Why Be Happy When You Could Be
Normal?, Jeanette Winterson
240|Vintage|12th April
2012
Synopsis
In
1985 Jeanette Winterson’s first novel, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, was published. It was Jeanette’s version of the story of a terraced
house in Accrington, an adopted child, and the thwarted giantess Mrs Winterson.
It was a cover story, a painful past written over and repainted. It was a story
of survival.
This
story is that book’s silent twin. It is full of hurt and humour and a fierce
love of life. It is about the pursuit of happiness, about lessons in love, the
search for a mother and a journey into madness and out again. It is generous,
honest and true.
Review
I read Oranges are Not the Only Fruit during my third year of university
for my Women’s Writing module and fell in love with it. Ridiculously, it’s
taken me nearly three years to get around to picking up another of hers.
Having read Oranges, lots from the first half of Jeanette’s story was familiar:
growing up with a deeply religious mother, her feelings of loss, abandonment
and yearning for love, falling in love with women and eventually leaving home,
but Why Be Happy When You Could Be
Normal? takes the reader further into how those experiences bled into her
writing and the process of finding her birth mother. It’s a very emotional
story, particularly towards the end and I did tear up a little bit.
But one of my favourite elements
of the book was Winterson’s focus on books, words and language and how they
saved her life over and over again. As a young teenager, Winterson began
reading through the literary prose a-z in her local library and accidentally
stumbled upon poetry. I loved hearing how what she read influenced her writing,
introduced her to feminism and taught her about the love she didn’t get growing
up. This then extended into her experience of reading English at Oxford where
the female representation was so minimal that with her friends she set up a
reading group where they delved into modern and female-led/written fiction.
Jeanette Winterson’s writing is
poetic, emotive and beautiful and I've already bought another of her novels to
read. It definitely won't take me nearly three years to get to that one,
promise!
Cranford,
Elizabeth
Gaskell
304|Penguin
Clothbound Classics|6th November 2008
(Originally
published 1851-3)
Synopsis
Gaskell’s best known work is set in a small rural
town, inhabited largely by women. This is a community that runs on cooperation
and gossip, at the very heart of which are the daughters of the former rector:
Miss Deborah Jenkyns and her sister Miss Matty. But domestic peace is
constantly threatened in the form of financial disaster, imagined burglaries,
tragic accidents, and the reappearance of long-lost relatives.
Mini-Review
For some
reason I can’t quite identify, I’d had the need to read Cranford for a few weeks before I decided to take the plunge. It was
a gentle, easy read.
Cranford is
a rural English run pretty much by women. The older women are either widowed or
unmarried and the younger ones are working in the houses of the older
generation. Most residents of Cranford are afflicted by a ‘genteel poverty’:
they can afford to live without working, but they live to a strict budget and
have none of the luxuries that ladies of higher station would do. The novel
details the minutiae of their lives and paints a wonderful picture of a small,
rural English community in the early-mid 1800s changing under
industrialisation.
But for
me, the strongest impression that Gaskell’s most famous work left on me was of
the community of Cranford. Though there is a social structure among them and
there are quibbles and judgements, when one of their own is in trouble, they
all rally together. It actually brought a tear to my eye how much they put into
getting Miss Matty back on her feet; it made me sad that it isn’t something
that exists as much now.
Cranford is
a quick, easy read that’s perfect for a rainy Sunday afternoon and although I won't
rush to get to it, I’m looking forward to exploring more of Gaskell’s work, starting
with North and South, I think!
Made
For You, Melissa
Marr
356|Harper Collins|26th
March 2015
Synopsis
Eva
Tilling wakes up in hospital to discover she has been the victim of a
hit-and-run.
As
she struggles to understand who in the sleepy town of Jessup would want to hurt
her, she is plagued by visions of her friends dying – and then a slew of
murders take places, with eerie messages to Eva left beside the bodies.
An
old friend offers his help and protection, but the killer is obsessed and will
stop at nothing to get to Eva…
Mini-Review
Though I'm a long-time fan of
Melissa Marr’s, I went into Made For You with
no expectations and just the intention to get it off my TBR. I ended up
thoroughly enjoying it!
All of Marr’s work that I've read
before has been YA urban fantasy so I didn’t really know what to expect from a
YA thriller, but she delivered her slow, dramatic reveals, relationships you
root for, well-rounded characters and perfect pacing as usual. Made For You has made me remember why I fell
in love with her writing with Wicked
Lovely all those years ago.
Set in small town North Carolina,
Ava and her whole community live within the restraints of being good Southern
girls and boys and nothing bad happens in the small town of Jessup. Until Ava
nearly killed in a hit and run accident, and then her friends start to die
around her, all with messages for Ava. I loved the contrast between the quaint,
genteel town and the unbelievably creepiness that was delivered in the chapters
from Judge (the murderer’s) point of view and the clues left for Ava. The religious
justification and sexual undertones to everything made me shudder in disgust
and I was genuinely surprised at the reveal. A tense, dramatic showdown ensued
and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Made
For You is a
fast-paced, intriguing and genuinely creepy thriller – I completely recommend it!
Sophie
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