Status
Available
Publication
Bantam (1983), Edition: 11th Printing
Description
The story of Molly Bolt, the adoptive daughter of a dirt-poor Southern couple who boldly forges her own path in America. With her startling beauty and crackling wit, Molly finds that women are drawn to her wherever she goes--and she refuses to apologize for loving them back.
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User reviews
LibraryThing member SqueakyChu
Curiosity got the better of me when I chose to read Rubyfruit Jungle. I knew the story was about a lesbian and also knew that it had been written in the 1970’s. Since reading fiction about homosexuality is pretty mainstream now, I was interested in what was written about it over 35 years ago.
As
What amazed me most about this quick read was the frankness of the author’s writing. I think perhaps that is why this book was so widely read at the time it was first published. Today, there are probably more interesting novels with homosexual characters. That Molly’s homosexuality was the focus of the book led me to tire of the story after a while. What I did like, though, was Molly’s determination to succeed and her own knowledge that she was a worthwhile person who could make something of herself even if others doubted her.
The ending of the book was quite perfect for its time. If this book would have been written today, however, its ending would have been very different.
As
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a story, I wasn’t all that interested in it. It follows the life of Molly Bolt, a lesbian who grew up with her adoptive parents in Pennsylvania, then later moved with them to Florida. Molly was a very tomboyish and outspoken woman. She was never afraid of recognizing her own identity as a lesbian and often teased other women about their own sexual identity. From a young age, Molly knew she’d never marry. Her greatest difficulties developed after her father died and her mother, learning of Molly’s lesbianism, threw her out of the house.What amazed me most about this quick read was the frankness of the author’s writing. I think perhaps that is why this book was so widely read at the time it was first published. Today, there are probably more interesting novels with homosexual characters. That Molly’s homosexuality was the focus of the book led me to tire of the story after a while. What I did like, though, was Molly’s determination to succeed and her own knowledge that she was a worthwhile person who could make something of herself even if others doubted her.
The ending of the book was quite perfect for its time. If this book would have been written today, however, its ending would have been very different.
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LibraryThing member ametralladoras
Loved it. Refreshing to read a book with such a strong female character. Don't agree with everything this books suggests (i.e. someone can change their sexual orientation based on the quality of sex). But love the sex positive quality of the book. Slightly dated, but still a good quick read.
LibraryThing member heart77
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,
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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. Show Less
LibraryThing member TinaV95
I may be the last lesbian on the planet to have read this classic novel, but it has been on my shelf for at least 10 years waiting its turn. Again with the self-imposed reminder to read some of what I already OWN, I came across this one when I was packing for a long weekend trip.
In a nutshell --
The story follows Molly throughout childhood, into a stormy adolescence filled with sexual experimentation with girls and boys (including the boy who she thought was her cousin, but turns out is now just a best friend... so I still felt the cousin-ish sex was weird. Sue me for being a prude).
Molly has an extremely hard life and this is not a feel good story. It's pretty honest about what life must have been like in the 50's and 60's for anyone who was different -- gender, sexuality, race, etc. The language and racial slurs were hard for me to read, but made sense from the perspective she was writing to show opposition to Molly's progressive views of life.
I quite enjoyed this, even though it was not light-hearted with a happily ever after ending. I've read other works of Brown (some of her mysteries) and this was indeed a different turn. The notes at the end of my version indicate that some of the events that occur in Molly's story are taken from Brown's actual experiences, which made the novel even more interesting to me when I read that nugget of information!
In a nutshell --
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Rubyfruit Jungle is the story of Molly who grows up knowing she is different and not what everyone expects her to be. She is smart, stubborn, and sassy. All characteristics that don't go over very well for a young girl in the south in the time of this novel (early 1950s). Molly finds out early on that she is adopted (a bastard is the word her mother calls her) and that all that she has known of her life is in question. She also begins to realize that she likes girls, not boys the way everyone else does. The story follows Molly throughout childhood, into a stormy adolescence filled with sexual experimentation with girls and boys (including the boy who she thought was her cousin, but turns out is now just a best friend... so I still felt the cousin-ish sex was weird. Sue me for being a prude).
