The Passion: Jeanette Winterson (Vintage Blue, 13)

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The Passion: Jeanette Winterson (Vintage Blue, 13)

The Passion: Jeanette Winterson (Vintage Blue, 13)

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Jeanette Winterson is one of those authors I am constantly surprised at. "The Passion" is my favourite so far (update: before reading Sexing the Cherry, which is even more fascinating). There is something magical in her way of weaving the stories of her characters, and showing different angles of the central theme: passion. I do generally not like historical fiction, but in this case, the setting in Napoleonic Europe adds tremendously to the ideas she develops - in her own, very special language. To survive zero winter and that war we made a pyre of our hearts and put them aside forever. There’s no pawnshop for the heart. You can’t take it in and leave it awhile in a clean cloth and redeem it in better times.’ Absolutely stunning! I am in awe at this brilliantly written piece of literature. Part magical realism, part historical fiction, part romance, with two wonderfully original and endearing characters. Written in such beautiful, poetic prose. I was completely drawn into the world the author creates so vividly. An absorbing adventure, with characters taken to the extreme. A mystical complex story of pain, suffering and passion! The tying together of the two story threads was so well done. An absolute masterpiece. The story follows Henri, cook and horse groomsman for Napoleon Bonaparte, as the conqueror's army moves across Europe and Henri discovers that life is so much more than working for the highly particular self-styled overlord. We also meet Villanelle, a wonderful Venetian who makes gender seems as fluid as the water in the canals of La Serenissima. Through the consequence of Fate these two meet at one point, and their lives, strange and wonderful already, are never to be the same. In the midst of it all, Love is explored as a force of creation and destruction, as that unique impetus that can make or break a person, and how it is all one and the same. For several weeks, Villanelle obsesses over the woman with gray-green eyes. Meanwhile, the large man realizes that Villanelle is female and proposes marriage to her, offering to take her all over Europe in style so long as she continues to dress like a young man at home. Villanelle asks how he became rich, and he explains that he supplies low-quality meat to Napoleon’s army. When Villanelle refuses his offer of marriage, he threatens her, sexually assaults her, and walks off.

Speaking of words, there are some of the most beautiful passages on the idea of passion and love in this book. Winterson hits hard with some genuine gems: Henri spends his time in the madhouse writing, gardening and looking out of the window at Villanelle and his daughter who occasionally come near the island to be seen by him. "I'm telling you stories. Trust me." Update this section! The Passion is a novel by Jeannette Winterson that places a magical realist perspective on the period of the Napoleonic Wars in France. Structured in alternating segments by two narrators, it follows Henri, a member of Napoleon Bonaparte's kitchen staff who later joins his army, and Villanelle, a Venetian woman who passes as a man to enjoy the privileges and protections of Venetian men. They’re all different… snowflakes. Think of that.’ I did think of that and I fell in love with her.” Winterson, Jeanette (2011). Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?. New York, NY: Jonathan Cape. pp.17–18. ISBN 978-0-8021-2010-6. OL 16488820W . Retrieved 1 November 2023.Venice is portrayed as invented, magical, invisible and more, and hence reminded me strongly of Calvino’s Invisible Cities:

The falling away from Napoleon is entrenched in the realization that the powerful use the lives of those beneath them for their own purposes, and there is no end to their greed. ‘ I thought he’d end wars forever,’ Henri muses on being duped when he realizes ‘ one more and then there’ll be peace but it’s always one more.’ He also recognizes there is no end to wars once they begin, and victory means endlessly defending territory populated by those who hate you. The passionate intenisty of warmaking begins to be paralleled with the act of gambling in Villanelle’s storyline, in which she insists ‘ gambling is not a vice, it is an expression of our humanness…some do it at the gambling table, some do not.’ She tells a story of a mysterious gambler, one of the most standout moments in the book, honestly, and the juxtaposition between war and gambling begins to truly shine. The title has the definite article (“ The Passion”, not just any old passion), which makes one think of Jesus’ crucifixion. Winterson’s infamous Pentecostal upbringing ( Oranges are Not the Only Fruit and Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?) means this is no accident, and yet the connection is more subtle than the title leads you to expect.

About the author

BBC 100 Women 2016: Who is on the list?". BBC. 21 November 2016. Archived from the original on 23 December 2016 . Retrieved 7 December 2016. I read Villanelle’s character more as a comment on sexual identity, desire, and gender performance, while Henri’s narrative was as a postmodern construct through and through. Taking on themes such as history and war, experience and passion, one you can dissect to no end if we throw metafiction into the game. Which I won’t, however much temped… I will say that I particularly liked the way he portrayed his mother and his comments on the war’s dehumanizing of women (“Even the women without ambition wanted something more than to produce boys to be killed and girls to grow up to produce more boys”), particularly in the way the army treats the women brought in the camps. Winterson takes apart Henri’s masculinity, portraying him as a sensitive character with a distaste for war’s aggressions.

Stuart Jeffries (22 February 2010). "Jeanette Winterson: 'I thought of suicide' ". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 21 July 2013 . Retrieved 15 August 2011. Stories and even diaries are not, need not, be true: “The way you see it now is no more real than the way you’ll see it then.” If stories make people happy, “Why not?” Jeanette Winterson pops up from time to time on BBC political debate programmes and she is like a laser beam of sensibleness, from a decidedly rad-lesbian perspective she cuts through the waffle and she's a joy to hear, Germaine Greer's punkier young sister maybe. But in her books she goes off on one, to coin a British phrase : Winterson, Jeanette (9 October 2009). "The story of my Spitalfields home". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Archived from the original on 13 January 2019 . Retrieved 12 January 2019– via www.thetimes.co.uk. Here it comes surrounded by parsley the cook cherishes in a dead man’s helmet. Outside the flakes are so dense that I feel like the little figure in a child’s snowstorm. I have to screw up my eyes to follow the yellow stain that lights up Napoleon’s tent. No one else can have a light at this time of night.I was happy but happy is an adult word. You don't have to ask a child about happy, you see it. They are or they are not. Adults talk about being happy because largely they are not. Talking about it is the same as trying to catch the wind.”

She presented the 42nd Richard Dimbleby Lecture in celebration of 100 years of women's suffrage in the UK [31] I would have preferred a burning Jesuit, perhaps then I might have found the extasy I needed to believe.”I loved this book. It’s not long, and it’s an easy read (you don’t need to be a literary critic to enjoy it!), but the style and world are so marvellous, I wanted to linger. There is history and love, but it’s not a historical romance. Reading this early Winterson was similar. I’m not sure if it’s a good book, and I’m not even sure I understood it, but it was a rich, kaleidoscopic, and confusing carnal feast that I enjoyed.



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