Rubyfruit Jungle By Rita Mae Brown

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Fast moving and dynamic, Rubyfruit Jungle vividly sketches the coming of age of a lesbian in postwar America. The autobiographical novel follows Molly Brown, the adopted daughter of a destitute family, as she grows up in Florida struggling with her sexuality and later as she runs away to New York to pursue a career as a filmmaker and a life among other lesbians. The dialogue-heavy novel resembles a screenplay, and its episodic plot is compulsively readable; the story’s powerfully bookended by Molly’s reflections on her vexed relationship with her mother, who routinely disowned her during her youth. The ending’s neat and the characterization simple, but the novel’s alternately lively and moving. Mass Market Paperback i swear i already wrote a review of this book but maybe not.

okay, so you're young, you've suddenly realized you're a lesbian. one out of every two people you talk to in the next year are going to recommend rubyfruit jungle. it is THE coming out book. i wonder if gay men have an equivalent. anyway. personally, i think this book is overhyped. let's remember that this is the same lady who writes murder mysteries with her CAT. that's right, not about her cat, but with her cat. co-authored. i mean, i love cats and all, but... anyway. poor southern lesbian comes out, runs around, hijinks ensue. personally, i would sneak into your room at night and replace this book with a dorothy allison book. i think you would thank me.

sigh. but yes, i suppose, it's a valid part of the process. we can't just dismiss ms. brown on account of she's a crazy cat lady. and she did get a bar named after the book, so that's gotta count for something. Mass Market Paperback I read this book the year it was published. I was a young woman of 21, and it was during a time when it was still considered shocking, by most of mainstream straight America,to be gay. My sister had recently come out to me, and my head was spinning. We were very close, and she was much older. Her roommate of many years was not just a roommate any more. I wasn't sure what to think or feel. In short, I was confused as hell.

This book was a good antidote. Hilariously written, human, sexual, occasionally profane: it's hard to be a homophobe when you're laughing that hard.

Later that year,while Anita Bryant was still trying to save our children by getting gays and lesbians banned from any job involving children on the no-facts-involved notion that they would molest them, I went to my first Pride march in my sister's place. (She was a pediatric nurse, and terrified lest she lose her position; she is retired now). Our mother turned on the evening news to see a close-up of a very young version of me, clad in a halter top and carrying a sign, chanting Three, five, seven, nine, lesbians are MIGHTY FINE!

Things are different now, and more people are probably open to reading a book like this, even when there are no humming-wire family issues involved. It did me a world of good. If you are lesbian, are in favor of gay rights but aren't sure if you are comfortable about actual lesbians--a lot of people have told me this over the years: 'it's a private matter, but I don't want to hear about it'-- or if you are not easily offended and just want to laugh, and laugh, and laugh, get this book. Read it now. Mass Market Paperback I read this book by accident. Literally and metaphorically, as was trapped in a foreign hospital without anything to read. After pleading with anyone who'd listen (in bad German), one of the nurses said she had one English book at home and this is what she brought me.

By the look of the 70s cover and dreadful blurb making it out to be some sort of erotic lesbo fiction, it didn't look like the sort of book I'd choose for company over Christmas. It just shows you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. And after the stomach-churning schmaltz of 'Miracle on Regent Street' it was read cover to cover at lightening speed.

Intelligently written, coming of age story with a very likeable main character, Molly, who never accepts an answer or will be told what to do, and kicks against all her disadvantages and the bigotry facing her. It was funny too - the description of the children's nativity play in the local school is priceless.

Not sure why I've never come across this author before - may be worth investigating her back catalogue based on this one. As, apparently it was a bestseller when first published. Mass Market Paperback I really debated whether to give this one or two stars because my intense negative reaction to the book doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't written decently.

However, I definitely can't award it anything higher than a two because it was awful in many ways. Here's a list in no particular order why I dislike this novel:

1. Putting down butch lesbians by basically saying there's no point to them (Molly says she might as well be with a man) and also implying from the few she met that they are stupid and ugly.

2. Ageism. Granted, Molly does sleep with Polina towards the end but she puts down older lesbians frequently prior to that.

3. Rape. Molly is pissed at Polina (who is being judgmental for sure, but still doesn't condone the above action) and forces her to kiss her and then restrains her on the bed. Molly even admits she half-forced her into this encounter and dismisses Polina's objections by insisting she likes it, even if she initially acts like she hates it. If a dude did this in a novel I would be just as squicked out right now. It is never okay to force someone to have sex with you, I don't care how they're acting.

4. Approval of incest, with emphasis on parent and child. Later, when Molly is now sleeping with Polina's daughter, Alice, she says that she knows her mother wants to sleep with her but is too repressed to do so. What follows is Alice saying she doesn't think incest is that big of a trauma to which Molly replies that she doesn't understand why parents and children put each other in these de-sexed categories. (It's) Anti-human, I think. As if that isn't disgusting enough on its own, she tries to cover her ass by by adding that incest is only okay when both parties are consenting and over fifteen.

