Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
General Musings: Today I received my new uniforms for my new position starting on Monday. Fair to say it feels surreal. I am very excited and very nervous about the position. My MBA elluminate session was a bust when I found out the computer I was using couldn't support the session. I get a second chance on Thursday and I'll get it right.
I'm addicted to The Wire and I am working fast through the second season--I'm watching the third episode of the evening while I write today's blog.
The previous books read section came and went yesterday, it returns tomorrow with better formatting. I'm pretty busy with school this week and a big article so I'll spare you my jibber jabber.
Running Page Count: 2,799
Today's Title (Memoir): Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Preface: I remember the first time I was in a bookstore and saw a Queer Fiction section and being surprised by its existence. I also moved on pretty fast--my younger self assumed being close to Gay Fiction was a sure fire way to risk a sudden unwanted change in orientation.
Gay people writing about being gay? What was the point I wondered. I'd like to think that I've matured a little and I am no longer freaked out by the genre--although I still give an initial wide berth to the section and make sure to keep constant vocal contact with my wife.
Now Queer Fiction has gone mainstream and stories like Milk and Brokeback Mountain have become popular fare. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is an early and exemplary piece of Queer Fiction. In 501 Must Read Books the book is in the Memoir category, however, it is in fact a fiction with autobiographical elements.
The Book: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a coming of age book about an adopted girl living in an oppressively Christian household. The protagonist Jeanette (note similarity to author's name) is adopted by a fundamental Christian family where the mother wishes to have a daughter without all that nasty sex. When Jeanette loses her hearing due to an ear infection her church believes her condition to be an effect of the rapture. In school her enthusiasm for the bible ostracizes her from other students.Puberty for Jeanette is tough and doesn't get easier when she starts to realize that her Evangelical community is cuckoo. Moreover, Jeanette starts getting strong feelings for Melanie who works at a fish stall (I can't imagine having strong feelings for anyone who is a fishmonger or tobacconist). When mom starts to realize her daughter likey the girls she drives her daughter into the arms of a lesbian neighbor. Next day the mother adopts tough love (read: exorcism) tactics and Jeanette leaves home and strikes out on her own in all her lesbian glory.
Grade: C+
Observations: A good book but a muddle of memoir and fiction that loses its potency and veracity by not adhering to either genre exclusively. Unfortunately, the strength of the memoir is in the details of the ordeal rather than the quality of the writing or story. Winterson is a good writer and the story is an important one but it didn't do it for me. Winterson rejects the label of Queer and Gay Fiction citing the fact that such labels hijack stories. My lack of enthusiasm for the novel as story I hope would earn Winterson's respect. It may be an unconscious prejudice against Queer Fiction but I honestly believe I have read better in the genre and believe the book is an exemplary by its timing rather than quality.
Segues: There is a BBC television adaptation running almost 3 hours, you can get it on DVD--I haven't seen it (yet). For great Queer Fiction read Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain and see the Larry McMurtry adaptation directed by Ang Lee--homophobes can enjoy the cinematography and strategically time concession visits.
Tomorrow's Book (Classic Fiction): Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary (12/501)
