Review: The Passion

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a beautifully lyrical novel that tells the story of a man and a woman in France and Venice, respectively, in the early 1800s. The man, Henri, is a soldier in Napoleon's army and believes that Bonaparte may be the son of God come again. The woman, Villanelle, is a boatman's daughter who works and plays at grand Casinos. Both struggle with the blessings and pain that come with passion. The prose is fantastic in the otherworldly sense. The book is concerned with the relationship between reality and story, both in the individual's life and as abstract concepts, and it leaves you with an appreciation for storytelling as an art.

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