3.5
Sexing the Cherry
ByPublisher Description
In a fantastic world that is and is not seventeenth-century England, a baby is found floating in the Thames. The child, Jordan, is rescued by Dog Woman and grows up to travel the globe like Gulliver—though he finds that the most curious oddities come from his own mind. The spiraling tale leads the reader from discussions on the nature of time to Jordan's fascination with journeys concealed within other journeys, all with a dizzying speed that jumps from epiphany to shimmering epiphany.
From the
–bestselling author of
and
,
is "a mixture of
touched by the philosophical form of Milan Kundera and told with the grace of Italo Calvino" (
).
"Those who care for fiction that is both idiosyncratic and beautiful will want to read anything [Winterson] writes." —
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3.5
Nikki in Niagara
Created 4 days agoShare
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“In the 1600s, along the murky, polluted banks of the Thames River, a towering giantess known as Dog-woman discovered an abandoned infant and named him Jordan, after a lesser river. Jordan grew into a seafaring adventurer who gifted Charles II England's very first pineapples and an array of exotic fruits. His journeys led him to the 12 Dancing Princesses, who found themselves without their husbands, and he fell deeply in love with a woman whose whereabouts he scoured the globe to find. Amid his travels, Jordan never forgot to return home to his mother, Dog-woman, often accompanying her on visits of her own.
This tale is nothing short of a thrilling whirlwind—words scarcely suffice to capture its essence. Though the title and my cover might suggest a steamy narrative, the story defies those expectations. It is sometimes vulgar, true, but no more so than the tumultuous 1600s themselves. It is utterly unique, a visual feast and a masterclass in literary elegance, occasionally poetic. It dazzles in few ways literature can match, all while maintaining its literary integrity, never veering into genre clichés. Pure grammatical artistry. <Chef’s kiss>.”
Maddie
Created 6 days agoShare
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“Not for me - I thought the reviews and overall surrealism sounded intriguing, but it fell a little flat. Certainly was surreal at moments, but I felt like the story-telling, multi-dimensional time premise, or philosophy could be gained in other stories or novels that are better shaped and structured (or are just genuinely more my style).”
Tessa
Created 7 days agoShare
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“Travel Advisory: Before entering Jeanette Winterson’s London, fasten your seatbelt, abandon your sense of linear time, and grab something sturdy - ideally the Dog Woman, though she might throw you for trying.
This is my 2nd Winterson novel, (after Frankissstein) but only after this wild, brilliant ride, I decided it definitely won’t be my last. If this is how she welcomes new readers, I’m already packing my bags for the next book.
The opening felt like landing in a country where no one speaks in straight lines. I kept wondering, Is it me? Am I reading this wrong? Or is the book drunk? Spoiler: it’s the book. (And maybe a little me.) It gave me the same “comprehension comes later” confusion as One Hundred Years of Solitude. Winterson doesn’t give you directions; she tosses you into the magic and says, “Swim.”
Eventually, the chaos settles into orchestrated mayhem - the kind that mocks you first and embraces you later. Reading it with a book club helped; it felt like traveling with a tiny expedition team whispering, “Yes, the Dog Woman is meant to be this unhinged. Keep going.”
And speaking of Dog Woman - she’s terrifying like a natural disaster. If she looked at me sideways, I’d apologize for crimes I haven’t committed. I wouldn’t cross her path. I wouldn’t cross her street. Honestly? I’d relocate. (Also: she owns A Perfect Diurnal. I don’t fully understand it, but I want one. Lavender-scented, ideally.)
Then come the Twelve Dancing Princesses. In Winterson’s world, they’re not a quirky detour - they’re her boldest feminist mic drop. Instead of being pretty decorations waiting for princes, these princesses speak up, run away, tear up their marriages, and basically say, “Absolutely not. We’re rewriting this fairy tale ourselves.” It’s Winterson showing how old stories trap women… and how satisfying it is to watch those women kick down the door and leave with the plot tucked under their arm.
Next is my favorite absurdity: a city where love is illegal. The penalty for catching feelings? Death. They treat romance like the plague, which feels dramatic even for me (and I cry at commercials). Imagine hiding your crush like contraband: “No, officer, that’s not love in my pocket. That’s anxiety.” Winterson plays it absurd, but beneath the comedy is a sharp question: why do we let society police who and how we love?
And then there’s Dog Woman vs. global politics. I do not condone violence, but in the book, she literally stuffs corrupt leaders into a bag and delivers her own brand of justice. No HR, no court… just accountability, Dog Woman style.
If she existed today, she wouldn’t need a bag.. she’d need FedEx on steroids. Greedy politicians worldwide? Pack ’em up. And when she reached the Philippines? Forget a bag.. she’d need a shipping container, a forklift, and maybe a warehouse. One look at the halls of power and she’d sigh, “Wow. So many candidates.”
