Louise has flowing Pre-Raphaelite hair, and a body besieged by leukaemia, her cells waging war: "here they come, hurtling through the bloodstream trying to pick a fight." But Louise is not dead, merely abandoned by the narrator with the best of intentions. As the lament continues, striking in its beauty and dazzling inventiveness, more of the love story is revealed. The narrator has been a female Lothario, falling in love, and out again, swaggering like Mercutio. But then she meets Louise, married to Elgin--"very eminent, very dull, very rich"--and is hopelessly, helplessly smitten: "I didn't only want Louise's flesh, I wanted her bones, her blood, her tissues, the sinews that bound her together." Elgin persuades her to leave for the good of Louise's health, and all is undone.

Winterson does not shy away from grief, or joy. She has acutely described how love can transform a life, but also destroy it too. But, for Winterson, where there is love there is hope: "I stretch out my hand and reach the corners of the world ... I don't know if this is a happy ending but here we are let loose in open fields." Eithne Farry

You will take a journey of pain, hope, disenchantment, and even love. Our narrator is no fresh flower stumbling around marriage but knows very well the waters they find themselves in, rough and inviting.

I enjoyed this book because of the language and imagery used: beautiful, haunting, revealing, and truthful. Some wonderful examples are the following:

"What other places are there in the world than those discovered on a lovers body?"
"What then kills love? Only this: NEGLECT."

The first sentence in the book is, "Why is the measure of love loss?" and that tells you pretty much what you need to know.

girldiver:)


The most intense love story ever written ?   October 11, 2001
 13 out of 18 found this review helpful

This is jeanette's masterpiece..if you have ever loved with every molecule of your being, then here is your story, the pain, the glory, the devastation, the passion, betrayal .......everything love can be and then some.....I couldnt put it down until I had finished...then I turned the cover and began again..... *sigh*