A Taste of Two Loves

One of the most memorable aspects of Jeanette Winterson’s Lighthousekeeping is the relationship between Babel Dark and the two women in his life.  While I can’t remember the exact details after so many years, the dynamic is what lingers behind.

Via We Heart It

Dark is the romantic equivalent of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, falling passionately in love with Molly and after seeing her with another man, rejecting her.  He then marries another woman, and later in life, spends his time divided between the two.  He stays with his married wife for 10 (or 11) months a year, while spending 1 (or 2?) months of passion with Molly each year.

To be honest, Jeanette Winterson is my favorite author, and she has a most uncanny, unusual, and heartbreaking beautiful way about writing about love and capturing love.  Whether its the result of her own life and sexual background, her postmodern writing styling, or her imaginative storytelling, Winterson wields her pen to remind us of all the intricacies of love– the good and bad, hopeful and hopeless, and the grey line that makes us act in irrational ways.

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When I think of Lighthousekeeping, I often think about my own role as those two women– would I be the a woman willing to marry a man for duty, to stand by his dismissive behavior and his inattentiveness– to do so faithfully for 10 months a year?  On the other hand, would I be able to be consumed by a passionate relationship that could only exist for 1-2 months in a year?  If given the choice, which option would I chose and which woman would I be?

When I think about the men in my life I have truly loved–would I be willing to take 10 months to be near him, even if circumstances are less than ideal? Would 2 months of unbridled love & consumption be enough to sustain me throughout the year? 

In a world of two extremes, what kind of woman am I? Which woman would you be?

This is an overly simplistic way to interpret the dynamics of this book and one that could be easily misconstrued.  From reading this, it’d be easy to condemn Babel Dark, to say his actions are inexcusable.  One of the beauties and magic in reading Winterson is the ability to empathize with those whose actions you may otherwise not.

If you’re interested in checking out Jeanette Winterson, these are the other works I’d highly recommend:
The Passion (My absolute FAVORITE book of hers)
Written on the Body (My first taste–and easily one of her best books)
Tanglewreck (Winterson doing Young Adult– highly recommended, especially if you loved His Dark Materials!)