Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

By: Jeanette Winterson

Narrated by: Jeanette Winterson

Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Jeanette Winterson’s bold and revelatory novels have established her as a major figure in world literature. She has written some of the most acclaimed books of the last three decades, including her internationally bestselling first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, the story of a young girl adopted by Pentecostal parents that is considered one of the most important books in contemporary fiction. Jeanette’s adoptive mother loomed over her life until Jeanette finally moved out at sixteen because she was in love with a woman. As Jeanette left behind the strict confines of her youth, her mother asked, “Why be happy when you could be normal?”

This memoir is the chronicle of a life’s work to find happiness. It is a book full of stories: about a girl locked out of her home, sitting on the doorstep all night; about a religious zealot disguised as a mother who has two sets of false teeth and a revolver in the dresser drawer; about growing up in a north England industrial town in the 1960s and 1970s; and about the universe as a cosmic dustbin. It is the story of how a painful past, which Winterson thought she had written over and repainted, rose to haunt her later in life, sending her on a journey into madness and out again, in search of her biological mother. It is also a book about literature, one that shows how fiction and poetry can guide us when we are lost. Witty, acute, fierce, and celebratory, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is a tough-minded search for belonging - for love, identity, and a home.

©2011 Jeanette Winterson (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"To read Jeanette Winterson is to love her. . . . The fierce, curious, brilliant British writer is winningly candid in Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? . . . [Winterson has] such a joy for life and love and language that she quickly becomes her very own one-woman bandone that, luckily for us, keeps playing on." ( O, the Oprah Magazine)

"Moving, honest . . . Rich in detail and the history of the northern English town of Accrington, Winterson's narrative allows readers to ponder, along with the author, the importance of feeling wanted and loved." ( Kirkus Reviews)

"Raw . . . A highly unusual, scrupulously honest, and endearing memoir." ( Publishers Weekly, Starred Review)

Brilliant

This woman is a brilliant, dear woman. I honestly had no idea what I was getting into when I started this book, but it turns out that she and I have a couple of key things in common. So, this story really hit home with me.

Beyond that, she has a knack for processing and interpreting events in such a lovely, poignant, and *true* way. One of the critics said "To read Jeanette Winterson is to lover her," and I really could not agree more.

I love that she narrated this book. I listen to a lot of audio books, and I can be critical of narrators, especially authors that don't have a good voice for it. She has a GREAT voice for it, though, and the content was made all the more compelling by hearing it directly from her.

Exquisite writing, but too drawn out

It’s clear Ms. Winterson had an abominable childhood. My heart hurt for her. And yet, she drew it out f o r e v e r , like a dog licking a wound. The second half of the book is much more reflective. It’s quite beautiful. All in all, definitely worth the read.

Emotional experience

Beautiful but painful memoir. It's criminal that such open child abuse can go unnoticed . The author writes in a way that truly brings her experiences to life. I do feel that she paints all adoption with a very wide brush- I believe that many adopted children do have wonderful lives and are very lucky. I'm so sorry for what she had to endure- but what an amazing person she turned out to be.

Autobiography of the woman who wrote Oranges

If you have read "Oranges are not the only fruit" which is a semi autobiographical novel, then you will want to read this autobiography of the author. If you aren't familiar with Oranges, read that first. It won the Whitbread Award when first released (as that year’s best novel from a first time writer) and went on to be required reading in British schools --- for a host of reasons, the least of which is that the central character is a lesbian and it's a "coming out" story, and far more because it is a succeeding in the face of adversity story -- the author came from a working class family that were pentecostals and who didn't believe in books beyond the bible, was made homeless at 16 but went on to graduate from Oxford

In this book she re-explores her childhood, but where Oranges was semi autobiographical this is closer to truth -- she explores how as much as she hated her abusive adoptive mother --- this is a woman who made her adoptive daughter always feel other to the extent of refusing to give her key to her own home... she was only allowed in if someone else was there to let her in or they left the back door unlocked for her before ultimately making her homeless when she didn't prove to be what they wanted her to be .... and then jumps forward to her search for who her biological mother was, who her adoptive mother had told her had died because of being sinful and disrepute ... only to discover that was lie

I love this ….

“The makings of a prized British author”? Really? This from the review posted before mine. Anyway, I enjoyed this so much more hearing JW READ it to me than I did reading it to my own self! Such exquisite prose. Jeanette, if you read this, please record Written on the Body next: it’s one of my five desert island books, quite possibly the most brilliant book I’ve ever read. Oh, and I’m an English professor 😉

Truly Touching & Unforgettable Memoir!!

I usually don't read lots of memoirs and biographies, in general I prefer fiction or non-fiction when it pertains to issues that interest me, I must say thought that this is one of the most genuine and emotional memoirs I've ever read.

Jeannette Winterson was born in Manchester, England, and grew up in Accrington, Lacarshire, after being adopted by Constance and John William Winterson in the early 1960's.

This book recounts her quest for her identity, origins, her (birth) mother and ultimately for love and acceptance.
It's a different kind of memoir in that is doesn't follows a chronological structure. She jumps back and forth between different periods in her life, but to me that's one of the reasons why the book sounds so authentic, you almost feel that you are sitting down with a good friend while she is telling you her story.

The author comes across as a clever, witty, and as a person in search for answers. At times her writing sounds urgent and almost desperate. It's feels that she's running out of time and want to explains things to you, she wants to make sure you understand her history. Which l suppose is one of the reasons why people write these type of books, I imagine that this process provides for many, some sort of satisfying and emotional closure.

