As I have declared a while back that I will try to relive my old routine (commenting on book I read); hence this post is here. And by the way, finishing this book is a major accomplishment for me throughout winter holiday season. Otherwise, I would just spend my days doing nothing. By that, I mean, I would just stay on my bed until late afternoon watching Youtube videos and random films. And that’s about it. So, reading this book is quite a good thing for me. It gives me a nice feeling that I am not a looser, something that I constantly try to remind myself. I do realize that word is nothing without proof. Therefore, I also try to live a productive life. Everybody has their own idea about being productive. Personally, I get my sense of productivity through writing, reading and traveling (less so – because traveling means spending money. And I am not so good at letting go my money. Given that I don’t have a stable income like anybody else. Non the less, I like traveling)
*****
This is the second book I read written by the same author (Jeanette W). Previously to this book, I read Winterson’s “Oranges are Not the Only Fruit) and it was part of my British Novel class’s assignments. So, I (kind of) already have some expectations what’s or how’s this book going to be like. It helps me a lot dealing with the constantly shocking style of Winterson. For those who happen to have read her book, you do know what I am talking about right?
This book starts with this sentence: MY NAME is Jordan. And that’s pretty much about it. Yes, this novel centers around Jordan’s life and his imagination. While reading this book you might confuse the narrators since it changes all the time. Sometimes the story is told through Jordan’s perspective, other time it might be told by the mother (who by the way might also not his mother – I will tell you why), in the middle of the book there is a chapter where it talks mainly about The Twelve Dancing Princes and they get to tell their own lives. Hence, they also get to become the narrators.
There are three main characters: Jordan, the mother and Transcendent. When Jordan was a kid he used to make a ship out of paper and flow it to the river. One day Jordan is found by Transcendent, who is a wanderer, and impressed by Jordan’s imagination. He then talks to Jordan about a real ship and how he should operate it. Jordan then sees Transcendent as a hero and makes him his role model – someone he wants to be in the future. Later Jordan gets to actually travel the world with him and that’s how readers brought to the story of The Twelve Dancing Princesses. You can say that this novel is a story within story novel. There are so much inside stories and also readers get to hear the same story from different point of views.
The mother is also quite interesting. He is described as a big woman. She is bigger than everybody else. Later, however, we get to know how this story comes. It turns out that even Jordan and the mother is not related. Wait, was it? That’s the thing. This book makes us question what’s real and what’s not real. This thing, for example, we don’t even know if they are related. Towards the end of the story, we are told about Jordan’s life but a different one. In this story, Jordan’s childhood is still the same as told in the first part of the novel. He plays with paper ship etc. But as he grew up he entered the army and now he plans to build a ship by himself. One day he visited a company where his friend works and saw a woman living in a tent. She is protesting against that company who has contaminated water in that town. This contamination makes her hallucinate, and think of herself as a big woman. What? Yes, that was exactly my reaction. So, if these two people have the crazy imagination, how come their imagination is inter-related to each other? By the way, when Jordan first sees her, he has a sense that he knows her from somewhere which hints that he knows her from his imagination. (She is the mother in his imagination)
I know this story is quite crazy. But that’s the best part of it – its craziness. I don’t know what I was reading. I just kept reading. But as I opened page by page, I finally get the connection between each part. It’s okay if you feel lost while reading this book. Perhaps that’s the intention. But as you reach the end of the book you will get what is this book about. In fact, I finally get the story when I read the back part of the book. It says something like this:
“Sexing the Cherry celebrates the power of imagination as it playfully juggles with our perception of history and reality; love and sex; lies and truths; and twelve dancing princesses who live happily ever after, but not with their husbands.’ – Vintage Classic
Closing line: this story is great. But I think I am not so much in the mood of postmodernist crept recently. Normally I would be so excited reading about this kind of story with the unknown plot, etc. But I think I just want to read a linear plotted kind of story for now. Still, with no intention to undermine the greatness of this book, I would like to recommend you all to read this book.
Happy holiday everyone!
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