”Oranges are not the only fruit” by Jeanette Winterson

Oranges are not the only fruit is a beautifully told story about a young girl, Jeanette, coming to terms with her sexuality in a Pentecostal community.  Each chapter title is taken from the old testament, and so the story begins with Genesis. Jeanette ‘s adoption is depicted like a scene from the nativity,  as her mother

 followed a star until it came to settle above an orphanage, and in that place was a crib, and in that crib was a child.

The young Jeanette is not allowed to attend school as it is a ‘breeding ground’, and she learns what she can from home.

I learned that it rains when clouds collide with a high building, like a steeple, or a cathedral; the impact punctures them, and everybody underneath gets wet. This was why, in the old days, when the only tall buildings were holy, people used to say cleanliness is next to godliness. The more godly your town, the more high buildings you’d have, and the more rain you’d get.

In the chapter Exodus, Jeanette does eventually go to school but it is not what she imagined, and she struggles to connect her religious upbringing with the demands of her school. Jeanette’s school days were full of disappointments,fighting and feeling like the outsider.  Her mother does not care about her daughters schooling as she is preparing Jeanette to be a missionary and for a long time that was what the young Jeanette believed she was to become.   One day Jeanette meets Melanie and she begins to develop feelings for her which at first she does not understand.  The two girls begin a friendship which blooms into relationship and this cause major problems for Jeanette, whose mother abhors ‘unnatural passions’.

In the introduction,author Jeanette Winterson writes that

Oranges is a threatening novel. It exposes the sanctity of family life as something of  a sham; it illustrates by example that what the church call love is actually psychosis and it dares to suggest that what makes life difficult for homosexuals is not their perversity but other peoples.

Oranges is a wonderful novel; sensitively told, funny and beautifully written. It is a 5/5 without question.