Oranges are not the Only Fruit, book review. (Jeanette Winterson)

This book had passed me by for too long. So long ago in fact, did I watch the BBC dramatisation, that the only thing I remember about it, was the excellent portrayal of Jeanette, by the much missed, Charlotte Coleman, (who most of you will know from her role in Four Weddings & A Funeral).

Set in the north of England, the story charts our heroine's journey through her adolescence, arguing with her mother, beavering away in the church and questioning her sexuality, only to fall in love . . . with a girl!

The shock, the anger, the ostracisation from her community, builds to a point where Jeanette’s mother and fellow members of her church - the church where Jeanette once believed she would become a missionary - perform an exorcism.

She feels alienated, has nowhere to go, no-one to turn to, and suddenly, no lover, no future, nothing.

I like this book a lot, it's short but packs a punch, and has great atmosphere. You get the sense that Jeanette's mother and friends, truly believe that evil has taken her, that her being gay can actually be cured, as if she's caught a cold, or has the flu!

I also agree with one of the author’s quotes I found on the internet, if it be true:

"I've never understood why straight fiction is supposed to be for everyone, but anything with a gay character or that includes gay experience is only for queers”

. . . because this book is a love story, pure and simple, and like hundreds of other love stories, there are hurdles to jump and hills to climb, but gay or not, this is a book for everyone. Enjoy.
Four well deserved stars.