Applying and mingling different influences and genres, most notably the romantic and the picaresque, Written on the Body presents a reflection, at once specific and universal, on romantic and sexual love. In purposefully refusing to reveal the narrator’s gender, intentionally playing with the reader’s preconceptions through the narrator’s reference to him/herself at various times as a Boy Scout, a Lothario, or the girl in “Rumpelstiltskin,” various effects are created. As some critics have observed, Jeanette Winterson implicitly presents the experience of romantic passion as universal, transcending gender.

Through this device, however, the novel also forces the reader to acknowledge the existence of sexual stereotypes based on gender. The male/female narrator has had lovers of both sexes, though predominantly with married women who presumably are, or were, essentially heterosexual. This presents a surprising variety of sexual possibilities. The whole tone and perception can change depending on whether the narrator is believed to be male or female. For example, the impulsiveness and self-indulgence admitted to by the narrator have different conventional interpretations depending on gender. Literary portrayals of similar male characters, such as the eponymous hero of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones (1749), tend to present this type of behavior with some indulgence, even envy—a kind of winking acquiescence to the naughty boy. The traditional feminine corollary is the femme fatale, but this type is conventionally portrayed as distinctly uncharming: a kind of black widow who heartlessly seduces and discards men and who herself usually meets a sticky end. Perceived as female, the narrator of Written on the Body does not fit this mold, not only because he/she is too witty and exuberant but also because the lovers are predominantly female, which presents a very different paradigm of sexual relationship. The effect is a continually disorienting and altered perspective on sexual and gender-based stereotypes.

Further uncertainty is created as the reader, addressed as a sort of confidant by the narrator, sees glimpses of flaws and omissions of which the narrator is guilty. One of the most noticeable episodes in which this occurs is in the account of Jacqueline. It is the mousy, comfortable Jacqueline who is seen graphically to be damaged by abandonment. Her character is discomfiting because of the lack of similarity to any of her predecessors, who appear to be as robust and sexually fickle as the narrator. The disapproval tinged with disdain that marks the narrator’s description of Jacqueline’s ordinariness and the casual account of her desperate and embittered departure reveal a less-than-sympathetic side of the narrator.

The title of the book refers, in part, to the novel’s focus on self-discovery and expression through sexuality. A recurring theme in Winterson’s work is the intermingling of identities of the loved one and the self, the discovery of self in and through the lover, which is strongly evident in Written on the Body . In a physical sense, the narrator observes that there is more similarity than difference between him/herself and Louise, and there are many references to a merging with and possession of Louise’s body: “This is the body where [my] name is written.” Yet the body is analyzed in a broader sense as well. It is recurringly viewed as the vessel of both life and death in the novel. Before the revelation of Louise’s illness, her body is described in adoring and lyrical (if objectified) detail, the narrator savoring every part of it in the language of a lover. What is viewed as the instrument of intense pleasure and expression of love, however, is also later seen as the enemy, the self-betrayer turning against itself through disease. The language becomes...