Jeanette Winterson's novels have established her as a major figure in world literature.
She has written some of the most admired books of the past few decades, including her internationally bestselling first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, the story of a young girl adopted by Pentecostal parents that is now often required reading in contemporary fiction.
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is a memoir about a life's work to find happiness.
It's a book full of stories: about a girl locked out of her home, sitting on the doorstep all night; about a religious zealot disguised as a mother who has two sets of false teeth and a revolver in the dresser, waiting for Armageddon; about growing up in an north England industrial town now changed beyond recognition; about the Universe as Cosmic Dustbin.
It is the story of how a painful past that Jeanette thought she'd written over and repainted rose to haunt her, sending her on a journey into madness and out again, in search of her biological mother.
My Review of Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
This is an autobiography, where Jeanette talks about her life, childhood and belonging. Having been adopted into a dysfunctional family of a woman who is depressive, a religious fanatic, who sees religion as a punishment to offenders rather than a means of salvation, and a weak father.
Her adopted mother is always at war with the world, because she hates the world, and has never considered Jeanette as someone to love.
But how can she love her, when she doesn't even love herself?
Jeanette says they're living like refugees in their home, because her mum doesn't care about anyone, and her dad doesn't talk about the maltreatment, maybe because he's weak, or maybe because he wants peace to reign.
As a kid, Jeanette doesn't know what it means to be loved, to be accepted.
She describes adoption as forever missing some parts of your story, because you're dropped in the middle.
And no matter how much you try, you can never know your full story, the part that existed before you were introduced to the one you now know.
She says,
... But adoption drops you into the story after it has started. It's like reading a book with the first few pages missing...
She takes solace in books and reading, as she would hide and read and read, till she becomes weary of reading.
Reading becomes her only companion, till her mother finds out and burns all her books.
Jeanette neither loves nor hates her mother. She refers to her as,
a monster, but my monster...
This book tells a story of a girl who struggles to belong, to be loved, to be accepted and who finds out that reading and writing could be her saving grace.
She also finds out she's gay later in life.
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