Great Reads: Jeanette Winterson's Sexing the Cherry

Sexing the Cherry

Review by Melissa Clissold

Set in the seventeenth century around the beheading of Charles I and the Puritan revolution, the novel sets out to discover the confusing relationships between human beings and to transcend all stereotypical views. In this novel, Jeanette Winterson truly captures the essence of love and discovery.

The work mainly focuses on the relationship between Jordan, an explorer, and his mother Dog-Woman, a large and physically grotesque woman. With elements of magical realism and with the twisting of traditional fairy tales such as The Twelve Dancing Princesses, the novel delves into the absurdity of life. Jordan constantly searches for his “love” - one of the Twelve Dancing Princesses - while his mother constantly awaits his return. It seems there is a discovery to be made for the readers as well as the characters. One never knows which direction life will lead and must somehow be open to all possibilities. This is the message that Winterson attempts to put across: even though Jordan finds his love while on his explorations, he is rejected and it is this rejection that allows possibilities to flourish.

Winterson depicts her characters in unconventional ways. As the novel progresses the reader comes to accept, and even embrace, the unconventional portrayals as Winterson surpasses ideas of conformity and social acceptance. Dog-Woman’s ugly appearance and the murdering princesses in particular allow the reader to embrace things that at first they would perhaps be averse to.

Elements of feminism are present in the novel as most female characters are presented as stronger than their male counterparts. Furthermore, Jordan is also depicted as a figure searching for his feminine side and portrayed as loving and attached to his grotesque mother. These subtleties allow any reader to question social values that seem to lose more and more importance as the novel develops.

Winterson herself states that: “I wanted to build another word-dependent world, not restricted either by realism or contemporaneity.” Her reason for setting the piece in the past is exactly for this: to escape reality and portray a world which is free of all restraints.

Readers must be prepared for a magical journey full of descriptions of the colourful intricacies and depictions of the beauties of life. These are brought to life through Winterson’s imaginative metaphors of juicy fruits – which are used as pathways to exotic and unknown lands.

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