So here it is. The first book list post.
So.
Yes.
How many of you actually read Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body as part of the book "assignment"? I'm only asking out of curiosity, you don't really have to answer that.
I read it really quickly. I couldn't seem to put it down. It's a short book and I wanted to know what happened at the end. So much so that I actually walked home reading it as I walked through the busy streets. I didn't run into anybody, no worries.
But I feel I can't discuss this book without your help. I know I am supposed to have something semi-intelligent to say, but I'll just be honest with you all and admit that I don't.
Instead, I have two questions. Maybe I'll be able to offer something, anything, once we take it from here:
1. Was the narrator male or female?
2. What happened at the end?
I liked it. I just am still wondering what the hell that was I read, exactly.
I have started I Capture the Castle, which we swill save for two weeks from now. That is to say, April 30. I am already excited about it - the first chapter already has me hooked. Stay tuned.
I did read it, but to be honest, I read it years ago, and I can't be more helpful now. I'll read it again.
No Angel, wait! Read "I Capture the Castle" first (the next book). It is abslutely lovely. I cannot seem to put it down, and I even had to read a few chapters during my lecture on French theater today. I think I'll finish it far earlier than I would actually like to, but I cannot stop myself from devouring delicious books.
"I capture the castle" is one of my most favourite books ever - read it! Its fantastic and i've been going round telling EVERYONE to read it! (yes, that means you too, now)
No real indication is given as to
the narrator's gender in "Written on the Body". There aren't even any real clues. Maybe we're not to be told, explicity or implicity, which might hold us open to the idea that love doesn't necessarily have anything to do with gender but with . . . Love?
BTW: I read a comment some years ago that Winterson meant the book to be at least partially autobiographical and that she always intended the narrator to be female. But it's more fun, I believe, to leave the question open! ;-)