LGBTQ Fiction Genre

  Rubyfruit Jungle- Rita Mae Brown


Synopsis
These days Rita Mae Brown is best known for her mystery series Mrs. Murphy and Sneaky Pie Brown. But in 1973, Rita Mae Brown wrote Rubyfruit Jungle, a controversial yet seminal work of lesbian fiction.
It traces the life of Molly Bolt, adopted daughter of Carrie and Carl, through her early upbringing in rural Pennsylvania, a family move to Florida, and finally, to the streets of New York and to NYU film school.
Molly's relationship with Carrie is explosive, and Molly uses the tension as a way to catapult herself out of an ordinary life.  Molly defies everyone's expectations of her.  She was quick-witted, highly intelligent, and a talented athlete.  She also knew from an early age that she was different, and had her first sexual experience with a girl in the sixth grade.  From that point on, Molly never really makes an attempt to hide who she is from anyone.  She explores relationships with men and women (including a few sexual encounters with her non-biological cousin Leroy) but ultimately concludes that men are boring, and that she will never submit to a traditional life of marriage and children.
Molly works hard to get into college, winning a full ride to a state university in Florida.  Once her relationship with her roommate is revealed, however, Molly's scholarship is revoked.  She briefly returns home to Carrie, but without Carl (who is now dead) to buffer the rage between Carrie and Molly, Carrie turns Molly away for being "sick", and Molly hitchhikes all the way to New York City.  Here she meets a series of people in the gay and lesbian community, some of whom seem interested in making it easy for her to go to school or at least live a comfortable life.  But Molly develops an ever-increasing desire to live life on her own term, unapologetically, and without the help of anyone.
This is an impressive feat even in the 21st century.  However, Brown never lets us forget the incredible odds that mid-century women faced.  She unflinchingly shows us the horrors of simply being a women, and the additional struggle of being a lesbian during a time when people are institutionalized for simply being gay.  Men, and even other (mostly richer and more powerful) women are forever on a quest to posses, control, and keep women in their grasp.  Molly fights her way through it all, never compromising her promises to herself.
The culmination of her life story comes in the form of the film she makes for her final project.  She returns home to interview and film Carrie, whom she has not seen for 6 years.  Carrie is frail, ill, and alone.  It is tempting fo the reader to believe that Carrie has changed in some way, and for the most part she has not.  She still says awful things to Molly, still believes Molly is sick.  However there is something softer not only in the way Carrie delivers her venom, but also the way in which Molly receives it.  The reader is allowed to view Carrie in a softer light, seeing for the first time that there is just something ingrained in her to make her act the way she does; a lifetime of poverty, disappointment, and struggle has made her the way she is, and we watch as Molly reconciles her feelings for Carrie in through the gentle way she interacts with her, as well as the film she makes in the end, of Carrie, rocking in her chair and chattering about the way she sees the world.

   
Elements of LGBTQ Fiction Genre

Tone/Mood-  For a story with such a serous theme, the tone of this book is fairly light, and that is primarily due to the narration of Molly.  She is quick-witted, acerbic, intelligent, and she is the one who sets the tone.  There are so many times when this novel could have taken a dark turn, but its possible Brown wanted to portray being gay in mid-20th-century America as something that is both challenging and beautiful.  To pay too much attention to dark matters, or to have Molly succumb to the pressures in one form or another, would have created a novel in which being gay was cause for fear.  But seeing this character not just overcome but be thoroughly unaffected by the staggering odds surrounding her ave the story a light, almost comical tone.

Characterization- Although Molly would have had plenty of reasons to take on a victim role, she remains solid and true to her own unique moral code, never once faltering in her own belief that she is her own savior.  While many other characters in the book cling to the notion that the only way they can get ahead in life or find any security is through finding someone else to take care of them, Molly, even in the face of many temptations to become a kept woman, stands her ground and does things her own way.  Rita Mae Brown creates in Molly an unlikely role model,

Story Line-  The story is completely linear and happens in real time.  Molly does take some time to reflect back on various periods of her life, but the narrative is a solid line from the time we meet Molly in the 6th grade, until her graduation from NYU and her struggle to find meaningful work in her field.

Frame/Setting- In the spirit of the classic coming-of-age novel, this story takes us on a journey from the main character's small-town upbringings, to college in Florida, to New York City, and eventually land us back to Molly's home town.  The various settings are unquestionably representative of the stages of Molly's life, as each new city brings us more growth and self-knowledge, until she visits her mother for a final time, and reconciles the difficult relationship she has with her in the process.

Style/Language-  There is somewhat of a stylistic language barrier that draws a line between the people from Molly's small town upbringing and the people she meets in New York.  But it also serves as a way for Molly to catch people off guard, as her southern accent belies a less-intelligent woman than she actually is.  The people she encounters tend to make the assumption that she isn't smart because of the way she speaks, but they tend to be quickly thrown off guard.  The style of the narrative itself is straightforward, not at all flowery, and it is, more often than not, as witty as Molly herself. 

Pacing- There was nothing terribly quick about the pacing, and yet when the story is over the reader feels as though they have arrived too soon at the end.  The story is very evenly paced, giving us a real-time sense of events, but like watching any child grow up, its over in the blink of an eye.


Read-alikes

  Curious Wine- Katherine V. Forrest

  Aimee & Jaguar- Erica Fischer

 Desert of the Heart- Jane Rule