Average Rating: 
Rating: - AN INSPIRED FIRST NOVEL
Jeanette Winterson's first novel is a comical, moving look at an adopted child growing up in the midst of religious fanatics. It is very well-written and the descriptions of people and places are so vivid as to just jump right off the page, taking you along for the ride, to experience the ups and downs of Ms. Winterson's life along with her. It's one woman's realization of her Unnatural Passsions (her mother's name for homosexuality) that are in no way acceptable in the Pentecostal church. The scenes based around this particular aspect of the novel add an ironic tone, which I love. Wit and wisdom can be found throughout the book, making "Oranges..." at times a very thoughtful read. The only flaw in this book, as others have stated, is the awkward fairy tale bits that just didn't seem to belong there at all. Other than that, it's a heartfelt semi-autubiographical novel of a gay woman (though this is by no means a "gay" book...I'm straight and it made not one bit of difference to my enjoyment of it) and also a great humourous look at religion and all of its contradictions and excesses.
Rating:  - Sinfully delightful marriage of tragedy and comedy
Yo, Shakespeare was England's master of both tragedy and comedy, but Winterson brings both to the present in a post-modern autobiographical story that is no lightweight. Winterson has all the authenticity one can expect from someone sharing the bittersweet irony of general growing up AND realizing both one's unorthodox blossoming sexuality and the deep eccentricities and shortcomings of religiously close-minded parents. Her writing style is quite unique, which I found to be lively interspersed with her fantasies she uses to cope with her situations and her own deeply philosophical introspections. I loved her book, and I think anyone, who believes they could like an original, non-conventional writing style combined with the story of a curious girl who must become a rebel to her parents, neighbors, and church, because she's a lesbian will find a lot to learn and enjoy from Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.
Rating: - Evangelical Christianity meets its match
Published in England in 1985, this first novel (autobiography?) is a story of a girl adopted as a baby into an evangelical Christian family in the Midlands, and raised with good humor and matter-of-fact, everyday, unquestioned love ("I cannot recall a time when I did not know that I was special"), strict religious teachings, a lot of structure, strong opinions coming from all corners. As a child, she's proud of her eccentric, high-achieving mom; she's her best student, too. The household and small community is a bubbling stew of English coziness, friends and neighbors, superstition, religious fervor and misinformation, vulgarity, harsh pronouncements and oddly good-natured fanatical beliefs. The girl soaks it up -- to a point. Things begin to come apart, inevitably, and later still, as a teen, there's the narrator's growing knowledge that she is passionately, yearningly, and quite happily in love with a girl her age named Katy -- and no amount of exorcism will change that. The affair proceeds. Winterson is smart enough to put it all together with grace and humor. Her bright and resourceful protagonist travels a great and difficult path, avoiding all the predictable plot formulas. No whining or self-pity, either. There is incisive wit, a smart and brave presentation of the (sometimes appalling) facts; very good use of myth, history and politics, fairy tales, Bible and church miscellany; amazing observation. This is a detailed and often funny picture of a truly strange household, a great girl, and there's a lot of love -- in this wonderful novel.
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