Rubyfruit Jungle

I love a first-person narrative that sucks you in, and this compelling coming-of-age story as told by Molly Bolt, is a whopper. Not since the voice of Scout narrating To Kill a Mockingbird has a voice touched generations with its telling of her own story. This was the book that made me want to be a writer. I wanted to be brave like Molly…and brave like Rita Mae.

From childhood to adolescence, and all through college, we follow our hero Molly as she comes into her own about her sexuality with uncompromising strength and flat-out hilarious storytelling. It is remarkable… show more.

 Rubyfruit Jungle is one of the first American novels to deal openly with lesbianism. I identified with this book and a great many other women did too as it has become a classic of LGBT literature. I could feel Molly Bolt's torment. This tale of courage and survival against all odds helped me to realize and accept that I was a lesbian.

While the gay coming of age novel is now a genre unto itself, this 1973 novel about Molly Bolt’s journey from the impoverished south to the concrete jungle is most likely the book that started it all. Brown beautifully renders hysterical moments like Molly’s savage turn as the Virgin Mary in a children’s nativity play, to her involuntary institutionalization when it’s discovered she’s a lesbian. A funny, sad, and unforgettable story for anyone who has been labeled an “outsider.”

A tattered paperback version of Rubyfruit Jungle from 1973 sits on my desk. It will always be my favorite coming out story, and Molly Bolt will always be the first fictional character I had a crush on. I’d follow the unapologetic badass anywhere. Molly tore through romances, determined to find her people, her place, and her way in life. This book may be historical fiction now, but it wasn’t when it was written. Rita Mae Brown records the hardship that even the coolest of cool endured. It was a time when the word homosexual was used, and queer rights weren’t… show more.