Never shies away from tough topics, poverty, systemic homophobia and sexism but is lifted from a potentially depressing story by the wit and humour of the sometimes frustrating but nearly always hilarious protagonist Molly.
Plot in a Nutshell
Rubyfruit Jungle is a funny, outspoken coming-of-age novel following Molly Bolt, an adopted girl raised in a poor family in the American South. From childhood, Molly is fiercely intelligent, ambitious, and unwilling to behave in the traditionally feminine way expected of her, and she comes to recognise her attraction to women with far less shame than those around her believe she should.
Oh great, you too. So now I wear this label ‘Queer’ emblazoned across my chest. Or I could always carve a scarlet ‘L’ on my forehead. Why does everyone have to put you in a box and nail the lid on it? I don’t know what I am – polymorphous and perverse. Shit. I don’t even know if I’m white. I’m me. That’s all I am and all I want to be. Do I have to be something
There is probably much to criticise in this novel – it’s certainly not high literature in terms of style or language. There’s more than a couple of scatological references that I could have done without. Nobody undergoes a great deal of character growth – Molly is much the same person on the last page as the first, just older. Viewed with a modern eye it has in many ways not aged well, some of the language is dated and Brown attracts fair criticism for her portrayal of both motherhood and butch culture of the time. It is however rightly celebrated as a key piece of queer cannon and I enjoyed immensely.
I think the reason for this is that Molly is an absolute pleasure to read. From an early age she recognises that she is different from her family in ways that go beyond her emerging sexuality. She is smart, ambitious, incredibly driven and self-aware which leads to more than a couple of laugh out loud scenes in the first half of the book. The children’s nativity scene in particular is one I would love to see on film. Her confidence to be herself is heart warming.
Life continues to throw all sorts of difficult situations at her. Poverty, systemic homophobia and sexism are all here and Brown doesn’t shy away from showing us it all. Molly however has self-belief and self – reliance which shine through in a way that I found cheerful and positive despite would could have been seen to be painfully difficult circumstances.
There is ultimately a slightly ambiguous ending and I would have liked a little more resolution but perhaps that is in keeping with Molly – she is not someone you can imagined settled or neatly solved. She is however fun if a little frustrating for a couple of hundred pages.