In Her Day: A Novel

by Rita Mae Brown

For years a "lost" collector's item, here is the second novel from a brilliant young author testing her literary muscle, and it's bursting at the seams with Rita Mae Brown's trademark cast of characters and crackling quips. Written immediately after her classic Rubyfruit Jungle, In Her Day takes a loving swipe at the charged political atmosphere of Greenwich Village in the early seventies. Elegant art history professor Carole Hanratty insists brains transcend lust—until she crashes into Ilse, a revolutionary feminist flush with the arrogance of youth. Blazing with rhetoric, their romance is a sexual and ideological inferno. Ilse campaigns to get Carole to join The Movement, but forty-four-year-old Carole and her zany peers have twenty years of fight behind them and are wary of causes bogged down in talk. After all, says Carole's best friend, the real reason for a revolution is so the good things in life circulate. Her idea of subversion is hiring a Rolls-Royce to go to McDonald's. In Her Day , with its infectious merriment and serious underpinnings, proves that if politics is the great divider, humor is the ultimate restorative.

Genres: Fiction, Queer, LGBT, Lesbian, Lesbian Fiction, Contemporary, Novels

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1988

About the author

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.

Brown was born illegitimate in Hanover, Pennsylvania. She was raised by her biological mother's female cousin and the cousin's husband in York, Pennsylvania and later in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Starting in the fall of 1962, Brown attended the University of Florida at Gainesville on a scholarship. In the spring of 1964, the administrators of the racially segregated university expelled her for participating in the civil rights movement. She subsequently enrolled at Broward Community College[3] with the hope of transferring eventually to a more tolerant four-year institution.

Between fall 1964 and 1969, she lived in New York City, sometimes homeless, while attending New York University[6] where she received a degree in Classics and English. Later,[when?] she received another degree in cinematography from the New York School of Visual Arts.[citation needed] Brown received a Ph.D. in literature from Union Institute & University in 1976 and holds a doctorate in political science from the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.

Starting in 1973, Brown lived in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. In 1977, she bought a farm in Charlottesville, Virginia where she still lives.[9] In 1982, a screenplay Brown wrote while living in Los Angeles, Sleepless Nights, was retitled The Slumber Party Massacre and given a limited release theatrically.

During Brown's spring 1964 semester at the University of Florida at Gainesville, she became active in the American Civil Rights Movement. Later in the 1960s, she participated in the anti-war movement, the feminist movement and the Gay Liberation movement.

Brown took an administrative position with the fledgling National Organization for Women, but resigned in January 1970 over Betty Friedan's anti-gay remarks and NOW's attempts to distance itself from lesbian organizations. She claims she played a leading role in the "Lavender Menace" zap of the Second Congress to Unite Women on May 1, 1970, which protested Friedan's remarks and the exclusion of lesbians from the women's movement.

In the early 1970s, she became a founding member of The Furies Collective, a lesbian feminist newspaper collective in Washington, DC, which held that heterosexuality was the root of all oppression.

Brown told Time magazine in 2008, "I don't believe in straight or gay. I really don't. I think we're all degrees of bisexual. There may be a few people on the extreme if it's a bell curve who really truly are gay or really truly are straight. Because nobody had ever said these things and used their real name, I suddenly became [in the late 1970s] the only lesbian in America."

Reviews

[Freyja Vanadis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as enjoyable a read as some of other books, and a little bit of a step down from Rubyfruit Jungle, which she had published three years earlier. It was still interesting to read about the women's movement in general and the lesbian movement in particular, from the mid-70s. I was about 13 when this book was published, and I had no clue about all that stuff. I knew there was a women's movment, of course; my Dad took every opportunity to ridicule it, and the church I belonged to was officially against it and used to call it evil. Thank god I didn't absorb those belief systems I was raised with 36 years ago.

[Emily Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another one I read for uni last term but this one I absolutely hated! It was so so weird and the narrative just felt like an excuse for the characters to talk to each other about feminism (albeit a very narrow minded and limited view on it).

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found In Her Day to be rather clunky. The narrative (if you can really call it that) is merely an excuse to have characters talk at each other about what feminism means, what it should be doing, what it should be achieving, how it should be achieving, who should be included and excluded and what should the movement look like...

These are all great ideas and great areas of debate and interest. And in fact remain highly relevant to feminism in the 21st Century... But does this make a novel?

