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Rubyfruit Jungle

Rita Mae Brown

Why we're reading this: This was the first book I found that has lesbians in it. This book was ok but, I wish it went deeper into…more
[close] This was the first book I found that has lesbians in it. This book was ok but, I wish it went deeper into the details

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Feb 08, 2008 Andrea marked it as to-re-read · review of another edition

Shelves: awesome-queer-writing, novels, books-from-youth

Well. Look, I read Rubyfruit Jungle and 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: ...more

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Jul 20, 2007 treehugger rated it liked it

Shelves: lesbian-or-lgbt-lit-or-author, classics

so, i think this book must have been a real show stopper in the late 70s when it came out, but reading it now, it has sort of a hackneyed theme. and i found it annoying that the protagonist always knew EXACTLY the thing to say to make herself less mainstream and more 'alternative' but RIGHT in every way - it was sort of corny after awhile.

I also think, if you've read "Fingersmith" or "Tipping the Velvet" by sara waters, after reading this book you have to wonder where the HELL these authors are ...more

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