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Rubyfruit Jungle
Rubyfruit Jungle is the first milestone novel in the extraordinary career of one of this country's most distinctive writers. Bawdy and moving, the ultimate word-of-mouth bestseller, Rubyfruit Jungle is about growing up a lesbian in America – and living happily ever after.
Born a bastard, Molly Bolt is adopted by a dirt-poor Southern couple who want something better for thei...more
Born a bastard, Molly Bolt is adopted by a dirt-poor Southern couple who want something better for thei...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
April 1st 1983
by Bantam
(first published 1973)
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Oct 11, 2012
Donna
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
see above review.
Recommended to Donna by:
my sister
Shelves:
humorous
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 "room mate" of many years was not just a room mate 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, occ...more
This book was a good antidote. Hilariously written, human, sexual, occ...more
Jan 03, 2008
Tatiana
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Tatiana by:
jess
Shelves:
lez
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,...more
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,...more
17 likes · like · see review
Definitely an interesting historical look at some concepts (lesbianism, feminine gender roles in society). I did think it was a little heavy-handed and presumptuous at times (the fact that every woman the protagonist is interested in wants to sleep with her as well, the idea that anyone who can throw off the shackles of societal standards would prefer to be a lesbian because the sex is objectively better, etc.) Also her talent for her chosen career is portrayed in very tell-don't-show manner (my...more
Jun 10, 2011
Meen
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommended to Meen by:
I guess it's one of those lesbian standards?
6/10/11: It was fun. I liked Molly Bolt before she came to NYC a lot more than I did after. And I saw someone else's review mention that the book was pretty butch-phobic, and that's true. So it was fun, especially before she got to NYC, but mostly just OK.
Something that was interesting about it for me--(I can't help reading as an informal sociologist, it seems.)--was the trenchant gender critique, and the realization that not so long ago the woman as class president, as film director, as uninter...more
Something that was interesting about it for me--(I can't help reading as an informal sociologist, it seems.)--was the trenchant gender critique, and the realization that not so long ago the woman as class president, as film director, as uninter...more
3 likes · like · see review
I've read this book about 8 times in the last 18 years. In it, she mentions bagels & lox. I only JUST, at age 31, figured out what LOX was, though... Thankfully I understood everything else in the book, so we're good. I was just late on the lox stuff.
7 likes · like · see review
May 14, 2007
sydney
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
lesbians, women's historians, horndogs
This is a coming-of-age novel about Molly, a tough, smart, adopted lesbian (her mom tells her she's a "bastard") who also happens to have sex with a bunch of dudes (she thinks it's boring) throughout her life. She grows up in Pennsylvania and moves to Florida, then hitchhikes to New York City.
The writing is, at times, too simplistic, and the dialogue forced, but Molly is a funny and likable character. Brown portrays heterosexuals as perpetually unhappy, dishonest with themselves, and (usually)...more
The writing is, at times, too simplistic, and the dialogue forced, but Molly is a funny and likable character. Brown portrays heterosexuals as perpetually unhappy, dishonest with themselves, and (usually)...more
I just reread that and was amazed how much I did not like it. Mostly the writing is amateurish, luckily she improved in this area. The story reads much more like "I wish I had been this brave and sure, so I'm going to write like I wanted to be, not how I actually was".
Tatiana is not being fair. RMB wrote this book reasonably early in her career, 30 years ago. The humor of the time was different, the references were different, shock value was different, risque was different. At the time it was shockingly welcome. It is still today a very joyful, affirming book for gay, straight, adopted, natural, or just unique.
RMB is older and mellower now (see cat mysteries!) but this is an important, albeit fictionalized, documentation of her thoughts and development at a...more
RMB is older and mellower now (see cat mysteries!) but this is an important, albeit fictionalized, documentation of her thoughts and development at a...more
May 04, 2007
Genna
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
students of GLBT history
One of the few books regarded as a "classic" of lesbian literature, Ruby Fruit Jungle bothered me. What begins as a not-too-bad lesbian coming of age story evolves into an anti-heterosexual, anti-motherhood manefesto. The plot and the writing suffer as a result, and my own disagreement with the message prevents me from enjoying the book.
I was able to find solace in regarding the book as something of a historical relac - a museum piece of sorts that illustrates well a particular philosophical er...more
I was able to find solace in regarding the book as something of a historical relac - a museum piece of sorts that illustrates well a particular philosophical er...more
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...more
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...more
Rita Mae Brown seems excited to be exploring the evolution of Molly Bolt. Our feisty lesbian protagonist grew up poor in Pennsylvania, moved to Ft. Lauderdale, gets kicked out of UF, and ultimately hitchhikes her way to New York City. Each change of location brings a change of book, literally a different chapter in her life.
This is not a book of heavy introspection. Molly already accepts herself, right from our first meeting with her, when she is in grade school. She satirizes the reaction of t...more
This is not a book of heavy introspection. Molly already accepts herself, right from our first meeting with her, when she is in grade school. She satirizes the reaction of t...more
Dec 05, 2010
Patrick Gibson
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
contemporary-literature
Had me laughing out loud by the time I reached page 5. The book tells the life story of Molly Bolt, a poor girl who comes from rural Pennsylvania. Molly narrates the book, which follows her to her adolescent years in Florida and to her life as a struggling film student in New York. Along the way, Molly lives her life as a sexually liberated young lesbian.
