june
Orange Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeannette Winterson ★★★★☆
I’ve been a big fan of Winterson’s prosaic and liturgical work since I read her second memoir “Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal” several years ago. She grew up in a small town in northern England where she was brought up after being adopted by strict Pentecostal parents. Jeannette strives for success in the eyes of her church, her mother, and God which becomes complicated as she's discovering her sexuality.
This is not a memoir in the most straightforward sense. Winterson doesn't flat out write her thoughts and feelings on the page but veils them so that the reader must translate her written word to discover the true feelings of her childhood self. It seems that even in her writing, she is dissociating from the pain of her early life and she taps into that childish voice and naïveté fluidly throughout the book.
This book is an eye into one’s attempt to balance nature, nurture, spirituality, and sexuality. I would recommend this book to anyone who resonates with these topics.
Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh ★★★★☆
One of my favorite authors has wowed me once again. I can’t get enough of her twisted stories. I’ve read almost all of Moshfegh’s books (My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Eileen, Lapvona, and McGlue) I only haven’t read Death In Her Hands because it was spoiled for me last year when a girl in my lit class did a presentation on it. Somehow, with every book, I get more shocked and enticed in Moshfegh’s worlds.
This is a book of short stories that captures a reader’s attention with every chapter. The stories are unrelated yet connected with a single thread; distaste towards our modern world. Sometimes it’s the character exploring their own distaste or its Moshfegh’s unrelenting voice which permeates this theme in each scenario she dreams up.
Since I first read her work I knew Moshfegh was exquisite in her execution of world and character development but Homesick offers that tenfold. Whether it’s an Internet troll in love with a woman working at an arcade or a teacher getting high on heroin over summer break, Moshfegh never misses with her troubled characters. It’s fun to escape into their dysfunction. By far my favorite book of the month!
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy ★★★★☆
I threw this book across the room while I was reading. In March I spent one weekend in Dublin and I love “Derry Girls” and impersonating Irish accents (I can do all the regions). I was in a bookstore browsing and read that this book was about a teacher/barmaid who lives outside Belfast at the height of The Troubles (if you don’t know what The Troubles are, look it up for I cannot explain it in brief). She, a Catholic, meets an older, married Protestant barrister and becomes entangled in his upper-class world. Yes, it gets spicy ;).
This book has the craziest, most out-of-nowhere plot twist (nay, plot plummet), that I’ve read in a long, long time, hence my throwing of the book across the room. This ending had infuriated and yet engaged me in all those stomach-curling ways. I’d recommend this book to anyone who loves the Irish and is interested in Ireland’s history, suspense, and age-gap romance. Who isn’t?
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf ★★☆☆☆
Nah. I’m sorry but nah. I can see the beauty in Woolf’s incredible writing and the detail that she brings to everyday life but the majority of this book felt like word salad with too much dressing. And I’ve pulled out a sentence to explain what I mean by this:
“Such are the visions which proffer great cornucopias full of fruit to the solitary traveler, or murmur in his ear like sirens lolloping away on the green sea waves, or are dashed in his face like bunches of roses, or rise to the surface like pale faces which fisherman flounder through floods to embrace” (page 51).
See what I mean? I’m grew tired of reading this text yet this is the kind of work that made Woolf such an admired and notable writer. I so badly want to be that kind of girl who understands these kinds of stories right away but having to read a sentence more than once turns me off. I crave intensity in the books I read. Along with a bit of tragedy, a consistently flowing pace, and frequent dialogue, or at least inner dialogue. Although I would LOVE to love this book, it had very little of those things. The story is fruitful and interesting, I just wish it happened faster and with more…gusto?
I’ve finally caught up on my reading goal! Let’s hope I can stay on track for the remainder of summer! Don’t forget to send book suggestions in the link below and follow my progress on the Goodreads app!
finished books: 14
# of books behind: 0
books remaining: 16
