Rating: Three 1/2 Stars ***^
Genre: Fiction - GLBT themes
Awards: 1985 Whitbread Award for a First Novel
Summary: Jeanette is the adopted daughter of an protestant mother, who is evangelical and deamed odd by the standards by the rest of the community. Nonetheless, Jeanette is raised in the church and is destined to become a missionary. She feels this is her calling, until her relationship blooms with a close church friend Melanie, which has her mother and Pastor Finch saying prayers and casting out her demons.
Evaluation: The novel incorporates GLBT subjects and appears to be autobiographical, but the plot is centered around a girls conservative, quirky upbringing by a strange, overly religious and controlling mother. The setting and time period, as well as the integration of protestant ideas, make the story interesting and engrossing. What sold short was the emotions that Jeanette had for the other women in her life, which was expected in a book presented as a 'queer' novel. It itself, Jeanette stirs up in her readers, emotions of bitterness for those who try to control her and liberation when she succumbs to her true identity.
Read-a-likes: Art & Lies by Jeannette Winterson
Wayward Girls and Wicked Women: An Anthology of Subversive Stories by Various and Angela Carter
Essential Acker: the selected writings of Kathy Acker
TV Series Information (1989)
Interesting fact about the novel via Interview with Jeanette Winterson:
Do you think of Oranges as a lesbian novel?
No. It's for anyone interested in what happens at the frontiers of common-sense. Do you stay safe or do you follow your heart? I've never understood why straight fiction is supposed to be for everyone, but anything with a gay character or that includes gay experience is only for queers. That said, I'm really glad the book has made a difference to so many young women.
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