Molly is a wonderful character: a witty, intelligent combination of artist and trickster. The book is full of humor and satirical outrageousne...more
Molly is a wonderful character: a witty, intelligent combination of artist and trickster. The book is full of humor and satirical outrageousne...more
I just sat down and read this. I wasn't planning on reading the entire thing, but it's the 4th of July and sometimes these things happen.
I really loved this book from a historical standpoint, with Molly kind of personifying the early struggles of both the women's and gay rights movements. What I didn't like so much was the lack of subtle exposition. I was willing to forgive the book for some clunky dialogue in the name of politics, but after a while it started to grate on me. More easily forgive...more
I really loved this book from a historical standpoint, with Molly kind of personifying the early struggles of both the women's and gay rights movements. What I didn't like so much was the lack of subtle exposition. I was willing to forgive the book for some clunky dialogue in the name of politics, but after a while it started to grate on me. More easily forgive...more
My mother's totally 2nd wave feminist, lesbian, sepratist, viola playing best friend gave me this book when I was 15. Hinting at what exactly? Rita bums me out with her anti butch sentiments. However, I love her notion of sexual superiority in pretty much every way possible. Rita's turnin' everyone out from her uptight square lipstick bestfriend to her mother fucking cousin. It could be annoyingly self indulgent but it's so over the top sometimes that I just love it. She's incredibly judgemental...more
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 wh...more
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 wh...more
Originally published at http://lesbrary.com/2012/08/14/mfred-...
Well, I finally read Rubyfruit Jungle. I’m not entirely sure what to think of it.
Is it well written, tightly plotted, compelling, and interesting? Not really. One meandering story runs into the next, sometimes without pause. It is very picaresque in that sense; so perhaps Brown purposefully sacrificed plot in order to maintain that genre’s style. I can’t say that it really works. As a loose collection of adventurous anecdotes, I wou...more
Well, I finally read Rubyfruit Jungle. I’m not entirely sure what to think of it.
Is it well written, tightly plotted, compelling, and interesting? Not really. One meandering story runs into the next, sometimes without pause. It is very picaresque in that sense; so perhaps Brown purposefully sacrificed plot in order to maintain that genre’s style. I can’t say that it really works. As a loose collection of adventurous anecdotes, I wou...more
Sep 20, 2011
Nicole Mcdonald
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
books-i-ve-read-in-2011
So the very first book I read this year was Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown. It’s one of those classics of lesbian fiction that I’ve never gotten around to until now. When I was back home for Christmas my Dad gave me a big box of books that his (formerly) lesbian friend gave him. As she knows I’m also a queer, she told my Dad there were a bunch of lesbo books in the box that I might like. I went through it but there wasn’t much that struck my fancy except for Rubyfruit Jungle, because I knew...more
May 16, 2013
Kathryn Bundy
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
lesbian-fiction
I first read this book a couple years after it came out in 1973. I'm pretty sure it was the first lesbian book I ever read, and I was thrilled. Now I read it again because my book club is reading it this month and it is not what I remembered at all.
The childhood section in the beginning is evocative of what I've learned from living in the south for the past 25 years, and I enjoyed and cringed at the same time. My wife tells similar tales of running the streets with her cousins in a small town b...more
The childhood section in the beginning is evocative of what I've learned from living in the south for the past 25 years, and I enjoyed and cringed at the same time. My wife tells similar tales of running the streets with her cousins in a small town b...more
Rubyfruit Jungle has long been a staple in feminist and lesbian libraries, but this story isn’t exclusively for that audience. It’s a story about Molly Bolt, who lives in relative poverty in rural Pennsylvania. This is Molly’s story, and as she tells it from her perspective, we follow her life as it changes and evolves as she herself grows: from the back country of Pennsylvania, to the suburbs of Florida to the mean streets of New York City. During her Florida years we comes to terms with her se...more
Mar 02, 2008
The Cute Little Brown-haired girl
added it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
anyone who likes erotica or novels about coming of age/sexual discovery
Recommended to The Cute Little Brown-haired girl by:
Kim
Shelves:
erotica-sexuality
I remember how much this book opened my eyes to a whole new world of sexuality I didn't know existed. All I can say is that I thank my friend Kim for mentioning this book with an intensity in her eyes that I had never seen before. I bought it that day, I think, and read it in two days. It still sits on my shelf as a reminder of how a good book can seriously change your life. Warning: not for the sexually "sober"
Read as a teenager & just got another copy to re-read. I remember this book being very fundamental to me originally, as I came out at that time. Re-reading it was somewhat disappointing, however. The writing is excellent and it was a very fast and funny read. But the language was painful to read, especially specific to race relations/issues. I do believe that it was appropriate to the time/place being portrayed but I think I had not noticed/been as affected by it the first time. The bigger i...more
The book's heroine has been described as "a genuine female descendant of Huckleberry Finn." Now I was never a fan of Mark Twain or Huck Finn, but this is a book I had a hard time setting down. The heroine is the adopted daughter of a very poor southern couple who want much better for the daughter...even if it isn't always conveyed with the right sentiment. Unfortunately, Molly and her parents have very different views of what she should pursue. Molly grows up a tomboy who loses her virginity to...more
(FROM JACKET)The appearance in hardcover of this landmark novel, deemed so outrageous when first published and still so funny and wise....
