Length : 216 Pages
Rating : 7.5/10
Similar Books : Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
Rubyfruit Jungle is a powerful coming of age novel published in 1973 that was remarkable, even revolutionary in its day for its explicit portrayal of LGBT themes. Reviews are particularly mixed. It received much criticism at the time of publishing for Brown’s raunchy, sometimes profane writing and her frank portrayal of human sexuality that challenged antiquated beliefs of purity. However, it also received much flack in much more recent times for the absence of dynamic characters and certain scenes that didn’t age particularly well (like incest). To elaborate, it is obvious that the protagonist, Molly, is a thinly veiled autobiographical character. There is nothing inherently flawed with this, but Molly has almost 0 character development throughout the story, with her “I’m smarter, better, and more enlightened than everyone” attitude constantly present throughout. There is nothing human or realistic about her. However, this is not to say that Rubyfruit Jungle was not a powerful, even symbolic book for many, and at the end of the day it’s important to note that this book was written in a completely different time. I appreciated the revolutionary nature of this book, but sometimes that in itself is simply not enough.