Customer Reviews

Gut Symmetries

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you have ever had any doubts, "Gut Symmetries" is proof that Wintersen's fiction demands an educated, intelligent reader who is serious about reading. Call me a snob if you will, but I have no sympathy for anyone who thinks this book is too hard to read or doesn't get the story. This isn't a book that a reader can race through, discarding lyric passages and descriptions wily-nily, picking out the events in chronological order, and hurrying to finish.

In many ways the metaphor is the message. If you want basic "plot" handed to you on a platter, then this book will probably not agree with you. This plot is not constructed in the run-of-the-mill, straightforward, linear plot structure that we have come to expect from television, movies, and mainstream fiction. It does not pander to the modern sense of impatience. Instead, the telling of the story relies on three different narrators, and the story is told using a non-linear episodic plot structure. Like Wintersen's other books, notably "Sexing the Cherry," the reader must rely on subtle clues to connect the pieces of the story together.

As for content, I got so involved in the story that I actually yelled at one of the characters when the "plot twist" (mentioned in the prior reviews) arose. (As well as at two other passages, at least.) Ah but again, perhaps with an eye towards metaphor the message changes...

Reading this book takes a little more effort than the average paperback. You've got to engage your mind (and perhaps, at times, your dictionary) to stay on top of it. In my opinion, it's well worth the read--a fine addition to any modern fiction library.

jeanette winterson is my favorite writer; i'll tell you that right off. also i am all geeky for physics too, and was glad to see such obvious allusions to physical theory, even when she wasn't pedantically paraphrasing newton or einstein. she did her research, like always, which makes her seem so, i don't know... reliable perhaps?

but, it seems that the language of jeanette, which has always been the feathers in her wings, has gotten sort of old. in _written on the body_, i found myself craving the lyrical passages, waiting eagerly for them and reading them over and over. in _gut symmetries_, they just made me tired. i didn't think any of the characters were conveyed with passion, and i didn't find any of the moving, uplifting, soul-wrenching epiphanies i would expect from her. i re-read passages only to remember who she was writing about, because each was so like the next.

in this novel, more than the others i would say, jeanette gives us a conventional plot line, with your standard climax and surprising plot twists. the plot twist sure did surprise me, but it also struck me as crass, like when someone flips on a spotlight in your room at 3am, pitching you violently out of your dreams.

still, she's better than most. and still, maybe her heart flies in skies i wish for but do not occupy. but i wonder if she doesn't need to check out what's over the mountains because it seems we've seen this sky, tasted this wind, and wouldn't mind a new trick or two.

The title of Winterson's novel is a triple pun, referring to the twin themes of animal instinct and modern physics (Grand Unified Theory), and--in a bizarre plot twist--human innards. Most of the narrative is presented from the perspectives of two women: Stella, a poet married to a Princeton physicist, and Alice, a younger physicist who has an affair first with Stella's husband and then with Stella herself.

Presented nonlinearly, it's one of Winterson's more challenging novels, a scrapbook weaving scientific metaphors and cabalistic mysticism with the tangled associations of three generations of three different families. "I know I am a fool, trying to make connections out of scraps. . . . Am I vain enough to assume you will understand me? No. So I go on puzzling over new joints for words, hoping that this time, one piece will slide smooth against the next." Still, a thematically satisfying, often surprising plot emerges from the accumulated snippets of poetry, witticism, and musing. Even though the book's focus is certainly not its plot, all the bits and pieces eventually tie together in satisfying and unexpected ways.

If the novel has a shortcoming, it would be the sacrifice of characterization for thematic unity and postmodern cleverness. It's difficult at times to distinguish the two women (surprising in a novel by Winterson) and their family histories, and one is often forced to seek textual clues in order to determine whether the present narrator is the Jewish poet or the British scientist. Occasionally, however, emotions (and especially humor) surface above the ponderous rumination--for example, the "gut"-wrenching chapter in which Stella finds out about her husband's affair and conducts a physics experiment as conceived by an enraged poet: "If I drop a CD player and a lap top out of the same window at the same time which one will hit the ground first?"

"Gut Symmetries" rewards the persistent reader with memorable passages on love and physics, guilt and energy, poetry and mysticism. It's a novel many will want to reread for the Wildean wordplay and the Joycean artistry.

This book changed my view on what great literature can be. Previously I thought plot drove the reader to keep going - reading this I was driven forward by the beauty of the words that Winterson uses, sometimes not understanding, or paying attention to the action, often reading several times to revel in the flavours of her prose. I looked with regret at the dwindling number of pages as I approached the end, wanting to stay longer in the drunken, passionate language of this wonderful book.

lyrical and poignant. And I basically give this book four stars for its writing. Yes, the plot is complicated and the themes are relevant and fascinating. The writer is erudite, and thoughtful, reminiscent of Umberto Eco, or Tom Sheppard. But I found it difficult to fathom the motivations of the main characters. The two main female characters dedicate their fate to a man with no decent qualities (a preening, egotistical, lecherous old man with a severe Napoleonic complex and phallic obsessions!) The narration is by far the best part of the book with its suggestions of the grande parallels between mutable "life" and the immutable forces of nature.

As a student of the art of fiction, I have been increasingly depressed by the state of "literature" today...reading Gut Symmetries was a revelation! Move over, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez; there's a new kid on your block. Jeanette Winterson's masterful use of tropes and contextualization of unfamiliar terminology draw the reader into a web of magical reality where new voices demand your attention. Color me impressed.

Winterson's writing is so powerful that when I read her books,I have a pencil and a pad of yellow "stick-ums" at my side, so I canmark particularly moving or powerful passages. My copy of Gut Symmetries is now full of yellow tags.

Winterson is one of the few writers I know who can repeatedly effectively convey complex thoughts and emotions in simple, witty, powerful language. Whenever I re-read the sections of Gut Symmetries I have marked, I am awed by Winterson's ability with the language.

If you have enjoyed other books by Winterson, you will enjoy this one. If you have not read Winterson before, you might try reading The Passion first. The Passion has a stronger/easier to follow story line.

This is by far Winterson's best novel. It demonstrates her ability to draw on an array of subjects (in this case: science,love, and fairytale) and craft them into a captivating story.

For those of you who haven't had the chance to hear Jeanette Winterson read her work aloud, take any opportunity that comes your way: her words fly, sing, dance around your head as she speaks them (and she has such presence). I heard extracts of Gut Symmetries at the Hay Book Festival and felt compelled to buy the book - the first of hers that I'd read. The plot lures one through sometimes difficult concepts and passages which, when read moments before sleep, can take three or four re-readings. The language is so rich that I can enjoy it three times over: in her voice, in my mind's voice and out loud (to my partner's irritation).

Jeanette Winterson is one of the most talented and versatile writers of this era. I have read and loved her excellent novels. Gut Symmetries, though filled with Winterson's signature poetic and metaphorical prose, is somewhat different from her other efforts. Physics and romance intertwine in this book. What are the similarities between the aforementioned subjects? Could love be measured in the law of physics? As said earlier, this book has the author's signature poetic prose -- and the same is illustrated in outstanding proportions.

I marvel at Ms. Winterson's beautiful writing and overactive imagination. Her masterful work has a unique brand of magic realism all its own. Gut Symmetries illustrates this. I highly recommend this gem to people with a penchant for literary, intelligent reads.