Rubyfruit Jungle

Rubyfruit Jungle is the first novel (1973) by Rita Mae Brown, remarkable for its explicit lesbianism. The novel is a bildungsroman/autobiography (some have suggested picaresque) account of Brown's youth and emergence as a lesbian author.

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. Some now dismiss it as "just another lesbian coming-of-age novel": they apparently do not realize that Rubyfruit Jungle was one of the first coming-of-age novels. Its success is part of why lesbian coming-of-age novels are now a cliche.

Plot

The novel focuses on Molly Bolt, the adopted daughter of a poor family, who possesses extraordinary beauty and who is aware of her lesbianism from earliest age. She begins have same sex relationships in the sixth grade, and then again in a Florida high school, where she has a sexual relationship with the lead cheerleader there. Partly because her disdain for her mother and mostly because of her strong willed nature, Molly pushes herself to excel in high school, winning a full scholarship to the University of Florida. Because of her homosexual relationship with her alcoholic room mate, she is denied a renewal of her scholarship and makes the decision to move to New York to pursue an education in film making.