Sexing the Cherry (Winterson, Jeanette)

by Jeanette Winterson

Book Overview

Jeanette Winterson's dazzling novels have earned her widespread and unanimous international acclaim, establishing her as a major figure in world literature. Sexing the Cherry is an imaginative tour de... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802135781
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.5" x 4.6"

Customer Reviews

Sexing the Cherry

A decade after reading it, Sexing the Cherry remains one of my favorite books. The stories are magical, humorous, entertaining, and challenge you to explore your preconceptions. Set in the Middle Ages, the book swings back and forth between the son and the mother, aka The Dog Woman. The mother is routed in reality, which includes being practical and coping with being obese. She has no use for fantasy and emotion. The son lives in an incredible world of make believe. He makes fantastic voyages to imaginary lands. We are invited to experience both realities. The son is endlessly chasing after an amazing woman he has only glimpsed, but learns about finding all you need within yourself. The book shows that you can make journeys through time and space within your own mind. The book is feminist in nature, and celebrates strong, independent women. I highly recommend it for open minded readers!

Wonderfully written, inventive, imaginative journey in time!

"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 WintersonThis 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!

Rich, Imaginative, Comical

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.

fabulesque!

It's been a few months since I read this book, but I want to comment on it and correct a few earlier comments made by others. The setting is neither medieval nor Elizabethan; it is the Cromwellian and Restoration periods of the mid-17th century in England, if indeed it is anywhere concrete at all. The story's hero, Jordan, weaves in and out of time and myth, encountering the wonders of the new world and the Twelve Dancing Princesses of the fairytale (each of whom have the opportunity to describe their failed marriages, some in surprisingly - suspiciously - modern ways). His foster-mother, The Dog Woman, is an astounding creation. Winterson manages to whimsically weave all these threads together; however, this book doesn't *quite* rate a 10. Most readers will be a bit bewildered by the time-travel near then end, and one certainly smells a Woolf in retrospect, but the trip is so much well-crafted and linguistically compelling fun that they shouldn't mind. One does not, after all, ask a magician how they do t