The PowerBook

By Jeanette Winterson

Winterson enfolds her seventh novel within the world of computers, and transforms the signal development of our time into a wholly human medium. The story is simple: an e-mail writer called Ali will compose anything you like, on order, provided you're prepared to enter the story as yourself and risk leaving it as someone else. You can be the hero of your own life. You can have freedom just for one night. But there is a price, and Ali discovers that she, too, will have to pay it.

The PowerBook reinvents itself as it travels from London to Paris, Capri, and Cyberspace, using fairy tales, contemporary myths, and popular culture to weave a story of failed but requited love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9780307763617

Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson was born in Manchester in 1959. She read English at Oxford University before writing her first novel, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, which was published in 1985.

Reviews for The PowerBook

[wildmaggie · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm giving it 2 1/2 stars because it did keep me reading even though I really didn't know what was going on for a lot of the book. Seems like not have a plot is kind of the point but it makes this so so post-modern as to be nearly incomprehensible. Can't really say much about the characters either as it was often not clear who was who; even who was speaking though long unsupported sections of dialog. Lots of short, often interesting and/or compelling snippets, some of which are achingly beautifully written, that don't ever really add up to anything I could call a story. More like a series of vignettes some clearly related to each other and some with more opaque reason for being included.

[overgaard-2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Last chapters reminiscent of City of the Mind by Penelope Lively. Highly inventive love story traveling through the centuries.

[paulagraph · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Classic Winterson. Twenty years ago, I would have given it a couple more stars, I suspect. As the narrator divulges near the beginning, it's always about boundaries and desire. Best are the petite tales within the Tale.

[librarybrandy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A novel written in short stories, a collection of short stories that make up a novel... it's Jeanette Winterson, so who can even tell for sure. This is a meditation on love, a relationship in metaphor, an exploration of sexuality and sensuality. Maybe not her best book, though I suspect I'd have gotten more out of it were I better versed in Virgina Woolf (particularly Orlando).

[sturlington_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was never quite sure what the point of this book was the whole time I was reading it. I recognized that the title and several chapter heads referred to Macintosh computers, but there really was no computer in the book. Instead, there was a series of loosely joined stories, some based on legends from the past, some bordering on fairy tales, and others slices of present-day life.The center of the story is a rather mundane lesbian love affair. They desperately love each other, want to be together, can’t be together, then maybe… But the meat of the book is lost in a lot of filler that, while sometimes engaging, ultimately never gets into that bigger something it’s trying so hard to be.

[rebeccaann_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm at a bit of a loss at how to describe this book. It's most definitely not conventional. It's confusing but at the same time, strangely clear. It's without a doubt one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. It's a love story that ends in both a heartbreaking and yet a hopeful manner. It shows the power of stories. It evokes so many different emotions. It's about ambiguous identity and erasing the binary opposition between males and females.Honestly, the first scene is very...strange. But I hope is doesn't deter anyone from reading this book. I really enjoyed this book and it's going on to my list of memorable reads. It's one of those books that just begs to be reread over and over. I wish I could write a better review for this book but I'm tired so this will have to do for now. I hope I've encouraged someone to try this book out though :)

[mich_yms · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There were many aspects of this book that I found intriguing and engaging. Perhaps one that is worth mentioning is how the story keeps shifting. First we read about the storyteller, then we see it as the character of a story being written, then as the person whom the story is directed to. Again and again we are given different perspectives to ponder, different characters to emphatize with, different roles to play. We are constantly transported to different worlds and realms, moving back and forth between reality and virtuality.The beauty of it all is that none of this leaves us readers out in the dark. We know what they know. We feel what they feel. We are, in a sense, the characters in the book, and the characters within the stories in the book. We are one with them, and yet, we transform and merge into other characters with such ease, it is quite quite exhilarating.This book was beautifully written.

[whirled_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The PowerBook offers more of what Jeanette Winterson's fans have come to expect - interesting ruminations on the nature of love and sex in her elegant, economical style. Written at the turn of the century, the novel's central conceit - linking each chapter to a different computer function - now seems naive and dated. Not for the first time, Winterson rescues her book from mediocrity via the sheer beauty of her words.

[391_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The language in The Powerbook is simply fantastic - Winterson is a masterful author, and she really pulls out all the stops with this one.