Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Jeanette Winterson

“Where you are born—what you are born into, the place, the history of the place, how that history mates with your own—stamps who you are, whatever the pundits of globalization have to say.”

This is the first book I’ve read by Jeanette Winterson. What initially drew me to it was the title, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?—a sentence Jeanette’s stepmother said to her as she was leaving home at 16, given little choice but to go. It’s not that the author claims she found happiness simply by pursuing what she wanted. Rather, she suggests that what truly matters is the pursuit itself and living on your own terms, rather than following a life dictated by someone else. The story told in this memoir is not an easy one. As painful as it was to be abandoned by her birth mother at six weeks old and adopted by an eccentric, deeply religious woman, Jeanette recounts her life with wit and sharp insight. A wound as deep and primal as the mother wound is defining for a woman, and Winterson’s honest, introspective writing reminded me of Kierkegaard’s famous quote: “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

If you’re looking for your next memoir to read, look no further.
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