Winterson’s depiction of government: messy, self-serving, allergic to logic, felt painfully familiar. Different century, same human nonsense.
By the end, I wasn’t just reading… I was submerged. Once you stop demanding the novel behave, Winterson rewards you by twisting time, logic, and reality into something unexpectedly moving.
What I love most is how she stirs time, gender, history, and myth together like ingredients in her personal soup pot. The result is strange, beautiful, messy, and occasionally violent (looking at you, Dog Woman), but it all points to the same truth: the world is much more flexible, and much weirder.. than the stories we’re told.
Final verdict: A surreal fever-dream that leaves you dizzy, wiser, and oddly fond of a giant woman who could punt a man into next week. Best enjoyed with a book club, or at least one friend you can text, because some scenes require emotional support:
“I was not prepared… not emotionally, not physically, not spiritually. Like… really, really not.””
Mahasina
Created 7 days agoShare
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“This book had me in a strange limbo from the very beginning. It wasn’t exactly hard to read, but I kept doubting my own comprehension,as if Winterson was holding the map upside down on purpose.
Even though it’s set in a historical frame, the story wasn’t told in the normal sense. She fractures time, gender, myth, history and shakes them until they blur into one another. The plot feels whimsical and magicky, almost like drifting through a dream where the logic is emotional rather than chronological.
The narration is unique especially the way sensations fold into each other: Noise becomes light, words become colours, and meaning is never fixed. There’s a running sense of warmth and comfort beneath all the strangeness, like the book’s whispering that confusion is part of the experience.
I loved the Dog Woman’s sections the most. She’s bizarre, grotesque, tender and unstoppable..yet written with such care that her perspective becomes weirdly beautiful.
I haven’t read the original tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses,but this book made me want to. The way she reworks that myth that makes me curious to go back to the original and see how the pieces fit together, how the echoes shift,and what she chose to twist or reclaim.
At a certain point, the book becomes deliberately unsteady. Time loses its boundaries.The Dog Woman seems eternal.
Characters reincarnate or echo each other.Fairy tales bleed into history as if they’re equally real.
Winterson’s point: time is fluid when desire and identity lead the way.
The book beautifully touches upon themes like Women carving power out of a world built to trap them, Desire as a force that distorts reality, Fairy tales reclaimed as feminist narratives, History as something we can rewrite, Bodies vs imagination and Time as non-linear.
By the end, I wasn’t sure if I had “understood” everything, but maybe that’s the wrong metric for this book. It’s less about clarity and more about possibility.Reality bends when you stop insisting it stay still.”
Bibliophile Compass
Created 9 days agoShare
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“Title: Sexing the Cherry
Author: Jeanette Winterson
Publication Year: 1989
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Pages: 144
Source: book (2nd hand)
Genre: literary fiction, Postmodernist Fiction, Historical Fiction
Having read Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, I thought I knew what to expect—oh, how delightfully wrong I was! Sexing the Cherry packs a whirlwind of postmodern mischief and symbolism into such a slim volume that I was left spinning (in the best way). Before reading the first pages, I couldn’t help but wonder: why is it called Sexing the Cherry when the cover parades bananas and pineapples? No spoilers, but the book wastes no time unraveling that fruity little mystery.
This book doesn’t just break the historical fiction mold—it stomps on it, cartwheels over it, and then invites you to join a merry game of question-everything. Postmodernism here means nothing is safe: norms, identity, history, gender, time, space, love, even truth itself—all tossed into a literary blender. At first, you might ask yourself, "What on earth am I reading?"—and that’s half the fun. Every event and character feels like a clue in a madcap treasure hunt, daring you to chase down allusions and puzzle out meanings. The real delight is searching for sense in a book that gleefully resists making any sense in a sensical way.
Even if the story refuses to behave, there’s so much joy in teasing out the fruit symbolism (bananas, pineapples, cherries—oh my!), spotting fairy tale retellings (my personal favorite), and watching stories ripple through time as characters retell and reshape them. So, what’s it all about? This is the story of Jordan, an orphan plucked from the Thames by the formidable Dog Woman (yes, you read that right), embarking on globe-trotting adventures in search of his ideal love, Fortunata.
Do not worry, Winterson gives enough and equal spotlight to both in different chapters. Along the way: floating city, city of words, historical cameos, timelines that zigzag, and fruits galore. Trying to catalog all the wild wonders would take another book! (Believe me! We did it in the book club! And the comments were longer than the book itself.)
If you enjoy a playful romp through postmodern mayhem, this one’s for you. I had an absolute blast, especially chasing down all the hidden meanings and gleeful symbolism.”
About Jeanette Winterson
Born in Manchester, England, Jeanette Winterson is the author of seventeen books, including the national bestseller
,
, and
. She has won many prizes including the Whitbread Award for Best First Novel, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the E. M. Forster Award, and the Stonewall Award.
Other books by Jeanette Winterson
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