An early Winterson, Boating for Beginners is certainly not written in the usual poetic language she employs in most of her works. It is, however, a good laugh. Indeed, I agree with Andrew Sinclair, who is quoted on the back of the book, that admirers of works like Monty Python's Life of Brian will enjoy this re-telling of the Book of Genesis. There's your entrepreneur Noah, and his close friend, the romance writer who churns out novel after novel, and the cook who is a devout believer, and her daughter who is just coming to, and the sons of Noah who just want to be loved by their father, and their wives who have their own bizarre work to do, and Doris, the cleaning-lady-film-extra who is fascinated by the meaning of life, which she believes is death... And on and on it goes into a crazy, clever, and funny story of the coming floods.
This book is another take on the story of Noah - no more and no less believable than the biblical one, this is a very odd mixture of comedy with a few genuine insights into human behavious thrown in.The ending just puzzled me, but then again the whole book did. The characters were well thought-out and you felt for Gloria and Mrs Munde, but overall the whole story was just odd!Very quick read, only 160 pages and worth it simply for the humour, some of it genuinley made me laugh out loud. However, this is certainly not my favourite Winterson novel and the bizareness of it sometimes outweighed the comedy.
What do You think about Boating For Beginners (1997)?
I throughly enjoyed this book - it was very clever, very entertaining and I was very sad it ended. Looks at the bible in a completely new way, would strongly recommend it!Easily as good as oranges are not the only fruit!
—Melissa
A fancy, a fairytale, deliberately set all oddly in time so you can't tell whether you're in present day or ancient Egypt - this is Winterson's version of the Noah's Ark story. Gloria is our young heroine, just starting to develop into someone interesting. Her mother Mrs Munde (who is somewhat of a force of nature) finds work for her at Noah's place, collecting animals together for a "film" to celebrate Yahweh. Frozen food is frowned upon. Bunny Mix, romance-writer extraordinaire, is one of the world's greatest celebrities (apart from Noah himself). Great fun, I loved it. Also, I always feel like I learn things about what makes us tick when I read Winterson.
—pinknantucket
"I sometimes fancy that my body is made up of all the different stars. Leo's in my chest; I'm sure it's Leo because my heart roars. I've always had a roaring heart. Whatever I'm feeling my heart is roaring inside. I don't think I'll die, I think I'll combust. One day my frame will be too weak and my banging heart too strong and the lion will be out, gone, escaped, leaving me here on a little heap. Still, I'd rather it was that way than have no lion at all..."- Jeanette Winterson, Boating for Beginners
—Ayeen Karunungan
