Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion

I read it years ago -- I don't remember everything about it vividly, but I do know that I really liked it. It was so lush and sensual, and gave you more to hang on to than some of Winterston's more experimental books.

I think the narrator is intentionally ambiguous, and that part of the point of the book is that that ambiguity is almost intolerable for the reader because we're so hardwired to think in terms of gender. Ursula LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness does the same kind of thing -- she imagines this intelligent, sophisticated alien race who essentially have no gender until their breeding season, and then individuals may become one of ... three genders, I think? And they differ from season to season as to which gender they become. It's shockingly hard to visualize the characters as not being male or female -- at least it was for me.

This is one of my favorite books, and one of my favorite authors (if you like this one you should read The Powerbook, amazing).

"What other places are there in the world than those discovered on a lover's body?"

"I don't know if this is a happy ending but here we are let loose in open fields."

I fell in love with this book on page 1, read it years ago. I believe shes deliberately ambiguous about the characters gender to show that we all feel the same way about our partner whether straight or gay, theres no difference to feelings. It could be about a man or a woman, it must have taken some effort to do the entire book without giving it away.

I'm wow-ing over what Steph said--that a book can nudge us to question in this way. How great!

I liked this book, too, but my very favorite Jeanette Winterson is THE PASSION. I also loved ORANGES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT and SEXING THE CHERRY.

I had to read this for a sociology of the body & gender studies course. It's definitely a very interesting and thought-provoking book. I especially like the part where she talks about love being like an old armchair and how it's the most cliche thing yet it's also the thing people desire the most. More than just being about gender/sexuality, I thought the book was about love itself-- taking it apart, looking at its anatomy, seeing both the cliches and past them.