Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? in AfterEllen.com Book Club

Jul 11, 2011 tee rated it really liked it

Shelves: i-own, e-pube, memoirs

So many mixed emotions. Jeanette Winterson is my favourite author. I'm not exactly sure why this is so. Mostly because I adore her writing and her words punch me in the stomach and make me feel things that not many other authors have. I also think I love her because she connects me to other people who are like-minded. I generally always love someone if they are a Winterson fan. It ties me to an era in my life where I was besotted with somebody who read her books also. Jeanette makes my heart pal So many mixed emotions. Jeanette Winterson is my favourite author. I'm not exactly sure why this is so. Mostly because I adore her writing and her words punch me in the stomach and make me feel things that not many other authors have. I also think I love her because she connects me to other people who are like-minded. I generally always love someone if they are a Winterson fan. It ties me to an era in my life where I was besotted with somebody who read her books also. Jeanette makes my heart palpitate on many levels.

I loved this book because Winterson wrote it. But I was disappointed. I reached the end without hardly scrawling a handful of underlinings and for me, for a JW novel, this is rare. But then I can't relate to her story and I think that's why I fell in love so hard with some of her others, they spoke to me. I'm not familiar with adoption and don't know any orphans. I can't really even imagine what it must be like. So, it was interesting to read about the whole process and the emotions involved but so completely foreign to me that I just couldn't get involved.

This book focuses heavily on old Mrs Winterson, her adoptive mother. There's a brief chapter or so where she talks of her brief descent into madness and the book (view spoiler) but otherwise it is Mrs Winterson everything. I presume, or I hope, it proved to be cathartic to write. In a way, I am so glad that JW had the upbringing she did. Would she still have been the person who brought us The Passion, Lighthouse Keeping, or Written on the Body if she had grown up as part of a more well-adjusted family? Sometimes our creativity springs from those wounds inflicted on us in childhood.

So, I don't know. I wouldn't recommend this to someone who hasn't read Winterson before - I think you'd appreciate this more fully having fallen in love with her through her writing first. I hope that she isn't done. The Stone Gods was a disappointment (for me) and this seemed ... kind of final. Has she written out all the hurt and confusion? Do I need to hope that a touch of madness revisits her?

On another note, I killed my second e-reader whilst 3/4 of the way through this book. Thankfully, earlier yesterday I had bought an actual physical copy so at 2am this morning when I so desperately wanted to finish the book - I had a trusty, reliable real copy to turn to. And I leant on it with my elbow and didn't damage it either.

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BEFORE READING:
My love for Jeanette surpasses my loathing of ebooks so I nabbed this one for my ereader on the 27th when I realised Australia won't have this in store til next week AND I CANNAE BE PATIENT FOR THIS SHIT YO. Actually, my fave book store here said that they probably had it in one of the boxes that they'd yet to unpack - mabes it'd be on the shelves on the weekend. NOT GOOD ENOUGH. I WANT IT NOW. (But I will still come in and buy an IRL copy as soon as it lands). I don't think I've ever been so excited about a book and the worst thing is, I feel completely on my own with my rabid obsession.

As long as it's better / nothing like The Stone Gods, I'll be well chuffed. In fact, my hopes are so high that it's been sitting on my ereader since I bought it yesterday because I'm too scared to start it. But mostly am dreading finishing it and it being over. Oh god, I feel depressed at the very thought of it. ...more

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May 07, 2012 Bex rated it really liked it

Listened to the audiobook narrated by the author. Very enjoyable, moving and lovely examination of two lives really. Jeanette and her adoptive mother. Recommended.

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