Storytelling

Winterson’s novel tells four separate stories—“Planet Blue,” “Easter Island,” “Post-3 War,” and “Wreck City”—that are, in essence, the same story. Each features a protagonist by the name of Billie (or, in “Easter Island”, “Billy”—who is a man), a companion named Spike (or, in “Easter Island”, “Spikkers”—who is also a man). As Winterson’s novel unfolds, readers realize the parallels between the stories, and are forced to confront the question: are the stories we tell ever really different, or simply reconfigurations of one singular human destiny? In effect, Winterson casts the act of storytelling as a grasp at the idea of agency: noble, endearing, but ultimately, impossible.

In “Planet Blue”, Spike tells Billie a circular story of the world beginning: first there was nothing, then a tree, then a bird in the tree, then a worm in the mouth of the bird...