It's unfortunate because I actually loved Carole (there's something rather deliciously Miranda Priestly about her), and I found her life, her loves and her experience as a high-acheiving (gay) academic to be incredibly interesting and deserving of more exploration.

Instead the novel centers on a relationship-of-sorts that seems to revolve around arguing about feminism and then fucking the young and indignant Isle. There was no real exploration of their romance, no real insight into how they support and look after each other the way people in relationships do. Their relationship became the basis of a whirlwind exchange of ideas and feminist debate that would have been much better suited in an essay, or as a short story as a means of introducing some ideas about feminism.

That's not to say there aren't good bits, there are. And it's also not to say that the feminism isn't also good, it just sits very clunkliy within a weak narrative that simply cannot shoulder the might of the debates and themes occurring.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one, though it wasn't as revolutionary as Rubyfruit Jungle. It was an interesting exploration of the dynamic between a younger woman devoted to the feminist movement and an older woman who wanted no part of it. Definitely worth reading.

[Gail Sacharski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a big Rita Mae Brown fan, especially her Mrs. Murphy & Sister Jane series, but I also enjoy her other books/series. This book was her second novel & focuses on the women's movement of the 70s. Carole is a tenured professor delivering lectures in New York, raised in poverty in Virginia, & a lesbian with a wide circle of friends. She is confident in herself & her skills & does what she likes without caring for the opinions of others. But she meets Ilse one night & is immediately attracted to her. Ilse is 20+ years her junior, bold, & very involved in the women's movement. Ilse was raised in wealth & has turned her back on her parents & their riches to throw herself headlong into her revolution & she is still inexperienced & idealistic without, sometimes, being realistic. She belives what she believes & thinks those who don't feel as she does are wrong. Carole & Ilse make an unlikely couple &, after the first exhiliration of their relationship, they spend most of their time fighting about the movement & their involvement & non-involvement. This was an interesting book if only for the historic perspective of the early days of the Women's Movement & its many aspects. Brown does a good job of presenting the various approaches through her characters & how it affects their lives & actions. I didn't enjoy it as much as her other books which seem to have more of a story to them, but it was good.

[Jimyanni · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very early book in Brown's ouvre, and it shows. The characters are moderately interesting, but the dialogue is mostly pretty stilted, given how much of it is political and philosophical arguments between characters with different viewpoints. The contrast is not without value but the conversations mostly come across as position papers; not saying that that's unrealistic. I've had conversations like that with friends when I disagree with them, but as written dialogue it is somewhat jarring. And there isn't much actual plot; nothing much of interest really happens. All in all, the concept wasn't bad but the execution was lacking. It does highlight how much Brown has grown as a writer when this book is compared to more recent efforts.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book! I love a lively political discussion about two different approaches to the same general goal--being a free and happy woman!

Rita Mae is of course a genius. I love diversity of characters and their backgrounds; and they're all animal lovers, too!

Ultimately it is a book that seems an avenue to parse Brown's own thoughts on feminism, by dividing the sides of her conundrum into characters to duke it out, almost as if to help her figure it out herself. Nonetheless, the arguments are compelling--definitely a good read for mid-level feminists to grow.

[Cassandra Gillig · Rating 3 out of 5]

i feel like i could read these early rita mae brown novels forever. they're kind of my go-to vacation reads. empty but fun, hokey but real. there's always a really vivid world w/ some characters who come & go without you caring much. good bad tv. the world really is this corny so you can't blame her for all the puns & melodrama

[Carol Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rita Mae Brown has to be in the top 5 of my favorite authors! This feminist view of life is one of the funniest and most down-to-earth books I've ever read. And I'm not a feminist (at least in the way this novel uses the term). She is wonderful at developing characters and describing relationships in just a few words. I highly recommend this book.

[Jolien · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
I enjoyed myself a lot while reading this novel. Not because it is crafted that well, because it is not, but because it discussed important and interesting topics in its historical context. That is why I love Rita Mae Brown's novels, not for her writing style, but for what she writes about.

[Em Mirra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pending.

[Farah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really great discussion about feminism, romance from different generations. Really interesting.

[Katie Proctor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I found it quite hard to grasp sometimes due to the style but it was a good read. It felt comforting in a roundabout way and I'm glad I read it.

[Phoebe L.]

