Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - Softcover

Jeanette Winterson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0582431573 ISBN 13: 9780582431577

Publisher: Longman, 2001

Synopsis

Key Features:

• Study methods
• Introduction to the text
• Summaries with critical notes
• Themes and techniques
• Textual analysis of key passages
• Author biography
• Historical and literary background
• Modern and historical critical approaches
• Chronology
• Glossary of literary terms

 

About this title

Product Description

'York Notes Advanced' offer an accessible approach to English Literature. This series has been completely updated to meet the needs of today's A-level and undergraduate students. Written by established literature experts, 'York Notes Advanced' introduce students to more sophisticated analysis, a range of critical perspectives and wider contexts.

Review

Jeanette, the protagonist of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit and the author's namesake, has issues--"unnatural" ones: her adopted mam thinks she's the Chosen one from God; she's beginning to fancy girls; and an orange demon keeps popping into her psyche. Already Jeanette Winterson's semi-autobiographical first novel is not your typical coming-of-age tale.

Brought up in a working-class Pentecostal family, up North, Jeanette follows the path her Mam has set for her. This involves Bible quizzes, a stint as a tambourine-playing Sally Army officer and a future as a missionary in Africa, or some other "heathen state". When Jeanette starts going to school ("The Breeding Ground") and confides in her mother about her feelings for another girl ("Unnatural Passions"), she's swept up in a feverish frenzy for her tainted soul. Confused, angry and alone, Jeanette strikes out on her own path, that involves a funeral parlour and an ice-cream van. Mixed in with the so-called reality of Jeanette's existence growing up are unconventional fairy tales that transcend the everyday world, subverting the traditional preconceptions of the damsel in distress.

In Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Winterson knits a complicated picture of teenage angst through a series of layered narratives, incorporating and subverting fairytales and myths, to present a coherent whole, within which her stories can stand independently. Imaginative and mischievous, she is a born storyteller, teasing and taunting the reader to reconsider their worldview. --Nicola Perry

Edition details

• Publisher: Longman
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0582431573
• ISBN 13: 9780582431577
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 112
• Editor: Kathryn Simpson