recommended by Andrew to Khristy. recommended by Khristy to me. recommended by me to anyone who thinks that contemporary post-modern literature is lacking. i assure you, it is not. ( )

A quick look through my library would tell you that I happen to truly enjoy (and I was tempted to use ‘love’) Winterson’s books. I enjoyed this one as well, though not as much. That part of her prose that makes her books feel almost magical was not there. This one was much more grounded in reality. Not that that is a bad thing, but I felt as if I wanted to read Winterson for what I had known her for.
She did, however set herself a very ambitious goal in this one, and executed it fairly well. ( )

I read this book for a class and it has become one of my favorites. I love how the narrator's sex is never mentioned striping it down to what it truly is, an amazing story of love and loss.

To be honest, Written on the Body is not my favorite of Winterson's works. It's maudlin, as another reviewer wrote, and I simply didn't care at all for the narrator. Too dramatic and bloated for my tastes. It's not bad, of course, nothing Winterson writes could ever be truly terrible, but it's so purple. ( )

Infatuated and Infatuating: This is barely a novel in the traditional sense.
The first-person narrator sounds at first like a man
then later, like a woman. He/she has no particular
characteristics of her/his own.
The plot is also barely there. Narrator is having an
affair with one woman, meets another, falls in love.
Lover leaves husband. Narrator learns that lover has
cancer and that only Estranged Husband can cure her.
(No surprise in an English novel, the semi-vile Husband
just happens to be Jewish.)
Narrator leaves lover, regrets her decision, goes looking
for her. Hero on a quest theme music. The End.

This lack of plot and person(ality) makes it easier
for her (we have to end up thinking of the narrator
as 'her')to observe the world without being particularly touched
by it. It also clears the way for some observations
about a deeply felt love that seems to spring up,
seize her by the throat and carry her off. Our narrator
barely acts, but she keeps a very sharp eye on that
which acts on her.

It is that eye, plus the poignancy of her analysis of what
she sees that makes this such a remarkable book. Love
and Loss are often partners-it's easy to imagine their
names painted on an office door-but in this book, they
are dancing partners. Love and Loss are the Fred and Ginger
that tease out the reader's recollections of the universal
feelings of being in love and take us quickly to our very
particular memories.

It's a pity that this book is printed in such an unattractive
paperback edition-it would make a perfect gift bound in leather,
no dust jacket and with a little pocket to hold a rose.


--Lynn Hoffman, author of [[ASIN:0131186361 New Short Course in Wine,The]] and
the completely infatuating [[ASIN:1601640005 bang BANG: A Novel]]

Achingly, passionately written, without being over the top. Absolutely relateable. This book, though short in pages, will stay with you for far longer than it takes to read it... ( )

I originally read this book for an introductory class on literary criticism and theory, for which it is well suited. But beyond that, it's quite an enjoyable novel. One of the main themes is that the narrator has no identity except in relation to the various relationships he/she has - and since it's told from a first person perspective, the reader can't even know if the narrator should be referred to as "he" or "she."

I've seen this technique elsewhere, where a character is meant to be mysterious and given know descriptors, but in most cases it seems pretty stilted and stupid. Not so for Written on the Body! With this novel, the importance isn't placed on who the narrator is, but on how the narrator interacts with lovers and what happens with those relationships.

It was kind of fun to read this in class and hear about the judgments on the sex that my classmates made. Some were absolutely convinced that the narrator is a man while others were equally certain that the narrator is a woman, although any sex acts could involve either (and the relationships are with both men and women, further blurring the lines). It was an interesting look at why a particular voice can sound masculine or feminine and readers' prejudices.

All this is more of a reason for why it's a good novel for a literary criticism class, I suppose, but it's also why I enjoy rereading it. Maybe it's not a "fun" book and it requires a bit more thought than beach reading, but it's well worth the effort. ( )

Winterson has been the kind of writer whose works I've flicked through in bookshops, but never got around to actually reading in full.

In this novel I'm somewhat ambivalent about her style - at times incredibly moving and poetic, shunning conventional limits - reminiscent to me of Virginia Woolf - yet at other times somewhat bloated, maudlin and over-written for my taste. Let me look on the positive side, however, and say that Winterson certainly delivers what the title promises - some portions are truly quite anatomical!

To remain positive, here are a few passages I really enjoyed. This one comes from the first page of the novel:

"You said 'I love you.' Why is it that the most unoriginal thing we can say to one another is still the thing we long to hear? 'I love you' is always a quotation. You did not say it first and neither did I, yet when you say it and when I say it we speak like savages who have found three words and worship them. I did worship them but now I am alone on a rock hewn out of my own body.

CALIBAN:
You taught me language and my profit on't is
I know how to curse. The red plague rid you
For learning me your language.

Love demands expression. It will not stay still, stay silent, be good, be modest, be seen and not heard, no. It will break out in tongues of praise, the high note that smashes the glass and spills the liquid. It is no conservationist love. It is a big game hunter and you are the game. A curse on this game. How can you stick at a game when the rules keep changing? I shall call myself Alice and play croquet with the flamingoes. In Wonderland everyone cheats and love is Wonderland isn't it?"

I also liked this visual imagery, from near the end of the novel (but with Winterson I get the feeling that plot doesn't really matter anyway, so no spoilers here).

"Lights in ribbons where the road runs. Hard flares far away at the industrial estate. In the sky the red and green landing lights of an aircraft full of sleepy people."

Ultimately, then, a striking novel of impressions for me, but a little less coherent as a whole. ( )

This is when I started giving up on Jeanete who I'd loved up until then. "Gut Symmetries" was the clincher though. Shame she disowned "Boating for Beginners" - at least she didn't take herself quite so seriously then. ( )

I read Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, and I enjoyed it enough that I picked up another of her books. This tells the tale of a protagonist whose gender is never directly revealed (though she's a woman if I've ever seen one) and her love affair with a married woman. Who may or may not be dying of cancer. Even if it is about a lesbian relationship, Winterson's skill is such that it feels like it's about any and all relationships. Well, maybe not quite so broad-- I can't say I've ever had one like this-- but it still feels very real and very moving. The section where the protagonist is searching for her lost love is magnificently heart-aching, and the rest of the book is very good, too.

A work that describes the palpable and obsessional nature of grief. Perhaps my favorite of Winterson's books--I reread it every couple of years. ( )

The finest book ever written by the finest writer I have ever read! No one has the command of the written word that Winterson displays in this masterpiece. ( )

When I first read this book I knew nothing about love. A year later I quoted it in the first love letter I ever wrote. "A precise emotion demand a precise expression. I what I feel is not precise, should I call it love". It feels deeply embedded in my life. I can vividly remember scenes and passages. I absolutely loved it, all it's playfulness and wittiness. It's arrogance and faltering love. Yet it is a true traditional and very romantic love story, with one perfect love which ends with noble self-sacrifice. ( )

Poignant and breathtaking... a celebration of the beauty and grief of love. reading it aloud with a lover is highly recommended ( )

beautiful... is the narrator a man or a woman? Winterson's best, I agree!--Marley

Breathtaking. Winterson's finest, in my opinion. ( )

Brilliant. Flawless. One of the greatest books of all time. Winterson's very best. ( )

Easily one of the most beautiful and captivating books ever written about love. ( )

I love this book. It's an incredibly written story about the narrator (left nameless and genderless) and relationships. Makes my heart catch in my throat when I read it. ( )

This book will change your life. It changed mine. ( )