I first read Oranges 2 or 3 years ago and it just left such an impression on me that without re-reading I remembered some chapters so vividly and I was left hypnotised by Winterson’s writing, physically hurt because of all the things the main character goes through and so jealous because this is how I wished I could write. I also read her novel ‘Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal’ last year and it was…I couldn’t put in words how much I thoroughly enjoyed loved, devoured, and how broke and healed, I felt after I read it. This year I read her novel Frankisstein a reimagining of the classic novel ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelly and needless to say but I ended up loving it and has become one of my favourite books. (Links to both books and my review are down below.) I have to say how much I loved Oranges the first time around I thought I would go into my re-read to find I would love it that much more, but I was surprised to find that I just loved it but not as much as I read it on my first read. The one thing I forgot whilst reading this book was the use of fairy tales and the story of Sir Gawain and his Green Knights. I can’t remember it being in the book but it was so good and I actually feel it adds more to the story as a whole the fairy tales on their own were so gripping and compelling that I loved reading them.
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit is a novel that follows Jeanette, who has been adopted by a woman who thinks she is the chosen one from God the story follows Jeanette and her mother from a young child to adulthood, with the background of a working-class family this is a story of Jeanette who follows her Mother and the journey she has set out for her. In a way it is a coming-of-age and as Winterson states it is and isn’t an autobiography. I recently watched the BBC adaptation of this and I loved how the actors portrayed the characters because no matter all that goes down you really can feel the love (albeit a different version) Jeanette’s mother has for her. She is adopted and brought up in this working-class Pentecostal family where religion presides over everything. She doesn’t treat Jeanette like a child but instead as a young adult. It’s a kind of ‘us’ and ‘them’ situation where if you are not a Christian you’re a heathen and therefore damned to go to hell, it’s actually comedic and humorous in places, especially with the neighbours who are ‘fornicating’ in the adaptation it is even funnier. She doesn’t feel the need to send Jeanette to school but when she has to it is against her own wishes. I love in all of Winterson’s novels have strong female protagonists, yes they have flaws, but it is empowering to see strong female characters. In school, Jeanette develops feeling for another girl which forces her mother to expose her in church and they exorcise the girls to ‘eliminate the demons that possess them.
The ’oranges’ of course are a metaphor that is used throughout the novel and of course, is the title of the novel. The orange is first introduced in the bathroom when her mother gives it to her to eat. The gift of orange is really a source of comfort that offers emotional support because in a way it’s meant like a dummy or a pacifier, but it takes on a different meaning when Jeanette is in hospital and it almost haunts her and appears as a demon- the orange appears as a demon when problems arise but of course, it being a metaphor is the underlying meaning telling us we are always going to have problems but it’s how we deal with them that matters. She also gives her mother and the pastor an orange confusing her mother because normally it is the other way around. Jeanette being ostracised because of her sexuality leaves and forms her own path away from her mother she takes a job at the undertaker's and drives an ice-cream van. Touching and heartbreaking scenes that will stay with me forever are the funeral scenes of Elsie and when she serves ice cream to her mother, and when she re-visits her hometown when she is an adult to find Melanie married, to find the memories of her dog, when she sits on that hill and overlooks her hometown it is such a bittersweet moment that really breaks you. The ending scene of her mother with the radio and her sitting in front of her presents left me crying my eyes out.
Winterson’s prose really is so beautiful and lyrical that making her novels so compelling to read. The novel is only short yet she crams everything into it. It is confident and the contrast between the realism and the fantastical shows how great she is at what she does. This genre-defying novel is probably one of the best things I have ever read. It pushes boundaries, it is controversial, it is powerful, and the storytelling is masterful. You have to remember this is a fictionalised version of Jeanette’s actual reality and that is what makes the novel so special and so clever in using a tool such as fairy tales to counterbalance the realism but also reinforce the main character's story, to almost picture Jeanette in these fairy tales, it is genius. The feminist fairy tales reject the ‘damsel in distress. They also work as coping mechanisms which allow the reader an insight into how Jeanette has accepted her life, the constraints of religion, her sexuality, and the norms society has created she forgets about all of this, she leaves all of this when she opens a fiction book and/or writes and this is where her storytelling comes from. She comments on social, emotional, and physical, and criticizes society, she sets this in a working-class society.
I love Oranges and think everyone should absolutely read it and should be a set text in high school. I love her writing absolutely obsessed with it; I just love her. It is a must-read and I can’t stress how much I recommend this to everyone. I will leave this paragraph that Winterson wrote in the introduction of the book.
‘Oranges has broken down many more barriers than it has reinforced {…} she’s poor she’s working class, but she has to deal with the big questions that cut across class and culture. In oranges, this quest is one of sexuality as well as individuality. Orange deals absolutely with emotions and confrontations that none of us can avoid, first love, loss, grief, rage, and above all courage, these are the engines that drive the narrative through the peculiar confines of the story. Oranges are comforting not because it offers any easy answers but because it tackles difficult questions. Oranges have given a voice to many people’s unspoken burdens. And when you have found your voice, you can be heard. Is Oranges an autobiographical novel? No not at all and yes of course. ~ Jeanette Winterson's introduction to Oranges
‘Oranges are not the only fruit’- Nell Gwynn
There are no quotes because I would have to write every single paragraph instead, I have taken pictures of just 5%of my favourite quotes. I hope this has inspired you to pick up this amazing novel if it has let me know in the comments below or if you have previously read it.
Links to my Goodreads and review for the other two novels:
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal ~ https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3866769309
Frankisstein ~ https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4694590996
With Love and Dua’s
Fiz @Every Page She Turns.
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