DNF
I liked Rubyfruit Jungle but I couldn't get past the writing here. It's odd because her foreword is well written but the fiction is......not

[Vanessa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too dialogue heavy and not much of a plot. And a lot of it was rambling opinions on feminist theory. Not a romance book, which was what I was expecting. Quite disappointing for me personally.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is really of its time. I liked some of the relationships between women, but the constant bickering over the definition of feminism was a pretty tiring. Still I’m glad I read it.

[Meagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 70s lesbian novel that examines issues of the time - feminism, beauty, politics, community, and gender.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

RMB's thoughts on the women's movement (etc) would probably have made a better essay than they did a novel. The characters seem puppeteered to parrot her thoughts, and - as a result - end up sounding unrealistic. Plus, the book's overall love for the rational (which Brown rejects, at least partially, in the latter-day introduction) results in a constant stream of up-front information and character thought processes, with very little time given to feelings, or to showing without telling. Less analysis, por favor... at least in fiction.

[Kumiko Mae LovingSunshine]

I appreciate this book for what it tried to speak up for at the time it was published, and for the time period it traversed on. But the narration and conversation between characters of this book was dry and callous. I've read other RMB books and i enjoyed her sarcasm and wit, which was missing in this novel. Nonetheless, i have my personal notes throughout the book because i agree in most parts. I find feminism in my day misdirected. And there are a lot of Ilse's in the movement who dont even know what they are as people so i dont feel justified to hve them represent me (my group)

[Natalierose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! My second Rita Mae Brown read, I thought her characters and development have matured greatly without losing the adventurous spirit of "Rubyfruit Jungle." This book often made me smile and laugh out loud, in part because of the amusing situations the characters find themselves in, but more often because of the witty, tongue-in-cheek dialogue. As a young queer in an "age-inappropriate" relationship myself, I appreciated the take Brown has on this lesbian couple, 22 years apart in age. And Brown's note to "non-feminists" in the forward sets the whole novel off with a bang!

[honor · Rating 3 out of 5]

i am so, so glad to have read this book. yes, the writing isn’t perfect and the pacing is sometimes a little confusing but this is the first piece of lesbian literature i have ever read (terrible for a lesbian, i know) and this was amazing. so much lgbt+ literature is about people “becoming” lgbt+. the characters in this book are already lesbians, and while the story doesn’t ignore this, it focuses on so much more. truly a lovely story and i am grateful to have read it. i will definitely be reading more rita mae brown!

[Marlene Debo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Somehow the magic of Rubyfruit Jungle & her earlier novels with lesbian characters is not in this novel for me. BUT I did find her introductory notes worth reading a not so hot book:

"NOTE TO THE FEMINIST READER: In art as in politics we must deal with people as they are not as we wish them to be. Only by working with the real can you get closer to the ideal.

NOTE TO THE NONFEMINIST READER: What's wrong with you?"

And let's just say I read most of this novel...

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this book when I first read it, many years ago, so when I saw it in the used book store, I had to get it. Turned out to be a reprint edition, so there was a new intro by the author (bonus material!). Anyway, I think I enjoyed it even more this time around. Which is odd, because it is "about" debates in the women's movement of the 1970's -- but I guess I am nostalgic about all that now. Also, the author cannot help being funny, which is why I wanted to read this one again.

[Lexi · Rating 5 out of 5]

First book I've read by Rita Mae Brown and I'm in love. I can understand the critique that much of the dialogue is just Brown expressing her views on the movement but I felt that the exchanges regarding the movement were all genuine reflections of the characters and their search for understanding the era. Made me feel connected to the sisters of the second wave. A very important and compelling piece of work. I think I found one of my new favorite authors.

[Racy-tay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could give it 2.5 stars... It was interesting to read a story about a group of lesbians in the throws of (or on the margins of) the women's movement but I take serious issue with how she addresses (or doesn't really address) ethnicity.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it could be easy to dismiss this book by an outspoken lesbian, feminist author as a book with limited appeal, I found it to be truly engaging. The intellectual discussions concerning activism between Isle and Carole were fantastic and the book never plods along. Really just great.

[Dimps · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of my favorites, but good none the less.

[Gina Barnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Discovering writing style and self

[Catherine]

daughters inc.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so excited to read this book, especially after how much I enjoyed Ruby Fruit Jungle-a Rita Mae Brown classic! It certainly doesn't disappoint!