She also has a great sense of humor and it a wonderful conversationalist. Throughout the book she takes some time to explain some of the cultural, religious and political ethos of the time.

There are also quite a few extremely funny anecdotes. I love that in the middle of such a difficult upbringing, the author has the capacity to laugh at some rather crazy circumstances.

The center theme of the memoir is her descriptions of her very peculiar Pentecostal upbringing, and her tumultuous relationship with her adoptive mother, whom she call through most of the book "Mrs. Winterson".

Mrs. Winterson is described as an "out of scale, larger than life" woman, who at times sounds pretty much deranged. A woman opposed to any sort of intimacy, sexual or otherwise,she casts a huge shadow on the Winterson's household, and little Jeannette doesn't feel loved by either parent. Her father is a withdrawn, simple man who has been belittled by his wife and is incapable of standing up for himself, let alone for his adoptive daughter.

Little Jeannette is abused, both emotionally (her mother constantly alludes that in her adoption process “The Devil led us to the wrong crib”) and physically, she is beaten, left to sleep outside of the house, and pretty much left to her own devices since a very early age.

In Mrs. Winterson's ultra fundamentalist version of Christianity, there's not room for reading secular books, so she forbids Jeannette from reading anything other than the Bible. Jeannette doesn't obeys, of course, and when Mrs. W discovers dozens of books hidden under Jeannette's matters, she burns them all. This was to me a truly disturbing passage of the book.

Later on, Mrs. Winterson discovers that Jeannette is attracted to women and has in fact started a relationship with a girl that also attends her church, this sets in motion a series of events, including the spectacle of a 3-day exorcism performed by the pastor who tries to, to put it on contemporary terms "pray the gay away".

When Jeannette is 16 years old, she is evicted from her home after Mrs. B discovers and 2nd girlfriend, initially she lives in her car, but shortly after she gets under a roof, when a sympathetic teacher takes pity on her and allows her to stay in her house.

Jeannette stars reading English Literature in Prose A-Z, there's a very good public library in her town, and she's determined to read all the authors available in alphabetical order. "A book is a door,” she discovers “You open it. You step through.”

Later on she applied “to read English at Oxford because it was the most impossible thing” she could think of; she graduates; she writes books and becomes a well known and successful author.

The memoir then makes a big jump, and for whatever reason the author decides to take us 25 years later, when she has just broken up with her girlfriend of 6 years. This is when the book becomes more introspective, a search to connect the past with the present.
By now, Mrs. B has passed away and Jeannette has managed to maintain an almost normal relationship with her father.

Jeannette then begins the search for her birth mother, which is perhaps where the reader can feel a deeper sense of empathy and connection with her . She is desperate to find that final link to her past, yet she's also petrified by fear of what she might find. Who can't relate to that feeling?

After jumping many hoops throughout the inept and insensible bureaucracy that apparently rules the adoption system in the UK (I suspect, the same is true in the US and many other Western countries), she manages to find Ann, her birth mother, makes peace with her and her decision to give Jeannette away.

Of course, this being real life, there's not exactly a happy ending, not in the strict sense of the word anyway, so after her first meeting with Ann, she quickly comes to the painful realization that the instant connection she might have been anticipating does not come.

I think that what saves Jeannette Winston is that she possesses both a very clever and inquisitive mind as well as an indomitable and defiant personality.

By the end of the book, she appears to have accomplish an exorcism of her own: what stars as a detailed and painful description of the horrible mother, ends with a sense of closure and forgiveness.
When referring to a discussion she had with Ann, she says "I notice that I hate Ann criticizing Mrs Winterson. She was a monster but she was my monster". We humans are full of contradictions, aren't we?

Jeannette Winterson is the narrator of her memoir, I am for the most part, not a fan of authors reading their own audiobooks and I do preferred that they live this to the professionals, with that said, Winterson really did a wonderful job. Perhaps because of the 1st person narrative and her writing style is so intense, I don't imagine anybody else being able to narrate this book as well as she did.

I truly enjoyed this wonderful book.

Excellent memoir

Excellent memoir. I really enjoyed this author. Very insiteful and thought provoking. This will lead me to read her other books.

the poetry of my teenage self

I loved JW as a teen and her prose has only gotten better. very thoughtful and heartfelt memoir. and the serious discourse on the impact of adoption on long term mental health and suicidal thoughts was very sobering.

I’m hooked and inspired! Feminist memoir

This is a gorgeous memoir about love and loss, identity and belonging, sexuality and feminism, literature, and the makings of a prized British author. Sound great? It is!

The beginning was powerful enough to bring Winterson way up into my top five authors. Her wit, humor, and deep insight had me jotting down memorable lines by the half hour, dazzled and inspired.
The mid and later sections made a dramatic shift in terms of the narrative style and became a very tender and personal interior study, and in places fell into more psychology than story. Although, life is indeed psychology, so I kept reading.
I loved Winterson’s reading of her own writing, which I don’t believe could be topped. I will definitely be reading more of Winterson and looking into the film about her life produced by the BBC, Oranges.
If you love Deborah Levy, Virginia Woolf, and Sarah Waters, try this.

All around great

I read the paperback, and then listened to the audiobook. One right after the other and it was highly enjoyable on both occasions. Winterson is honest and direct in a most refreshing way.