He spends the rest of his life exploring the world, and when he lands in London, he has been gone for 13 years. He reunites with his mother, but it is clear that he still thinks of Fortunata, the object of his heart's longing. Nothing more needs to be said about the effort we put in to show our love, the symbolic little gestures that are only understandable if you are part of that specific unit of love. With its occasional dark humour and witty commentary on love, sex, gender, capitalism, sin and religion, Sexing The Cherry is nothing short of a masterpiece. The writing style also reminded me of one of my favourite poetry collections, The World Doesn't End. Suffice it to say that I am in love with this book. Interestingly, while Winterson is highly positive with her depictions of lesbian characters, the gay men are written very critically (this also occurred in The Passion). The historical time periods for which this stories occupy are part of it, but it is also to zero in on the levels of hierarchy to show how these men still occupy positions of power that they use to hold women, especially queer women, as subservient. The men are able to hide their sexuality behind positions of power, such as in the Church, and then use that role to quite literally burn women at the stake for having “impure” sexualities. I will need to think on this more in further books of hers, but I think that is what she is getting at and it seems to be a further commentary on her main themes (there does seem to be a possible tendency towards fatphobia in her books but I haven’t really examined that enough to comment just yet). At the level of plot, we read about a gigantic woman who finds a small boy, Jordan, on the banks of the Thames in London in the 17th century. She raises this boy and watches him grow to develop a passion for boats, sailing, and exploring, knowing that she will lose him to his passions, and knowing that he will lose his heart to a woman who will not return his love.

Sexing the Cherry | Grove Atlantic

John Tradescant is an explorer who voyages to different places and also works as a gardener to King Charles I. Tradescant takes on Jordan as his apprentice, and also takes him on voyages to collect plant specimens. Nicholas Jordan I resolved to set a watch on myself like a jealous father, trying to catch myself disappearing through a door just noticed in the wall. I knew I was being adulterous; that what I loved was not going on at home. I was giving myself the slip and walking through this world like a shadow. The longer I eluded myself the more obsessed I became with the thought of discovery. Occasionally, in company, someone would snap their fingers in front of my face and ask, “Where are you?” For a long time I had no idea, but gradually I began to find evidence of the other life and gradually it appeared before me. I discovered that my own life was written invisibly, was squashed between the facts, was flying without me like the Twelve Dancing Princesses who shot from their window every night and returned home every morning with torn dresses and worn-out slippers and remembered nothing. I am in awe of Jeanette Winterson's writing. I don't know how else to put it. After The Passion, I honestly thought I could not be more impressed. But I think "Sexing The Cherry" may be even better. I suspect that her short novels should be read again as soon as you have added another one to your repertoire, because there are recurring themes and (fruity) flavours that are definitely part of Winterson's general narrative.Physicist Albert Einstein once wrote ‘ the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion,’ time being an illusion neuroscientist Abhijit Naskar argues our minds create to ‘ aid in our sense of temporal presence.’ As with everything else in the book, Winterson’s approach to time follows Einstein’s assertion that it is an illusion and opens up a fantastic avenue in which the characters in 20th century London both are and aren’t those in the 17th century version. Sexing the Cherry is best when it dips into gorgeously poetic ponderings of time and ourselves as fallible and failing vessels temporarily sailing upon its seas. ‘ Where will we go next, when there are no more wildernesses?’ Winterson asks. Time, and inside ourselves in our understanding of it, appears to be the next great voyage. Translated, that means, I want everything. Translated, that means, I don't want to hurt you yet. Translated, that means, I don't know what to do, give me time. In 1640, when Jordan is around 10, his hobby of sailing small boats in the Thames attracts the attention of a man named John Tradescant, who works as a gardener employed by King Charles I. Tradescant has voyaged to many places around the world, and collected specimens of exotic plants. A few years later, around 1642, Tradescant asks Jordan to begin working as his apprentice; Jordan and Dog Woman move to Wimbledon, where Tradescant is designing beautiful gardens for Queen Henrietta Maria. By this time, England has become embroiled in a Civil War between Parliamentarians (who challenged the authority of King Charles) and Royalists (loyal to the king and existing systems of power). The Parliamentarians were also closely associated with the Puritan religious movement; Dog Woman has a history of conflict with the Puritans, as she disagrees with their severe and moralizing approach to religion. The future lies ahead like a glittering city, but like the cities of the desert disappears when approached. Narrator, p. 144

Sexing the Cherry Quotes and Analysis | GradeSaver Sexing the Cherry Quotes and Analysis | GradeSaver

Jordan is one of the novel's protagonists, and Dog Woman's adopted son. He grows up in 17th-century London and becomes an apprentice gardener. He also eventually travels around the world collecting samples of exotic plants. Jordan has a rich imagination, and is quite sensitive and philosophical. He falls in love with a mysterious woman after only seeing her once, and spends a long time looking for her. At the end of the novel, Jordan leaves England for the last time, but feels a sense of hope about his future. Fortunata Jeanette Winterson’s prose is such a perfect blend of charisma and poetics fueled by an endless reservoir of imagination. It has the hallmarks of any good fairy tale, from which it is not only constructed but outright grafts into the story through feminst retellings. Her self-conscious explorations of reality as ambiguous and in a constant stasis of incompletion are a delightful foray into postmodernism. The book is told as a patchwork of storytelling across the timeline, rotating between the perspectives of the dog woman, Jordan and their 20th century counterparts, which functions as a narrative example of the time theories discussed in the book. It is best exemplified when, upon finally encountering the youngest of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, Jordan is unsure if it occurred in the past, present or future. Winterson clearly believes in imbuing her characters with an agency, a sense of self that can even be separated from the story. This is very evident in her retelling of the tale of the twelve dancing sisters, where each sister practices an autonomy that is unshakeable in its essence. In my petticoats I was a traveller in a foreign country. I did not speak the language. I was regarded with suspicion. Jordan, p. 31The fifth princess's husband transformed into a frog when she first kissed him. As an older woman, she fell in love with a beautiful maiden named Rapunzel. Rapunzel's family disapproved of the relationship, so the princess and Rapunzel met in a very high and isolated tower that they accessed by climbing up Rapunzel's hair. However, a prince violently broke into the tower, kidnapped Rapunzel, and blinded the princess as punishment. The princess has never regained her sight. The sixth princess recounted feeling unhappy and trapped by her marriage and domestic duties. One winter day, inspired by the sight of wild deer running free, she walked away from her husband's home. He takes photos of Jeanette Winterson, Sara Waters and Ellen DeGeneres and spreads them on the table. On all his journeys—and his journeys within journeys—Jordan is on a mission. Ultimately, what do you think that mission is? What is he searching for and does he ever find it? At one point he says, “Was I searching for a dancer whose name I did not know or was I searching for the dancing part of myself?” (p. 39). Does that help to clarify your responses? These are the journeys I wish to record. Not the ones I made, but the ones I might have made, or perhaps did make in some other place or time’ I also enjoyed how this book took on the idea of love, be it of self or its extensions in other people. After all, in the end, all of our characters are one, and communication is equally important between the Dog Woman and Jordan as it is between their own selves. Winterson seems almost to affirm that in matters of love, we can never know because we feel.