Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is English author Jeanette Winterson's 2012 memoir covering her life, particularly her strange and interesting childhood. The book is filled with stories of her life, stories about Jeanette being locked out of her house at night, about a crazy religious zealot for a mother waiting for the apocalypse (and who probably has a mental illness), about the complete and total transformation of the northern England town she grew up in, about the universe itself, and about a painful past -- a painful childhood -- that she wanted to put in her past but couldn't because she had to journey back into the craziness to find her biological mother. In this book, she explores themes of identity (Winterson realized she was a lesbian and how incompatible that would be with her mother's point of view), belonging, what makes a home, and very generally, the meaning of life.
Upon release, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? was met with incredibly positive reviews. On Amazon, it holds a very respectable rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars. On book review aggregating site Goodreads.com, it holds a similarly solid rating of 3.96 out of 5 stars. Zoe Williams of The Guardian called the book "Deeply Moving" and praised the exceptionally unique way in which it was written. Adds Megan O'Grady of Vogue, "[Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is] magnificent . . . A tour de force of literature and love.”
