ewee (03/26): Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown

Well, packing and moving have been slowing me down a bit, and tho I'm reading two library books (and accumulating fines on both...oops!), I came across a stack of books that I've been meaning to read. One of these was Rita Mae Brown's Rubyfruit Jungle. I'd been meaning to read this book since I came out (i.e. ages and ages ago).

So on Saturday, after paddling and packing, I was waaay too exhausted to be productive or even read my other more thoughtful books. But I was also too awake to be able to watch crappy TV. So I opted for a quick read. And a quick read it was, along the lines of 4 hours, if that.

The book is an engaging and light read. It's a bildungsroman/ autobiographical/ picaresque novel set in the US in the 1950's and 1960's. It does a reasonably good job of showing some of the intersections of sexuality, class and gender, and the author's writing style is engaging and relatively absorbing. The main character, Molly Bolt, is honest and direct, and surprisingly, not all that involved in being queer. She is queer, and although it defines much of who she is, it isn't all that she is. It's refreshing that Molly focusses more on how to be true to herself than to fit into any labels or boxes. Throughout the book, she stays true to this principle of being herself, and not letting anyone pigeon-hole or limit her.

Overall, a good book to accompany chips and beer, while sprawled out amid boxes and snuggly dogs.