Written on the Body is the first book by Jeanette Winterson that I have read, but years ago, our teacher, who had an affair with her student at the university, tried to make us read another book by the author. I say she tried because she shelved the project when no one was interested in the book but herself.
After graduation, I couldn’t help but think why this woman tried to make us read this book, and I looked for the book. However, when I couldn’t find it, I abandoned the subject entirely and concentrated on the discovery of other authors. Since I’m focusing on English authors these days, I thought it was time to read Winterson when I came across her name while researching who is there to read. But, Written on the Body by Winterson seemed like a book to be read in high school. You see, we didn’t get along very well with the author.
Written on the Body proceeds with the narrator, about whom we know almost nothing. We don’t know the name or gender of this narrator, but when you look at it, both are not really necessary. That is because this is a love story that includes many other elements. To enjoy Winterson’s writing, I think you need to be closer to a particular genre; I’m not entirely sure, but I wouldn’t say I liked the author’s style or creations.
Frankly, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes while reading some of her sentences, even though I rarely do. However, at the beginning ofWritten on the Body, I thought this book would go well. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a huge disappointment. Still, I intend to read her first book, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, which she became famous, and to reconcile with the author. Have you read her books before? Or do you prefer Sarah Waters?
Written on the Body
‘Written on the Body is a deep, sensual plunge, a worship of the body, inside and out’ The Times
In a quiet English suburb, a love affair ignites. For our nameless narrator, Louise is the last in a long line of explosive passions, but the first to have broken their heart. With Louise’s husband, Elgin, blocking love’s course, their affair is doomed to unravel – until, that is, a terrible choice must be made.
With its witty and masterful prose, Written on the Body takes the reader on a beguiling and defying exploration of love and its physical forms.
‘An ambitious work, at once a love story and a philosophical meditation on the body’ Sunday Telegraph
Jeanette Winterson
Jeanette Winterson, (born August 27, 1959, Manchester, England), British writer noted for her quirky, unconventional, and often comic novels.
Winterson was educated at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, and held various jobs while working on her writing. Her first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985), won a Whitbread Award as that year’s best first novel. It concerns the relationship between a young lesbian and her adoptive mother, a religious fanatic. The Passion (1987), her second work, is a picaresque historical novel that chronicles the adventures of Villanelle, an enslaved Venetian woman who is rescued by Henri, a cook from Napoleon’s army. Attempting to reach Venice, the two travel through Russia in winter.
Winterson’s subsequent novels included Sexing the Cherry (1989); Written on the Body (1992); Art and Lies (1994), about dehumanization and the absence of love in society; Gut Symmetries (1997); and The PowerBook (2000). She later published Lighthousekeeping (2004), an exploration of the nature of storytelling told through the tale of an orphaned girl sent to live in a Scottish lighthouse; The Stone Gods (2007), a foray into science fiction; and The Daylight Gate (2012), set amid witch trials in 17th-century Lancashire.
The Gap of Time (2015) is a modernized retelling of William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. It was part of a project initiated by Hogarth, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, in which various authors reworked a play by Shakespeare to honour the 400th anniversary of the dramatist’s death. Winterson’s later novels included Frankissstein: A Love Story (2019), which was inspired by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein and was long-listed for the Booker Prize.
Art Objects: Essays on Ecstasy and Effrontery—which covers various topics such as Gertrude Stein, modern literature, and lesbianism—was published in 1995. Winterson produced a collection of short stories, The World and Other Places (1998); the vivid memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? (2011); and several children’s books and screenplays for television. She was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2006.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