Molly has an extremely hard life and this is not a feel good story. It's pretty honest about what life must have been like in the 50's and 60's for anyone who was different -- gender, sexuality, race, etc. The language and racial slurs were hard for me to read, but made sense from the perspective she was writing to show opposition to Molly's progressive views of life.
I quite enjoyed this, even though it was not light-hearted with a happily ever after ending. I've read other works of Brown (some of her mysteries) and this was indeed a different turn. The notes at the end of my version indicate that some of the events that occur in Molly's story are taken from Brown's actual experiences, which made the novel even more interesting to me when I read that nugget of information!
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LibraryThing member itchyfeetreader
Never shies away from tough topics, poverty, systemic homophobia and sexism but is lifted from a potentially depressing story by the wit and humour of the sometimes frustrating but nearly always hilarious protagonist Molly.
“Oh great, you too. So now I wear this label ‘Queer’ emblazoned
Thoughts
There is probably much to criticise in this novel – it’s certainly not high literature in terms of style or language, there’s more than a couple of scatological references that I could have done without and there is not a huge amount of character growth from anyone.
Viewed with a modern eye it has in many ways not aged well, some of the language is dated and there are, I understand many criticisms that Brown is negative about motherhood as well Butch culture at the time.
However, and it is a huge however, Molly is a an absolute pleasure to read. From an early age Molly recognises that she is different from her family in ways that are outside of her emerging sexuality. She is smart, ambitious, incredibly driven and self-aware which leads to more than a couple of laugh out loud scenes in the first half of the book. The children’s nativity scene in particular is one I would love to see on film. Life continues to throw all sorts of difficult situations on her but her self-belief and self - reliance continues to shine through in a way that I found cheerful and positive even despite the slightly ambiguous ending.
“Oh great, you too. So now I wear this label ‘Queer’ emblazoned
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across my chest. Or I could always carve a scarlet ‘L’ on my forehead. Why does everyone have to put you in a box and nail the lid on it? I don’t know what I am – polymorphous and perverse. Shit. I don’t even know if I’m white. I’m me. That’s all I am and all I want to be. Do I have to be something?” Thoughts
There is probably much to criticise in this novel – it’s certainly not high literature in terms of style or language, there’s more than a couple of scatological references that I could have done without and there is not a huge amount of character growth from anyone.
Viewed with a modern eye it has in many ways not aged well, some of the language is dated and there are, I understand many criticisms that Brown is negative about motherhood as well Butch culture at the time.
However, and it is a huge however, Molly is a an absolute pleasure to read. From an early age Molly recognises that she is different from her family in ways that are outside of her emerging sexuality. She is smart, ambitious, incredibly driven and self-aware which leads to more than a couple of laugh out loud scenes in the first half of the book. The children’s nativity scene in particular is one I would love to see on film. Life continues to throw all sorts of difficult situations on her but her self-belief and self - reliance continues to shine through in a way that I found cheerful and positive even despite the slightly ambiguous ending.
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LibraryThing member blackrabbit89
For as long as I can remember (in the ten years that I’ve been an out lesbian), Rubyfruit Jungle has appeared and been mentioned in countless places. Websites, books, magazines, and word-of-mouth all tout this unorthodox coming-of-age novel as The One Lesbian Novel You Must Read. I suspect that,
Rather than a carefully crafted story, Rubyfruit Jungle reads a bit like a piece of propaganda. It is as though the author is using this story to cover an essay of thinly veiled criticism of patriarchy and heteronormativity. Molly, the main character, is kicked out of college for being a lesbian and faces discrimination at work and school for being a woman. However, she never really seems to be emotionally or psychologically affected by this prejudice; she simply maintains a critical attitude. (In other words, Molly sounds like the author commenting on the misfortune that befalls her rather undeveloped character).
One thing I found interesting was Molly’s dislike of the butch/femme dynamic, and the butch way of presenting. In asserting her belief that lesbians should not emulate heterosexual relationship roles, Molly comes off as butch-phobic. I can understand where she’s coming from, but I also think that her opinion discounts the entirely acceptable masculine-of-center way of being. Again, though, my perspective is shaped by the 2010s, whereas Molly’s (and Brown’s) is a product of the 1970s. It’s interesting how LGBT culture has so drastically changed over the years.
