Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, first published work by British writer Jeanette Winterson, published in 1985. This short semi-autobiographical novel is an unconventional coming-of-age story, and it won the Whitbread Award for best first novel.

The life of the main character (whose name is also Jeanette) parallels Winterson’s own, and the story is seen through her eyes. She is adopted and lives in a council house in Lancashire. Her father is all but invisible, her mother is a fanatical member of a evangelical fundamentalist Christian sect. The story begins when Jeanette is seven years old and describes what her life is like and what her mother has taught her. Though her mother regards school as a “breeding ground,” she receives a letter requiring her to send Jeanette to school. Before Jeanette starts school, she experiences an episode of deafness, which her mother believes is a sign that she is in a state of rapture. Another church member, however, takes Jeanette to the hospital, where she has surgery. Elsie, an elderly church member who studies literature, takes care of Jeanette during this time. When she goes to school, Jeanette’s religiosity proves off-putting to both students and teachers, and it leaves her isolated.

At about age 16, Jeanette falls in love with a girl named Melanie. Unable to see any conflict between her love for Melanie and her love for God, Jeanette tells her mother about her new love. When the pastor accuses Melanie and Jeanette of being influenced by Satan, Melanie repents, but Jeanette does not, and she is locked in a parlor without food for 36 hours, after which she pretends repentence. For a while she becomes more deeply involved in the church, preaching and leading Bible study classes. However, she then meets and falls in love with Katy.

Jeanette’s mother and pastor say that Jeanette is acting as a man, usurping a role that does not belong to her, but Jeanette does not believe that her love for Katy is sinful. Eventually, Jeanette is banished from her mother’s home and the church, and she begins a new life. In the final chapter, Jeanette returns to the village, and her mother behaves as though nothing had changed.

Winterson’s grasp of language and form is imaginative and facile. The book is divided into eight chapters named after the first eight books of the Bible, and the narrative of each chapter is thematically related to the named book. Fanciful tales are woven into the realistic story as well, and they give Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit a magical and surreal energy. In 1989, Winterson herself wrote the screenplay for the three-episode BBC mini-series based on the novel, which won the BAFTA award for best television drama serial.