The novel concentrates the worst qualities of her writing.

'In Lighthousekeeping, Jeanette Winterson's metaphors have altogether slipped free of their sponsoring facts her figurative language has turned into so many solemn doodles.

(.) The lighthouse works as an extended metaphor - an obvious idea, but obviousness is one of the satisfactions of this novel: like a good fairy tale, it fulfils expectations.(.) (S)light but sparkling' - Sophie Harrison, New Statesman Winterson's novel cares little for plausibility, yet is careful to make the small things feel true.

'This is northern magical realism, sparer and emptier than its Latin and Indian cousins.

(.) Lighthousekeeping slips down easily, while keeping us alert to the likelihood that there were things we should have chewed over on the way.' - Lucy Daniel, London Rev.

'Is this a pseud's game, or is there more to it ? The point with highly allusive books should be that the more you put in, the more you get out.

The whole point of Winterson's storytelling is that it doesn't begin or end.' - Charlie Lee-Potter, Independent on Sunday It's structured like an old-fashioned sock knitted in an endless loop on a circular needle. ' Lighthousekeeping is an entrancing, gleaming crystal of a book, which left me bereft when it was over.

(.) What anchors Lighthousekeeping, unlike much of Winterson's more abstrusely experimental work, is the physical presence of surly Pew in his 'sea-flung, rock-bitten, sand-edged shell of a town' and of the lighthouse itself, a tangible monolith however metaphor-drenched.' - Joanna Briscoe, The Guardian ' Lighthousekeeping, her eighth novel, is a flawed return to form: a slim but lovely Winterson classic that briefly unravels, shoots into the ether, and then remembers, just in time, what it's all about.There are flashes of potential brilliance here and there, and her confidence in her idiom is impressive, but Lighthousekeeping is unlikely to win over the swelling ranks of doubters.' - Christopher Tayler, Daily Telegraph 'Although the novel's highly mannered idiom works better on the page than it does in summary, it's still pretty irritating, and Winterson's self-consciously intricate borrowings seem too heavy-handedly aimed at the smoky laboratories of English Lit.General information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author Trying to meet all your book preview and review needs.

Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson