From Library Journal
Raised by an oppressively evangelical mother, Jeanette grows up a good little Christian soldier, even going so far as to stitch samplers whose apocalyptic themes terrify her classmates. As she dryly notes, without self-pity or smugness, "This tendency towards the exotic has brought me many problems, just as it did for William Blake." Jeanette would have remained in the fold but for her unconventional desires; though she can reconcile her love of women with her love of God, the church cannot. It could have been a grim tale, but this first novelwinner of England's Whitbread Prizeis in fact a wry and tender telling of a young girl's triumphantly coming into her own. Highly recommended. Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
?An explosively imaginative writer.? ?The London Free Press

?She is a master of her material, a writer [of] great talent.? ?Muriel Spark

?Many consider her to be the best living writer in this language.? ?Evening Standard

?The overwhelming impression of her work is one of remarkable self-confidence, and she evidently thrives on risk?. As good as Poe: it dares you to laugh and stares you down.? ?The New York Review of Books

?The most interesting writer I have read in twenty years.? ?Gore Vidal

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Jeanette is a bright and rebellious orphan who is adopted into an evangelical household in the dour, industrial North of England and finds herself embroidering grim religious mottoes and shaking her little tambourine for Jesus. But as this budding missionary comes of age, and comes to terms with her unorthodox sexuality, the peculiar balance of her God-fearing household dissolves. Jeanette's insistence on listening to the truths of her own heart and mind - and on reporting them with wit and passion - makes for an unforgettable chronicle of an eccentric, moving passage into adulthood.

FROM THE CRITICS

Chicago Tribune

A daring, unconventional comic novel...by employing quirky anecdotes, which are told with romping humor, and by splicing various parables into the narrative, Winterson allows herself the dangerous luxury of writing a novel that refuses to rely on rousing plot devices....A fascinating debut...A penetrating novel.

Ms.

If Flannery O'Connor and Rita Mae Brown had collaborated on the coming-out story of a young British girl in the 1960s, maybe they would have approached the quirky and subtle hilarity of Jeanette Winterson's autobiographical first novel....Winterson's voice, with its idiosyncratic wit and sensitivity, is one you've never heard before.

Washington Post

Winterson has the ability to fuse seamlessly the historical and the imaginary. Her lyrical prose penetrates to the heart of things without apparent effort. She knows how to speak plain truth and at the same time satisfy our longing for the fabulous.

Library Journal

Raised by an oppressively evangelical mother, Jeanette grows up a good little Christian soldier, even going so far as to stitch samplers whose apocalyptic themes terrify her classmates. As she dryly notes, without self-pity or smugness, ``This tendency towards the exotic has brought me many problems, just as it did for William Blake.'' Jeanette would have remained in the fold but for her unconventional desires; though she can reconcile her love of women with her love of God, the church cannot. It could have been a grim tale, but this first novelwinner of England's Whitbread Prizeis in fact a wry and tender telling of a young girl's triumphantly coming into her own. Highly recommended. Barbara Hoffert, ``Library Journal''

The Washington Post