Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

Winterson wrote this book, her first, when she was twenty four. Although she apparently claims that it’s fictional, it’s obviously based on her own childhood. The book’s protagonist, also called Jeanette, is adopted and raised by a Pentecostal family in Lancashire. Her father is largely quiet or absent. Her mother is an overbearing Christian zealot who projects her aspirations for converting heathens on her daughter. In school, she is shunned by the other children and subject to frigid treatment by teachers. But, she finds solace in her church community where her time is occupied with quizzes, songs, sermons and camps. In her teenage years, she falls in love with a new convert who she introduces to the church. The problem is that the object of her affections is also a girl. When the church finds out about the girls’ ‘unnatural’ relationship, they make them repent and compel them to undergo exorcisms. After repenting, Jeanette is let back into the church. But, she lapses again and this time she’s ostracised. Out on the street, she makes do by working part time jobs as an ice cream van driver and at an undertakers. At the close of the book, there is a quasi- reconciliation between Jeanette and her mother.

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is supposed be a seminal British work on sexuality. It’s even taught for A-levels in schools in Britain. Although it is an interesting novel, Winterson’s style doesn’t lend itself well to developing a personal connection with her characters. As a consequence, I felt no empathy whatsoever for Jeanette, strange considering what she’s subjected to. Winterson also weaves fairy tales into the narrative to perhaps show Jeanette’s detachment from reality. But, this device doesn’t really work well. The book also lacks the mood of a town in Northern England in what I guess is the 1970s. Like her more recent children’s book that I read not too long ago, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit was kind of a downer.