Lives of Saints by Jeanette Winterson (1993): A Review

Title: Lives of Saints

Book: The World and Other Places

Author: Jeanette Winterson

Publication Year: 1993 / 1998

Rating: ⭐⭐

Genre: Short story

I finished Jeanette Winterson’s “The Lives of Saints” completely confused. I entered expecting saints and left carrying fluorescent pasta, an invisible narrator, an unresponsive woman, and several questions that Winterson clearly had no intention of answering.

First, what are the three Jewish shopkeepers doing here? They initially seemed important enough to become the centre of the story, but then Winterson left them in their sacred-food shop while the narrator wandered into an entirely different psychological crisis. They are less central characters than part of the story’s religious atmosphere, turning an ordinary shop into something resembling a sacred space.

Then there is Jane. Is she a real character or merely an object onto whom the narrator projects an entire romantic mythology? We learn almost nothing about her inner life because the narrator is too busy watching, following, and assigning meaning to everything she does.

And the narrator: are they in love, invisible, delusional, dead, or simply stalking a woman with unusual literary commitment?

Probably some combination of the above. Or is it a literary version of YOU with the main character as a stalker?