I guess the author thought herself very enlightened by suggesting incest is no big deal as long as everyone is onboard but I found that entire section disturbing as hell. Being a victim of incest myself I can only assume the author a) never had any experience with incest personally or b) did, but is so fucked up as a result that she thinks it permissible for parent and child to have sex together. I'll be the first to say that incest is a big deal and was very traumatic to me. I realize not everyone feels the same, but I think it's irresponsible and horrid to suggest that not having sex with relatives is somehow anti-human. So fuck you very much, Rita Mae Brown.

You know what? On second thought, I give this book one star. There is nothing within it that's redeemable enough to pardon the things above. Mass Market Paperback

Bawdy and moving, the ultimate word-of-mouth bestseller, Rubyfruit Jungle is about growing up a lesbian in America--and living happily ever after. Rubyfruit Jungle

good but i could’ve done without the incest Mass Market Paperback Seeing as I've been dating women for awhile, I figured I'd finally read this classic of lesbo lit. My review in one word, eh. . .

I mean, Brown's got a great handle on a fierce character, and there are streaks of beauty in this jammed story, but the main problem it has more ego than Ayn Rand (whom I love, btw). Rae's main character, Molly, is strong willed, defiant, and brutally brilliant against her slow as molasses thinkin' counterparts and family members. I'm one for a hard headed, knows what she wants type-a woman, but there is no fault in Molly. Brown heaps undulating audiences who are speared by Molly's wit on every side. You can only assume that Molly is a thinly veiled autobiographical character, but this is where her defiant I'm smarter than 'em all characteristic bleeds into the writing, which is as undulant and as flawed as her main character. Brown's character is not human, she's the super-human Sapphic wish on steroids, she's all spear and no handle, and in all honesty, it just feels like you're reading the story of someone telling you how great they are at all times. There is little nuance, little moments of understanding and in truth, little sense of a full character. Molly's a one-dimensional savior to all those Lesbo, and if you're Lesbo yourself, or just discovering that you have an inner Lesbo and need to nurture it, by all means, take Rubyfruit Jungle out and have a field day. Still, it's a quick read, and definitely has it's place in the cannon of both feminist and gay lit, so take a read if you're into that. As for Brown though, I simply wished she had a better editor. She possible did, and then fired her, though. Mass Market Paperback I liked this book immediately and can find little fault with it! Mass Market Paperback I'm seriously reconsidering this Fallback Friday idea. If the old books are all like this one, I don't think I'll be able to handle it.

This book was a flat out mess. I'm sitting here so angry after reading it.

I did not like Molly Bolt. Not even a little bit.

This story follows Molly Bolt from when she was 11 all the way until her mid twenties. We read her life in sectioned off parts. Her childhood, her junior high/high school, and young adult college time frames. She was a detestable brat throughout it all.

I think I'm supposed to think that Molly was brave and ahead of her time. There is probably supposed to be a lesson in this story about being yourself and not conforming to what others expect or think of you. Maybe I'm even supposed to be swayed to think that we aren't meant for monogamy and we should all explore free love.

I read someplace that this book kind of made the author her the only lesbian in that era. And that just saddens me. Because if everyone read this drivel, then it is no wonder why people have untoward ideas about homosexuals. The entire book romanticizes infidelity and promiscuity. Molly diddles and sexes with anybody she comes in contact with. Without any type of emotional connection whatsoever. Completely disconnected. And we are supposed to believe that she would turn down some rich woman archaeologist that would fund the only thing important to her? Sure thing. The worst part was when Molly declares that she is pretty much OK with incest!

I know Rita Mae Brown could not have been going for any type of positive representation with this book. It felt more like she was going for shock factor. Well done. Because this was well and truly shocking to me.

I wish we could have had a more positive lesbian role model protagonist in the early best selling lesbian novel. Maybe we wouldn't have had to undo so many negative stereotypes along the way.

And for the record, this does not stand up over time. At all. I didn't understand a multitude of references to politicians, artists, actors, etc. There was some slang I've never heard in my life. It had openly racist and homophobic dialogue. Generalized bigotry that was prevalent back then.

Seriously do not recommend. Mass Market Paperback After Six of One, my favorite of lesbian legend among women Rita Mae Brown's witty, delightful books. The fact that the young woman protagonist is a film student, and the film that she's shown to have made, kept me riveted to the page. (I dated a lot of film students in 1970s Austin.) The fact that not a lot of women went to film school, at least not that I saw at their sausage fests, made the fiery transgressiveness of the whole tale all the more exciting. Break every boundary, ignore every norm, he hummed to the Sound of Music tune.

It's a STEAL at $1.99 today, 7 November 2019. Mass Market Paperback