Ratings6
Average rating3.5
“The marvelous and the horrific, the mythic and the mundane overlap and intermingle in this wonderfully inventive novel.” —The New York Times Winner of the E. M. Forster Award In a fantastic world that is and is not seventeenth-century England, a baby is found floating in the Thames. The child, Jordan, is rescued by Dog Woman and grows up to travel the globe like Gulliver—though he finds that the most curious oddities come from his own mind. The spiraling tale leads the reader from discussions on the nature of time to Jordan’s fascination with journeys concealed within other journeys, all with a dizzying speed that jumps from epiphany to shimmering epiphany. From the New York Times–bestselling author of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, Sexing the Cherry is “a mixture of The Arabian Nights touched by the philosophical form of Milan Kundera and told with the grace of Italo Calvino” (San Francisco Chronicle). “Those who care for fiction that is both idiosyncratic and beautiful will want to read anything [Winterson] writes.” —The Washington Post Book World
Reviews with the most likes.
I loved this book so much. I thought the first half was the best written and I relished the combination of gleeful abandon and authenticity, gravitas and flip, fierce love, gentle grace, rollicking adventure and audacious poeticism that make Winterson such a wonderful writer.
“Sexing the Cherry” is definitely the literary relative/offspring of Virginia Woolf's Orlando, and Winterson is in many respects, a worthy heir to her vision, albeit with a more earthy, humour-filled, action-oriented voice. There is less logic, less careful observation, and more pure feeling, provocation, and chaotic life here. Somewhere between the Dog Woman and the boy Jordan we can locate Orlando plainly, despite appearances.