Rubyfruit Jungle

infobox Book |
name = Rubyfruit Jungle
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author = Rita Mae Brown
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country = United States
language = English
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genre = Novel
publisher =
release_date = 1973
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media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
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isbn = NA
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"Rubyfruit Jungle" is the first novel (1973) by Rita Mae Brown, remarkable for its explicit lesbianism. The novel is a bildungsroman/autobiographical (some have suggested picaresque) account of Brown's youth and emergence as a lesbian author. The term "ruby fruit jungle" is slang for the female genitals.

Plot summary

The novel focuses on Molly Bolt, the adopted daughter of a poor family, who possesses remarkable beauty and who is aware of her lesbianism from early childhood. Her relationship with her mother is rocky, and at a young age her mother, referred to as "Carrie," informs Molly that she is not her own biological child but a "bastard." Molly has her first same-sex sexual relationship in the sixth grade with her friend Leota Bisland, and then again in a Florida high school, where she has another sexual relationship with another friend, Carolyn Simpson, the school lead cheerleader, who willingly has sex with Molly but refuses the name "lesbian." Molly also engages in sex with males, including her cousin Leroy when the two were younger. Her father, Carl, dies when she is in her junior year of high school. In a combination of her strong-willed nature and disdain for Carrie, Molly pushes herself to excel in high school, winning a full scholarship to the University of Florida. Unlike Carrie, Carl has always supported Molly's goals and education. However, when Molly's homosexual relationship with her alcoholic roommate is discovered, she is denied a renewal of her scholarship. Possessing little money, she moves to New York to pursue an education in filmmaking. Upon reaching New York, she realizes that the rubyfruit is maybe not as delicious and varied as she had dreamed within the concrete jungle.

Literary significance and criticism

Parallels with personal life

In 1955, when Brown was 11 years old, her family moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where she attended high school and experimented sexually with boys and girls. When Brown was 16, her girlfriend's father found her love letters, and Brown was dismissed from the student council. [http://www.ncteamericancollection.org/litmap/brown_rita_mae_va.htm Brown_Rita_Mae_va ] ] In the 1960s, Brown attended the University of Florida, but she was expelled for participating in a civil rights rally. She later moved to New York City, attended New York University, and received a degree in Classics and English. Later, she received another degree in Cinematography from the New York School of Visual Arts, and, in 1976, she received a doctorate in political science.

As a coming-of-age lesbian novel

This work is notable for being an early literary lesbian novel, as well as for Brown's own activism in lesbian and feminist causes. Many lesbian readers have found in it a reflection of their own experiences and observations. While some now refer to it as "just another lesbian coming of age novel" (Bildungsroman), its success is part of why the genre is now often considered a cliché.

As Commentary on Cold War Communism

Several critics have posited that the work is largely an allegorical representation of, and commentary on, fascist political movements of the mid Cold War, East Germany most specifically. [Strobel, Katja. "Wandern, Mäandern, Erzählen: Die Pikara als Grenzgängerin des Subjekt." Munich, Germany: Fink. 1998.]

References