Rating: 
Summary: Mesmerizing account of a love affair
Review: With some of the most compelling language ever used to describe love and eros, relationships and death, Jeanette Winterson has penned a true original. This novel also has flashes of wicked humor and searing insight. You'll want to underline passages to return to later.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book to re-read at different times in your life
Review: Although "Written On The Body" can go off on a few more tangents than I'd prefer, it is otherwise a stunning work of art. The words of this novel are often more like lyrics than prose, and the characters are richly explored. I've had this book for 5 years now and read it at least a dozen times; each time I read it I get something else out of it. Especially good to re-read at different stages of your life, since I think the meaning you might draw from it as a young adult, for example, will differ from what you see in it at 30, or 50, or 60.My only other criticism is that the story has a somewhat tedious beginning. But in the end, it's definitely worth slogging through (or skipping the beginning altogether on subsequent reads, as I do)!
Rating: 
Summary: made me laugh out aloud
Review: JW writes fluently and well .... BUT at times she is shamefully self-indulgent: "I looked into her hands and thought 'here is the campfire that mocks the sun'"? puh-lease! skip the middle bit with the anatomy-waffle. the first few examples are interesting but as with any gimmick it loses its appeal and becomes predictable, merely an exercise to be completed. the ending was good, though - unexpected.
Rating:
Summary: Rideing the Waves of Revulsion
Review: After reading Winterson's Written ion the Body, I knew ther was something unique about her writing style. As I read I kept feeling these "waves of revulsion" in the pit of my stomach. At the top of the wave, I understood where she was comeing from, but at the bottom, the subject matter was enough to make me cringe. That is why I keep comeing back. The fact that she has a genderless/nameless author allows the reader to hear their own narrator's voice. The questions that are raised regarding love are universal, yet approached from a unique standpoint. Her characters are realistic and moveing. The plot makes this an impossible book to set down. If you want a book that will broaden your horizons, this is it. Other wise, don't waste Jeanette's time...
Rating:
Summary: Surprising and gripping book
Review: Honestly, this book sat on my shelf for five years. I kept avoiding it, although I loved *The Passion*. But, all I finally picked it up the other day and all I can say is wow, I am sorry I waited so long. First of all, I never expected it to be so FUNNY! The "genderless" (read: female) narrator's description of previous relationships were hilarious. This allowed the rest of the book where it was by turns lyrical and sad to just soar. Winterson's prose is some of the finest around. Don't wait to read this...
Rating: 
Summary: It's a Girl!
Review: While I enjoyed reading this book it's obvious that the proclaimed "genderless" narrator is a woman. The author is going to have to do more than not use gender specific pronouns, etc., to make this story genderless.
Rating:
Summary: Such love, such beautiful, sensual space...
Review: This is one of the most powerful and magnificent love stories I have ever read. Winterson, a young British writer, has crafted a tale in which her narrator is genderless and the lover is a married woman. Impossible you say? It says on the back cover, "The narrator...has neither name, nor gender; the beloved is a married woman...as Winterson chronicles their consuming affair, she compels us to see love stripped of cliches and categories, as a phenomenon as visceral as blood and organs, bone and tissue..." What makes the novel such a powerful love story is just that. Love without the "cliches", the boundaries set by the culture and the society. The bigger question that is raised by this book is one of the writing 'voice'. Can a woman successfully write in a man's voice? Or a man in a woman's? Charles Dickens was once derided by a friend for having written "Bleak House" in a woman's voice. Because my sister (an English teacher at U. Mass, Amherst) teaches a class on Men and Women in Literature, she asked me to read this with an eye for any written clues that might identify the narrator's gender. Winterson is so clever and such a brilliant writer that there were both many and none! The reader is left not so much with the beauty of the love story or the lyrical prose, but rather with the question of literary voices. A fascinating book
Rating:
Summary: Like No Other
Review: This is an amazing story of love in its barest form, stripped of cliches and socialized gender roles. Erotic and never-ever cheesy, i would recommend this book as a gift for your beloved (I gave it to mine!). Winterson's mastery of poetical prose is never as clear as in this novel. Her finest work to date.
Rating:
Summary: Barely worth it
Review: The only parts of this book that stand out are the anatomically-titled sections, which feature the most original writing in the book. Within these sections the body of the loved one is examined and glorified in poetic prose. JW can spin a good phrase occassionally but over all the book failed to arouse the same passion that other readers experienced. The fact that the gender of the narrator is left ambiguous neither distracts nor adds to the book. Also, I was unable to care for the characters. This was my first JW fiction book to read. I am still planning on trying _The Passion_. I hope it is more rewarding than this book.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most beautiful books I have ever read....
Review: It took a few pages to get in to, but then I couldn't put it down. I read until the wee hours of the morning... Of course I got called into work the next morning, but you know what? It was worth it! This book is beautiful. I've recommended it to everyone I know.
|