There was one final aspect of this story that bothered me to no end: all of Molly’s lovers were “straight” until she met them! This is something that so rarely happens in real life that it just seemed ridiculous and unbelievable coincidental in the book. Every woman in whom Molly took an interest turned out to be down with girl-on-girl action. Ah, if only real life were like that.
I’m glad I read Rubyfruit Jungle for herstory’s sake, and for my own edification, and to better understand lesbian life in the ’70s. But it’s time we update our category of must-read lesbian novel. Let Rubyfruit remain part of the lesbian canon, but not as a story that is applicable to lesbian culture these days. Society has changed too much for that.
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in the ’70s when it was published, this was probably true. Reading it today, I found it to be, in a word, heavy-handed.Rather than a carefully crafted story, Rubyfruit Jungle reads a bit like a piece of propaganda. It is as though the author is using this story to cover an essay of thinly veiled criticism of patriarchy and heteronormativity. Molly, the main character, is kicked out of college for being a lesbian and faces discrimination at work and school for being a woman. However, she never really seems to be emotionally or psychologically affected by this prejudice; she simply maintains a critical attitude. (In other words, Molly sounds like the author commenting on the misfortune that befalls her rather undeveloped character).
One thing I found interesting was Molly’s dislike of the butch/femme dynamic, and the butch way of presenting. In asserting her belief that lesbians should not emulate heterosexual relationship roles, Molly comes off as butch-phobic. I can understand where she’s coming from, but I also think that her opinion discounts the entirely acceptable masculine-of-center way of being. Again, though, my perspective is shaped by the 2010s, whereas Molly’s (and Brown’s) is a product of the 1970s. It’s interesting how LGBT culture has so drastically changed over the years.
There was one final aspect of this story that bothered me to no end: all of Molly’s lovers were “straight” until she met them! This is something that so rarely happens in real life that it just seemed ridiculous and unbelievable coincidental in the book. Every woman in whom Molly took an interest turned out to be down with girl-on-girl action. Ah, if only real life were like that.
I’m glad I read Rubyfruit Jungle for herstory’s sake, and for my own edification, and to better understand lesbian life in the ’70s. But it’s time we update our category of must-read lesbian novel. Let Rubyfruit remain part of the lesbian canon, but not as a story that is applicable to lesbian culture these days. Society has changed too much for that.
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LibraryThing member lilithcat
I love this book. Rita Mae has written many since, but this is still her best. Molly deals with discovering she's adopted, discovering she's gay, discovering the world can be a lousy place and a wonderful place. This book will make you laugh a lot.
"Damn, I wished the world would let me be myself .
"Damn, I wished the world would let me be myself .
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. . I don't feel like having to fight until I'm fifty But if it does take that long then watch out world becaue I'm going to be the hottest fifty-year-old this side of the Mississippi." Show Less
LibraryThing member Carol_M_in_NJ
The publication date on this is wrong. This edition was released from Daughters Inc in the mid-to-late 1970s.
I first read this when it came out as a Daughters Inc publication. I was in my teens, and newly out. At the time, I laughed hysterically. It was so wonderful to find lesbian humor in print
Alas, this book does NOT stand the test of time. I re-read it a few years ago and it was so incredibly dated that I just couldn't enjoy it much.
But at the time when it was first published, it was radical. Hard to believe, but true.
I first read this when it came out as a Daughters Inc publication. I was in my teens, and newly out. At the time, I laughed hysterically. It was so wonderful to find lesbian humor in print
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back then.Alas, this book does NOT stand the test of time. I re-read it a few years ago and it was so incredibly dated that I just couldn't enjoy it much.
But at the time when it was first published, it was radical. Hard to believe, but true.
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LibraryThing member CorvusOrru
Had this one confiscated by my English teacher once upon a time; she was under the impression at the time that it was a trashy sappy breeder romance novel.
