11 December 2011

Book: Jeanette Winterson 'Sexing the Cherry' (1989)


I've labeled this piece a book, but I think it may really be a song disguised as a sheaf of pages. It's funny - I've avoided reading it for years, purely because I loathed the title - all that time I've been missing out on one of the loveliest little novels I've ever experienced. Winterson's writing is as exotically musical as any of the finest compositions by Mozart and Hindemith, or perhaps the gold-threaded concerti of Aram Khachaturian; as sensually, synaesthetically pleasing as a night breeze, a glass of darkest china tea, a sea of ragged-edged silks. An enchanted fairy-tale of sailing ships, never-before-seen fruits from unmapped countries, twelve dancing princesses, gardeners of kings, a giantess with a flock of hounds and one far-reaching, roving, foundling son. Do read it; you couldn't possibly regret  doing so.


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