Written on the Body

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful love story, wonderful writing!!
Review: "Written on the body is a secret code only visible in certain lights; the accumulations of a lifetime gather there. In places the palimpsest is so heavily worked that the letters feel like braille. I like to keep my body rolled up away from prying eyes. Never unfold too much, tell the whole story. I didn't know that Louise would have reading hands. She has translated me into her own book." -Jeanette Winterson

A Russian translator speaks about the preoccupation that this person has with women -- a series of women, until Louise comes into this person's life, transforming it forever. Their Love Story is beautifully detailed and lovingly chronicled in heartstopping prose. This writer can create unforgettable paragraphs. Her book is refreshingly put together, and she has used abundant creativity in constructing loving passages, one after another, written on the body -- or rather about the body, and the protagonist's insatiable longing for Louise.

Poignant, pensive, and beautiful -- this book is a joy. The Love Story is magical and wondrous and makes one's heart flutter to read about it. I shall treasure my memories of it. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking
Review: This is an extraordinary narrative that focuses on the pleasure and the pain associated with being in love. An individual who has no name, no gender and no age tells the story to us. We as readers can easily relate to the narrator's feelings despite the fact that there is nothing distinctive or tangible about the narrator for us to relate to. The fact is the narrator is swimming in a sea of beautiful emotions where I'm sure many of us would love to drown. We hear about the narrator's intense relationship with Louise, a beautiful woman with flaming red hair who is married to a stodgy, fuddy-duddy named Elgin. The writing is so descriptive and captivating, one can really understand how it must feel to love someone with every last ounce of their existence. Jeanette Winterson takes us to a sensual place where many of us have visited at one time or another or would love to visit again. With beautifully descriptive and insightful writing, wry wit and splashes of comedy, "Written on the Body" is a book you'll want to read over and over again! Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Worst Book I've Ever Read
Review: As an English major I must say that this book is the worst I have ever read. Besides its style, which is different from the so-called patriarchal style of rising action, climax, and then conclusion, this book in my opinion has no redeeming quality, especially for a Christian. I hated this book so much that, with a friend, we burnt our copies inside a grill at a local park.

Rating:
Summary: Masterful Story Telling
Review: Wintersen is a story teller. She does not write in the bland narrative most authors use. If you are looking for a book that hands you the plot, this is not the one.

Personally, I don't understand why anyone would whine about not knowing the gender of the narrator. If you read the book, you'll find it isn't important to the story. If you find it bothers you, I would ask yourself why. I think part of why the narrator's gender is not revealed is to get the reader to examine personal gender assumptions and biases. What exactly is it that is so disturbing about not knowing?

This book will also challenge your assumptions about what concepts such as love, lust, passion, and emotion truly encompass. I think it will also make most readers question their assumptions concerning those concepts, at least to the extent that they clash with those held by the characters. (An old zen saying, "the pear is not as the observer wills" comes immediately to mind.)

If you're prone to being swept away by romantic lyricism, I would read this book twice; once to indulge in the feeling, and once to indulge in the thinking.

Rating:
Summary: poetry
Review: please read this book, it's poetry in prose, it is an emotional masterpiece; read it, and go on to read everything else by jeanette winterson.

Rating:
Summary: The other side of an Affair: The Lovers point of view.
Review: A first person tale of love, loss, and the lingering effects of Adultery from the Lovers point of view; I found this book to be very introspective and insightful. It reads like a journal of a Lovers entanglement both rewarding and regretful.

You will take a journey of pain, hope, disenchantment, and even love. Our narrator is no fresh flower stumbling around marriage but knows very well the waters they find themselves in, rough and inviting.

I enjoyed this book because of the language and imagery used: beautiful, haunting, revealing, and truthful. Some wonderful examples are the following:

"What other places are there in the world than those discovered on a lovers body?"
"What then kills love? Only this: NEGLECT."

The first sentence in the book is, "Why is the measure of love loss?" and that tells you pretty much what you need to know.

girldiver:)

Rating:
Summary: Exquisite
Review: Every time someone asks me my favorite book, this is the one I name. Ms. Winterson has created the loveliest of lovely with this book... Her words read like chocolate melting on a tongue, and her characters' passion reflects her own for truly original and outstanding literature.

Rating:
Summary: Indescribably powerful
Review: Critics often accuse Winterson--and other postmodernists--of using gimmicks in their books. Whether <i>Written</i> contains a gimmick or not is up to you--but regardless, it is a wonderful book containing a flawlessly woven and heartbreakingly accurate--and beautiful--view of love and human nature. Winterson fans and first-time Jeanette readers will each find different stories in this undeniably postmodern book: is it a commentary on gender? On relationships? On human emotion?

Does it matter?

If you finish this book and don't find yourself with a differently passionate outlook on life, love, lust, and your chosen object(s) of affection, you might want to check and see if you have a pulse.

Rating:
Summary: QUEEN OF ALL BOOKS IN THE WORLD
Review: I don't know how many books I've read in my life, but this one here is my all-time favorite. Jeanette Winterson plays with language in such an enchanting and breath-taking way that it's almost unbelievable. I am a big fan of all her novels, but "Written on the Body" is simply the best, I even use to call it the "Queen of books"!
Every word is completely honest and true, something which makes the book so special. I know that "Written on the Body" is especially famous for its obviously "gender-less" narrotor, but - in my opinion - the narrotor's gender becomes more and more obvious while reading the book. I must say I wasn't questioning about the heroine's sex right from the beginning, it'll become quite clear if you take a look at the narrator's feelings, thoughts, reactions etc. (maybe this is because of the gender of the author of the book, I don't know).
Clearly the most beautiful thing for me is the way Jeanette writes about love, beauty, sex, passion, desperation and, of course, loss. I honestly don't know any author in the world who is able to write like that, it's simply gorgeous! It's so beautiful that sometimes I even wondered if parts of the book are still a novel or already poetry.
If you want to read the most emotional, lush, intense, poetic and complex love-story in the world, you'll enjoy this book as much as I did!

Truly, a masterpiece - thank you, Jeanette.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable and worth a read if you're into romance.
Review: I don't feel the need to add my two cents regarding the writing and imagery of this book since it seems to be generally agreed that the aforementioned are excellent and well suited to anyone looking to read words of romance and passion.

I found some passages lacking in resonance since they seemed to be interjected into the story rather than arising as natural components meshed within the overall weave of the work. And the final metaphor was lost on me since I find the object of comparison to be sterile and evocative of chill emptiness. Also, since I've studied so much anatomy and physiology, the chapters devoted to obsession with the beloved's bodily workings tended to not be (for me, anyway) as moving as they could have been to one who hasn't read the words "ventricles" and "T-cells" a hundred times over.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and I honestly haven't read enough romances to rank this as a personal favorite since I've not much to compare it to, but if you enjoy romance and stream-of-consciousness personal meditations, then this book will probably suit you well.