Rubyfruit is certainly no piece of sap or trash, and while it is, admittedly, a "coming-out" story, it was one of the first in the genre and
Rubyfruit is certainly no piece of sap or trash, and while it is, admittedly, a "coming-out" story, it was one of the first in the genre and
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focuses more on the world's reaction to our protagonist rather than her own mixed-up feelings and confusion (the latter of which rarely makes for a good read). A novel that is true to life and I daresay genuinely inspiring to women when it was first released. A good piece of work from Ms Brown before the downward spiral heralded by Venus Envy. Show Less
LibraryThing member booksandwine
Decent book about the sexual awakening of a lesbian. It opened my eyes to the lesbian experience. Also, lots of feminist undercurrent. Molly, the main character, grows up during the time where women wore dresses and aspired to secretarial positions, but Molly wants to break the glass ceiling. There
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are lots of sexual exploits and that's it. Don't read this if you are prude. Show Less
LibraryThing member tealover
That was my very first encounter with Brown's world - and I loved it!
A female version of Huck Finn fumbling her way thru the highway of life, like all of us do.
But in her case, life can get complicated - realizing that her love live doesn't quite meet the usual standards...
A female version of Huck Finn fumbling her way thru the highway of life, like all of us do.
But in her case, life can get complicated - realizing that her love live doesn't quite meet the usual standards...
LibraryThing member whirled
Rubyfruit Jungle's style may be dated, but its themes - of coming out and of trying to make a mark as an independent woman - are timeless. The frank sexuality may also have lost its radical edge, but Molly Bolt remains a feisty, funny role model for anybody who is reluctant to live their life
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according to the predetermined script. Show Less
LibraryThing member yooperprof
While it was a "breakthrough lesbian novel" for its time (1973), "Rubyfruit Jungle" now seems very dated. The plot seems crude and mechanical, and the narrator ultimately comes across as a bore because she can't seem to locate a single human being who lives up to her high standards and
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expectations. For me, reading "Rubyfruit" was much less pleasurable and "fun" than the comparable Ann Bannon "lesbian pulps" of the 1950s. [close] Show Less
LibraryThing member truth_of_spirit
While I read it, I was seriously wondering why there are sooo very diverging reviews of it. I actually liked it all the way through, however, the end was a little too open (or was it exactely not?), but then, on the whole, the depiction of the main character doesn't seem too caricaturized to me
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(agreed, there are some rather short bits which read like a comically-sad version of what it should be, but then again, it's art :-) )So, all in all, I liked it :-) Show Less
LibraryThing member schatzi
Molly Bolt is a feisty, headstrong girl who knows what she wants in life. Born on the wrong side of the blanket and raised on the wrong side of the tracks, she wants to escape the poverty that surrounds her.
I liked this book, and I can see why it would be such a breakthrough title when it waseven though her dreams of being a film maker are ultimately delayed, at least, because of her gender, and it's hard not to root for her as a character.
But I did find the book to be rather dated, and I think that there are better books out there for the modern teenaged lesbian who is struggling to find her way in the world. Fortunately, society has progressed since this book's setting and publication, and some of the hardships Molly faced are much less insurmountable now (although I'm not saying that they are completely gone in all cases).
Still, it's a good book to read, and it made me thankful that I was born a few generations after the main character was.
I liked this book, and I can see why it would be such a breakthrough title when it was
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originally published. Molly is unashamedly a lesbian, and she makes no apologies for that fact, even though she loses some "friends" and family members (sort of) because of it. And she really doesn't allow anyone to put her down, But I did find the book to be rather dated, and I think that there are better books out there for the modern teenaged lesbian who is struggling to find her way in the world. Fortunately, society has progressed since this book's setting and publication, and some of the hardships Molly faced are much less insurmountable now (although I'm not saying that they are completely gone in all cases).
Still, it's a good book to read, and it made me thankful that I was born a few generations after the main character was.
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LibraryThing member dbsovereign
This book brought Rita Mae Brown to my attention when a friend loaned it to me. A bawdy blend of fun, frolic and sexually-inspired humor.
LibraryThing member sumariotter
This is one of the first lesbian novels I ever read and as such was very exciting to me though I've forgotten the details.
LibraryThing member anderlawlor
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
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 feel some shame now (internalized homophobia?) when I think about how I then read everything
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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?
