Name: Sexing the Cherry
ISBN: 9780802135780

Jeanette Winterson

Interweaving elements of fantasy and history, this novel chronicles the adventures of Jordan, who lives with his mother by the Thames during the reign of Charles II, as he follows his dreams to the end of the world, and beyond

Sexing the Cherry

Taira Robles

Jordan.. I should have named him after a stagnant pond and then I could have kept him, but I named him after a river and in the flood-tide he slipped away.

In the world there is a horror of plagues. Of mysterious diseases that wipe out towns and cities, leaving empty churches and bed clothes that must be burned. Holy water and crosses and mountain air and the protection of saints and a diet of watercress are all thought to save us as a species from rotting. But what can save us as a species from love? A man sold me a necklace made of chicken bones; he said these chickens were the direct descendants of the chickens who had scratted around the crib at Bethlehem. The bones would save me from pain of every kind and lead me piously to Heaven. He was wearing some himself. 

He shook his head and assured me that nothing was proof against love. Not even the slightest amourette could be  forestalled by an amulet. 

kite

"Singing is my pleasure, but not in church, for the parson said the gargoyles must remain on the outside, not seek room in the choir stalls."

"The woman who owned the fish stall warned me never to try and cheat another woman but always to try and charge the men double or send them away."

"Men are best left in groups by themselves where they will entirely wear themselves out in drunkenness and competition. While this is taking place a woman may carry on with her own life unhindered."

"I am a sinner, not in body but in mind. I know what love sounds like because I have heard it through the wall, but I do not know what it feel like. What can it be like, two bodies slippery as eels on a mud-flat, panting like dogs after a Pig?

I fell in love once, if love be that cruelty which takes us straight to the gates of Paradise only to remind us they are closed for ever."

"It is well known that those in the grip of heavy enchantments can be wakened only by a lover's touch. Those who seem dead, who are already returning to the earth, can be restored to life, quickened again by one who is warm."

"I have no vanity but I would enjoy the consolation of a lover's face."

"Most, she releases like butterflies over a flowering world. Bodies that could have bent double and grown numb she maintains as metal in a fiery furnace, tempering, stretching, forcing sinews into impossible shapes and calling her nature."

"On more than one occasion I have been ready to abandon my whole life for love. To alter everything that makes sense to me and to move into a different world where the only known will be the beloved. Such a sacrifice must be the result of love... or is it that the life itself was already worn out? I had finished with that life, perhaps, and could not admit it, being stubborn or afraid, or perhaps did not know it, habit being a great binder."

"I may be cynical when I say that very rarely is the beloved more than a shaping spirit for the lover's dreams. And perhaps such a thing is enough. To be a muse maybe enough. The pain is when the dreams change, as they do, as they must. Suddenly the enchanted city fades and you are left alone again in the windy desert. As for your beloved, she didn't understand you. The truth is, you never understood yourself."

"My own heart, like this wild place, has never been visited, and I do not know whether it could sustain life."

"Time has no meaning, space and place have no meaning, on this journey. All times can be inhabited, all places visited. In a single day the mind can make a millpond of the oceans. Some people who have never crossed the land they were born on have travelled all over the world. The journey is not linear, it is always back and forth, denying the calendar, the wrinkles and lines of the body. The self is not contained in any moment or any place, but it is only in the intersection of moment and place that the self might, for a moment, be seen vanishing through a door, which disappears at once."

"She saw herself by the fire as a child, a woman, a hunter, a queen. Grabbing the child she lost sight of the woman, and when she drew her bow the queen fled. What would it matter if she crossed the world and hunted down every living creature so long as her separate selves eluded her? In the end when no one was left she would have to confront herself."

Historische fantasie die zich afspeelt in de buurt van Londen in 1649.

Gorgeous gorgeous prose… also peak p*stmodernist literature - a lot of Questioning Grand Narratives like Heroism and the Fairy Tale, a piercing sense of skepticism throughout the book, pastiche and parody, intertextuality etc.

It’s the kind of book that I think would definitely benefit from many rereads! Very thematically dense and even though it’s a very thin book, there’s quite literally a lot to unpack here…

Gorgeous gorgeous prose… also peak p*stmodernist literature - a lot of Questioning Grand Narratives like Heroism and the Fairy Tale, a piercing sense of skepticism throughout the book, pastiche and parody, intertextuality etc.

It’s the kind of book that I think would definitely benefit from many rereads! Very thematically dense and even though it’s a very thin book, there’s quite literally a lot to unpack here…

In the reign of Charles II, Jordan and his mother, the Dog-Woman, live on the banks of the stinking Thames, where they take in sights ranging from the first pineapple in London to Royalist heads on pikes. As a young man, Jordan leaves to travel the world, seeking wonder and knowledge, and learns that every journey conceals another within it.Sexing The Cherrycelebrates the power of the imagination as it playfully juggles with our perceptions of history and reality; love and sex; lies and truths; and the twelve dancing princesses who lived happily ever after, but not with their husbands.

taryn a.

3.5 stars. Dizzying, immersive, strange, and visceral. I’m reminded as I was with The English Patient that what I value above all is a strong narrative (lacking here by nature of the fluidity that overruns the book), but Sexing The Cherry pulled me under regardless. Winterson has some of the most beautiful prose I’ve ever read, and I can see why those less attached to stricter narrative would be utterly in love.

joyce ian 

Opinions come grand. And the stylistics,crafted. Too intensive to work. It doesn’t work

Alexia

The fairytale part was a five-star read, but the historical potion was a two-star one, which means it was 3.5 stars altogether, rounded down to 3.

Emily Perkovich

I am so conflicted on this book. Large portions were so raw and surreal. But then there were other portions where it felt more like I had lost the thread of purpose of the intertwining narratives. This text was definitely...dense, making it a rather long read for short length. If it wasn’t for that I probably would have given it five stars despite the confusing bits.

In the reign of Charles II, Jordon and his mother, the Dog-Woman, live on the banks of the stinking Thames, where they take in sights ranging from the first pineapple in London to Royalist heads on pikes.

Daryl Houston

What a weird little novel this is. I like weird, off-beat fiction, and I liked a lot of this one. It's imaginative almost to a fault (it annoys me when the fantastical veers toward randomness or just toward being overdone, as this one felt toward the middle, especially around the stories of the dancing sisters), but I loved especially the dog trainer's segments. I liked the interplay between different times in the novel. I liked the historical bits and the tall-tale-ish bits. I loved the way the stories began to come together toward the end. Not quite a 4 for me really, but more than a 3.

Neeti Choudhari

I don't think I have understood even half of what this book is, but that doesn't stop me from loving it so very much.

Evi Smith

evan

Heather Margaret

Martha F.

Nihan 

Set in 17th-century England this is a novel of magical fantasy that celebrates the power of imagination as it juggles the readers perception of history and reality. A novel about love and sex; lies and truths; and 12 dancing princesses who lived happily ever after, but not with their husbands.

Ipek

Sexing the Cherry celebrates the power of the imagination as it playfully juggles with our perception of history and reality. It is a story about love and sex; lies and truths; and twelve dancing princesses who lived happily ever after, but not with their husbands. With a new introduction by the author 'A book of innocence and bawdiness, fury and joy...needs to be read and re-read' The Times 'Read it and marvel. Jeanette Winterson's voice is startlingly original, and her imaginative feats are utterly dazzling' Cosmopolitan 'Her stories and characters levitate off the page into dancing life... A bold, bizarre and timely book' Independent 'Simple prose shows the subtlest of minds behind it, swift, confident and dazzling' Financial Times

Sexing the Cherry

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