An so it came to pass that with two thirds of the year boxed off your humble correspondent threw up his hands and declared that all the year's lofty aims were coming a horrible cropper. Which, of course, they were always going to. However, it's hard to get too down-heartened about failing in the tasks I've set myself when the attempt contains gems like this.
It's stretching the no re-reads rule a trifle, because I have indeed read this book before, but it was that long ago I reckoned an exception could be made, and I'm very glad I did. What seemed to me to be unnecessarily tricksy when I was a tedious undergrad who wasn't half as clever as he thought he was has turned over time into a glorious flight of fancy (or rather, I've turned into someone who can get his head around it). Concerning the adventures of Jordan, an abandoned child discovered on the banks of the Thames (two rivers already, with all the intimation of travel and impermanence that they imply) by his adoptive mother, the larger than life Dog Woman.
As Jordan , not one to be tied to one place, roams the world looking for new fruits in the company of the King's gardener, John Tradescant, and in the process tracking down his mysterious true love who may or may not be real the Dog Woman stays put, mourns his absence, breeds her fighting dogs and murders a few Puritans. But this is only a tiny fraction of a story that roams over time and reality whilst resisting definitive interpretation. The Jordan of the 1600s becomes Nicholas Jordan of the 1990s, likewise a sailor, likewise dissatisfied, he meets his own woman by a river, an environmental campaigner. Winterson roams with cheerful disregard across time, what matters, of course, is the journey
Like all good books, it works on a few levels, at once feminist critique, magic-realist fable and bawdy farce. Winterson writes by turns with delicate yearning and ribald energy. The use of the fable of the Twelve Dancing Princesses is an excellent framing device for Jordan's quest, and allows her to skewer gender-role preconceptions with accuracy and precision, as they find happiness by abandoning marriages in various way. This also the case in the form of the Dog Woman, who is stronger and larger than any man, and content in her own company, finding that men break so easily. The magic-realist elements recall Calvino's Invisible Cities, as Jordan travels to impossible places and sees marvels and wonders, but who knows what seemed impossible and marvellous at that time? Indeed, the presentation of the wonder that is the banana is a key marker for what will follow. Much that seems banal now was once a mystery, and this book, which was once a mystery is anything but banal. Now, if only someone will let me have another crack at that undergrad essay....
It's stretching the no re-reads rule a trifle, because I have indeed read this book before, but it was that long ago I reckoned an exception could be made, and I'm very glad I did. What seemed to me to be unnecessarily tricksy when I was a tedious undergrad who wasn't half as clever as he thought he was has turned over time into a glorious flight of fancy (or rather, I've turned into someone who can get his head around it). Concerning the adventures of Jordan, an abandoned child discovered on the banks of the Thames (two rivers already, with all the intimation of travel and impermanence that they imply) by his adoptive mother, the larger than life Dog Woman.
As Jordan , not one to be tied to one place, roams the world looking for new fruits in the company of the King's gardener, John Tradescant, and in the process tracking down his mysterious true love who may or may not be real the Dog Woman stays put, mourns his absence, breeds her fighting dogs and murders a few Puritans. But this is only a tiny fraction of a story that roams over time and reality whilst resisting definitive interpretation. The Jordan of the 1600s becomes Nicholas Jordan of the 1990s, likewise a sailor, likewise dissatisfied, he meets his own woman by a river, an environmental campaigner. Winterson roams with cheerful disregard across time, what matters, of course, is the journey
Like all good books, it works on a few levels, at once feminist critique, magic-realist fable and bawdy farce. Winterson writes by turns with delicate yearning and ribald energy. The use of the fable of the Twelve Dancing Princesses is an excellent framing device for Jordan's quest, and allows her to skewer gender-role preconceptions with accuracy and precision, as they find happiness by abandoning marriages in various way. This also the case in the form of the Dog Woman, who is stronger and larger than any man, and content in her own company, finding that men break so easily. The magic-realist elements recall Calvino's Invisible Cities, as Jordan travels to impossible places and sees marvels and wonders, but who knows what seemed impossible and marvellous at that time? Indeed, the presentation of the wonder that is the banana is a key marker for what will follow. Much that seems banal now was once a mystery, and this book, which was once a mystery is anything but banal. Now, if only someone will let me have another crack at that undergrad essay....
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