Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Jeanette WintersonThe shocking, heart-breaking - and often very funny - true story behind Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - “A tour de force of literature and love” (Vogue).
"This remarkable account is, among other things, a powerful argument for reading... This memoir is brave and beautiful, a testament to the forces of intelligence, heart and imagination. It is a marvellous book and generous one." - Spectator
In 1985, at twenty-five, Jeanette published Oranges, the story of a girl adopted by Pentecostal parents, supposed to grow up to be a missionary. Instead, she falls in love with a woman. Disaster.
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit became an international bestseller, inspired an award-winning BBC adaptation, and was semi-autobiographical. Mrs Winterson, a thwarted giantess, loomed over the novel and the author's life: when Jeanette left home at sixteen because she was in love with a woman, Mrs Winterson asked her: Why be happy when you could be normal?
"This is certainly the most moving book of Winterson's I have ever read... but it wriggles with humour... At one point I was crying so much I had tears in my ears. There is much here that is impressive, but what I find most unusual about it is the way it deepens one's sympathy, for everyone involved." - Zoe Williams, The Guardian
This is Jeanette Winterson's story - acute, fierce, celebratory - of a life's work to find happiness: witty, acute, fierce, and celebratory, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is a tough-minded story of the search for belonging - for love, identity, home, and a mother.