Rubyfruit Jungle

This novelist makes a point that if you going to write a lesbian manifesto in the 1970s you must deal with raw sex in its multitude of possibilities. This is not porn cleverly hidden but a refreshing, open, clear eyed journey. Yes, parts described within might be called sleazy but this is far from being a sleazy book. Her main character wants to belong but on her terms. There is plenty of back bone and a certain jauntiness that makes this an enjoyable read.

Quotes: (page 49) “'Leota, you thought about getting married?'
'Yeah, I'll get married and have six children and wear aprons like my mother, only my husband will be handsome.'
'Who you gonna marry?'
'I don't know yet.'
'Why don't you marry me? I'm not handsome, but I'm pretty.'
'Girls show more can't get married.'
'Says who?'
'It's a rule.'
'It's a dumb rule. Anyway, you like me better than anybody, don't you? I like you better than anybody.'
'I like you best,but I still think girls can't get married.'”

(page 176) “'Fuck you. You have to throw in my face that you don't have that option, don't you. People like you make me sick, wearing your poverty like a badge of purity.'
'I didn't mean it to sound that way. Maybe I did sound self-righteous. Well, hell, I'd like to go to Paris myself or wherever. But all I'm trying to say is, don't make a ritual out of getting your head together, that's all,'” show less

An original from 1973--Molly Bolt, the adopted daughter of poor parents in PA who move to Florida, forges her own path. As she works to sort out her sexuality and choose a career, she makes it to NY and film school. She is strong, she is her own person, and she goes her own way.

This book was fine reading it now, the audio was good. But I wonder how much of a stir this book caused when it first came out--a lesbian main character, a smart-as-a-whip adopted daughter, a young woman choosing to chase her dreams rather than cave to family/social/departmental pressure and games. I feel like the experience of reading this 50 years after publication is just not the same as it would have been at the time. Groundbreaking?

I am 95% certain I read this in college, maybe high school? If I didn't, Molly Bolt is a character after my heart because I think I hate labels as much as she does. AND she lived in PA and FL -- ME TOO! Molly is a formidable character who isn't afraid to be herself and share her opinions -- even if they are controversial 50 years later.

This book is an entertaining and funny coming-of-age story (I read the first two pages aloud to Jesse because I need to share the antics of this enterprising 7-year-old) that will also raise those eyebrows - I mean, Rita, the incest? I could've done without. The late 60s/early 70s were a crazy time to write a book and Ms Brown put it all out there.

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Molly Bolt reminded me of one of my favorite show more coming-of-age heroines: Daisy Fay Harper from Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man by Fannie Flagg -- who was the partner of Rita Mae Brown in the late 70s. Apparently Rita outed Fannie! Both take place in the 50s/60s with a strong female MC that ends up in Florida for a time. I wonder how inspired Fannie was by Rubyfruit Jungle? show less

I loved the main character for her ambition. Far too many books portray romance as the goal of womankind. This book was different, not because the main character loved women, but because she kind of didn't give a fuck about anything except furthering her career. She was observant about classism, sexism, racism, etc. I liked that she was written as a redneck who still had the sensitivity to care. She was an outcast in her film class. Everyone else was doing ridiculous gonzo pieces with no heart, but she chose to do a documentary on her mother. I thought that was really cool, and a fitting tribute to feminism, which is what this book was.

I’m always a sucker for a bildungsroman and this does not disappoint. The second half moves a little quickly, with a progression of interchangeable New York friends rejecting Molly for her lesbianism. But as a story of self making, it is easily above average. Doesn’t quite crack the top tier with Oranges are Not the Only Fruit or Funhome or Good Morning Midnight because it’s ambitions never quite graduate to the universal and it’s language doesn’t quite reach the same poetry. But that’s elite company and not a knock.

Well. Look, I read Rubyfruit Jungle and [book:The Well of Loneliness] the same weekend during my freshman year of high school (1986). I'm not ashamed to say that I totally loved this book when I read it.

I feel some shame now (internalized homophobia?) when I think about how I then read everything else Rita Mae Brown had written --this was before she started writing about cats. Thank god for The Well of Loneliness, which at least led me to modernism.

Rubyfruit Jungle was in some ways the proto-L Word: tomboys yes, butches no. No, seriously, I was happy to have this book and for years afterwards I would make jokes about "Harvey Wallbanger, emphasis on the bang" and try to bond with girls I met about the fruit-throwing scene. What was that?

I had been meaning to read this book FOREVER. So I finally picked it up for Sapphic September, and I am very sorry to say that I just did not vibe with this novel.

Molly is what, this matter-of-fact, hard-scrabble kid, raised in poverty with a not-great adoptive mother and somehow has no hangups about sex or something. And is also queer. Okay, great. But one of the whole themes in this story is how time and time again Molly is turned away from some vestige of security or some opportunity she has won becasue of other people's irrational prejudices about her relationships with women, but our dear Molly seems to never have a thought about her own prejudices, or any interest in community building or solidarity, she is just her one-woman show more island iconoclast whatever. And I get that her experiences would be very isolating, and it's not that she is ever really woe-is-me about her own situation, but she doesn't ever seem to acknowledge that anyone has it worse than her, either.

I can appreciate that this was groundbreaking in its time, and also why it might be important to a lot of people, but I personally found it ultimately frustrating. show less