes to church. 'These children of God' begins the pastor 'have fallen under Satan's spell' .. Jeanette is told to go home and wait .. her demons need casting out.

The story does get a little bogged down towards the end and I can't say I really got on with the fragments of fairy tales that were woven in .. they were interesting but they distracted. I didn't skip them though I wanted to (so I'm not adhering to my new rules yet .. bother!) but I still found it an excellent read, Jeanette is such a fantastic observer and writer of characters and dialogue. 4/5

[Alexi]

I recently finished this book for the challenge. I'd had it on my wishlist for a while and this pushed me over the edge into buying, so to speak!

 

I posted halfway through that I thought it was ok, but I wasn't sure why it was included on the 1001 list. The second half of the book changed that for me and I ended up really enjoying it.

 

I wasn't sure how much of it was autobiographical (I hope to get around to Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal someday) but it's a bit disconcerting to read that the mother is worse in real life than fiction! I also found it concerning that the school didn't appear to look into WHY she was behaving as she was and how healthy her home life was.

 

Certainly in this fictionalised account it's very easy to see Jeanette becoming very isolated. In her earlier years she has no friends her own age in the church and the children at school treat her as an outcast, a situation the teachers appear to encourage.

 

It does upset me that people hide behind the veil of religion to continue with their own prejudices. As far as I am aware, most religious teachings are about love, not hatred. Love thy neighbour, not persecute them for being slightly different to you. A mother throwing out their only child because she loves women, not men, seems an incredible action and to justify it based on religious grounds is very frustrating. I am aware it is only too realistic, though.

 

Like poppy shake, I didn't really appreciate the fairytale elements. I felt they broke up the thread of the story too much, and certainly when the same fairytale continued I kept forgetting where we were up to in that as well! My only other issue was the preface, written by Jeanette herself. To me, that read as one long exercise in vanity. Maybe I'm overly British, but I can see its on the 1001 list, I don't need her to tell me that the book is ground breaking! Leave me and the critics to decide rather than devoting several pages to self-adulation.

 

Anyway. An enjoyable read for my first book in the challenge!

 

3.5/5

[poppyshake]

I also found it concerning that the school didn't appear to look into WHY she was behaving as she was and how healthy her home life was.

I think, sad to say, it was pretty much sink or swim in the sixties (and seventies for that matter ) and though she did have some very strange views and ideas because of her upbringing, she wasn't neglected or disturbed and she was probably streets ahead in ability. I'm not so sure that a school would be able to tell a parent that they're too devout anyway .. that is (or was) probably an area outside of their control.

 

Glad you enjoyed the second half more Alexi  

[Alexi]

No, I don't think they could say that but she was blamed for scaring the other children when that was clearly a product of her upbringing and would have been dealt with differently in today's environment I'm sure!

 

And the teachers didn't appear to help the situation with the treatment of her in the classroom either. I think these days more effort would be made in terms of inclusiveness...

 

As you say, a mark of the times!