"Rubyfruit Jungle" is about growing up as a lesbian in America-and living happily ever after. Born a bastard, Molly Bolt is adopted by a feisty, dirt-poor Southern couple who bring up their daughter to respect her own fresh, curious outlook and love for learning. As Molly becomes old enough to realize she's different, she decides she need not apologize for tha...more
"Rubyfruit Jungle" is about growing up as a lesbian in America-and living happily ever after. Born a bastard, Molly Bolt is adopted by a feisty, dirt-poor Southern couple who bring up their daughter to respect her own fresh, curious outlook and love for learning. As Molly becomes old enough to realize she's different, she decides she need not apologize for tha...more
This is not the book you'd expect from a person who writes mysteries that are solved by cats, a cat lady, or maybe both (i'm not sure..never read them!). Rubyfruit Jungle was written in the 70s and, I think, more controversial at the time. it's the story of a girl who was adopted (as her mom repeatedly reminds her) and discovers that she wants to make more of herself than her poor town, and also that she's a lesbian, but even more, a lesbian who doesn't want to settle down with just one person....more
Apr 23, 2011
Cheri
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Cheri by:
bookclub
I wish I could do half star intervals, I would give this book 3.5 stars. There are things I loved about this book and things that I disliked a lot (I won't say hated because it was a decent book). A very short 246 page paperback should not have "slow spots"; and if it does, there should only be one. I felt there were several slow spots in this book. But then they'd be offset by a good 10-20 pages of great flow.
The main character, Molly, had such a great spirit. You have to go into this remember...more
The main character, Molly, had such a great spirit. You have to go into this remember...more
Hmm.
Things I liked about this book:
1) The way that Molly described her mother's politics as "to the right of Genghis Khan." That is perhaps the best line I have read, ever. Which is important because I generally think that this book was terribly written, and that the dialogue wasn't realistic at all.
2) How anti-marriage and anti-having children this book is. Because I'm an asshole who doesn't want to get married or have kids.
3) The fact that Molly didn't graduate from college and become wildly s...more
Things I liked about this book:
1) The way that Molly described her mother's politics as "to the right of Genghis Khan." That is perhaps the best line I have read, ever. Which is important because I generally think that this book was terribly written, and that the dialogue wasn't realistic at all.
2) How anti-marriage and anti-having children this book is. Because I'm an asshole who doesn't want to get married or have kids.
3) The fact that Molly didn't graduate from college and become wildly s...more
People seem to love or hate this novel and I remember getting into arguments about it in Library School. I personally liked this book quite a bit and don't feel like defending my stance. I would like to say that many consider it an "anti-motherhood manifesto" and I have absolutely no problem with anti-motherhood manifestos. The beginning chapter of the book is absolutely hysterical when Molly is discussing the unsightly appearance of Broccoli's junk; that sold it for me and I read it straight th...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Things I liked about this book:
Written the way people actually speak
Not sentimental about difficulty in relationships, especially parent-child ones
Things I didn't like:
The heroineis far more plucky than any real person and I therefore wish there were more accounts of her occasions of self-doubt
Other people constantly bill it as a lesbian coming-of-age story (ex: it was shelved with LGBT books in my local library)
This last criticism isn't one of Rita Mae Brown, but of her critics and librarians....more
Written the way people actually speak
Not sentimental about difficulty in relationships, especially parent-child ones
Things I didn't like:
The heroineis far more plucky than any real person and I therefore wish there were more accounts of her occasions of self-doubt
Other people constantly bill it as a lesbian coming-of-age story (ex: it was shelved with LGBT books in my local library)
This last criticism isn't one of Rita Mae Brown, but of her critics and librarians....more
Jun 23, 2009
penelopewanders
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
rings-rays-loans-traded
This came via a book spiral, and I thought I had already read it, but if I did it left no impression. My feeling is that this must have been quite revolutionary when it first came out, but seems fairly tame now. The ending, according to the back cover, should be positive, but quite frankly it felt a bit sad to me. Fortunately much has changed in recent years, even if so very much still remains to be changed. Or perhaps I just have lived in more open-minded communities. At anyrate the core issues...more
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| AfterEllen.com Bo...: Rubyfruit Jungle. | 6 | 63 | 17 apr. 16:44 |
Rita Mae Brown is a prolific American writer, most known for her mysteries and other novels (Rubyfruit Jungle). She is also an Emmy-nominated screenwriter.
More about Rita Mae Brown...
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“I mean, what do people talk about when they're married?" "Their kids, I guess." "Maybe that's all they have in common.”
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“It doesn't matter to me. We're still cousins in our own way. Blood's just something old people talk about to make you feel bad.”
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