Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Audiobook By Jeanette Winterson cover art

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

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Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

By: Jeanette Winterson
Narrated by: Jeanette Winterson
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When Jeanette Winterson, author of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, left home at 16 because she was in love with a woman, Mrs. Winterson asked her: "Why be happy when you could be normal?" This book is the story of a life's work to find happiness. It is the story of how the painful past returned to haunt Jeanette's later life, and send her on a journey into madness and out again, in search of her real mother. It is also a book about other people's stories, showing how fiction and poetry can form a string of guiding lights, a life raft which supports us when we are sinking.

©2011 Jeannette Winterson (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Accolades & Awards

Lambda Literary Award
2013
Stonewall Book Award
2013
Art & Literature Authors Biographies & Memoirs LGBTQ+ Studies Lambda Literary Award Stonewall Book Award
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Great to read and at the same time listening to the voice of Jeanette. Always nice if writers tell the story themselves.

Lucky and loved at the end!

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I’ve always loved Jeanette Winterson’s novels since the ‘90s. They were essential to my becoming: as a twentysomething discovering my true identity as a lesbian, and as a fiction writer investigating new ways of telling stories. And now that I’m in my fifties, it’s comforting to hear her narrate her own story, those scenes outside of her fictions. And it’s now become comforting, her relatability. Thank you for all that you do. I hope you continue sharing.🧡

That JW Eloquence

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It was really heart-touching. I enjoyed it very much. Winterson seems to write from the experience. Not only from her life, but from the many books she has read during her life.

Touching

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Would you consider the audio edition of Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? to be better than the print version?

the audio version is better for me as I am dyslexic and having an audio version brings books to me I would otherwise find difficult to read

What did you like best about this story?

that she was sharing her story

Have you listened to any of Jeanette Winterson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

no - I would love to hear oranges but you do not have it available

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

laugh and cry - made me appreaciate my family

Any additional comments?

would love to listen to the book she refered to Oranges are not the only fruit

Sharing her story

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Would you listen to Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? again? Why?

I actually listened to this twice and read the book in paperback. Enormous Jeanette Winterson fan and to have her reading it was just the most wonderful treat.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It was short enough I knocked it over in a couple of sittings.

Superb

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