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LibraryThing member grheault
I give this book and Rita Mae Brown credit for pioneering explicit homosexuality forty years ago. It must have been shocking and offensive to polite people back then to read this story of a poor white girl with incredible sexual self-knowledge, chutzpah, brains, and dramatic abilities who acts on
I found this to be a period piece about the 60's, presented by an outlier character, who has the courage to come out, to be out, and to thrive in a gay community while the majority of her gay contemporaries resigned themselves to lives, half hidden and half lived, in small towns, in unhappy heterosexual marriages, in spinster/bachelor professions.
With more emphasis on sex than on love, this book probably shocked its readers when it was first published in 1973. Today it seems dated, and a little shallow in not quite touching on the the true tragedy of denying even the hope of intimacy and honesty to same-sex oriented people in their given lives. But pioneers have to start somewhere and I'm betting this book got things rocking and rolling.
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her sexual curiosities. I found this to be a period piece about the 60's, presented by an outlier character, who has the courage to come out, to be out, and to thrive in a gay community while the majority of her gay contemporaries resigned themselves to lives, half hidden and half lived, in small towns, in unhappy heterosexual marriages, in spinster/bachelor professions.
With more emphasis on sex than on love, this book probably shocked its readers when it was first published in 1973. Today it seems dated, and a little shallow in not quite touching on the the true tragedy of denying even the hope of intimacy and honesty to same-sex oriented people in their given lives. But pioneers have to start somewhere and I'm betting this book got things rocking and rolling.
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LibraryThing member debavp
I can't truly express how disappointed I was with this book. I'd read Southern Discomfort a few years ago and also the first few in the Sneaky Pie series and was impressed with Brown's writing, so I really was expecting maybe a cross between the two styles.
They only reason this book would have
They only reason this book would have
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been commercially successful in the early 80's would have been the pure shock value of it. But I have no doubt that if I had read it back then I would have thought the same as now. Show Less
LibraryThing member pegn
I love this book when it came out, re-reading it again and again. Lent it to my mother who was laughing so hard while she read it that my father kept asking what was so funny. The two of them decided not to go dancing, instead they stayed at home reading the book to each other. Sorta romantic, I
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guess. Show Less
LibraryThing member poetontheone
I often lament the scarcity of queer bildungsroman, but among its canonical examples this title is perhaps the one that is mentioned most frequently. This is about a young lesbian growing up in the South and then roughing it in NYC. It touches in an oblique way on racism, women's rights, and
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sixties counterculture, all of which were still hot button topics when this book was released in the early seventies. The writing is good, not great, but good. Characterization is a it of a problem, Aside from the brash and uncompromising Molly and her family who feature stroongly in the first part of the novel, the other characters that comprise Moly's love interests and friends seem to go through a revolving door and never have enough breathing room to become entirely fleshed out. Just when we're comfortable with one or two of them, Molly inevitably has a falling out with them having to do with something surrounding her sexuality, and the process repeats over and over again until it gets tired. This is a significant book in that it dealt with a controversial subject during a turbulent time, but in hindsight it leaves much to be desired in terms of its style and its perspective. Show Less
LibraryThing member alexyskwan
Picked it up purely because I just thought it was about d*mned time I read the lesbian classic. Turned out that it's a wonderful book, and I totally fell in love with the protagonist, Molly, who's by turns defiant, hilarious, brave, determined and inspirational. The book ended on a uncertain note,
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but we all know how the life of the author herself turned out to be, so I guess it's a happy ending after all. Show Less
LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV
This must have been amazing when it was first published. Judy Blume for grown-up women? It was fun for me even though I wasn't at all shocked.
LibraryThing member elana.rlc
I read this book because a friend recommended it and the only reason I continued to read it because it was so short. The main character goes through hardship as any character in any book needs to to have the book's plot move forward, but she responded the same in each situation and each time it was
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unrealistic. The characters responded in two ways: "who cares" and "gross gay". There was no depth to any of the characters. The book was too short for the amount of time that passed and all that happened. The author seemed to feel it was more important to proceed with the telling of the events then giving the characters or the setting details that would have allowed the reader to become engrossed in the book. Show Less
Awards
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1973
ISBN
0553238132 / 9780553238136