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It is often said that the best comedy springs from hard times. And Rita Mae Brown has seen plenty of those. In this irresistibly readable memoir, she recounts the drama of her birth as the illegitimate daughter of a flighty blue blood who left her in an orphanage. The sickly baby was quickly rescued by relatives eager to adopt her but afraid she would not survive the long journey home. Her determination to live, and shock everyone by doing it, has become a metaphor for her entire life.
Though raised by these loving adoptive parents and a wacky host of other interfering kin, Rita Mae Brown learned early on to be tough and to speak her mind. It was her refusal to be anything but herself that often brought her the most trouble. Here she tells of her tempestuous relationship with her adoptive mother, the mythic Juts of the novels Six of One and Bingo, who called her "the ill," for illegitimate, whenever she lost her temper, and who swore she'd introduce Rita Mae to the social graces, including the dreaded cotillion, even if it killed them both.
Here, too, Rita Mae reveals how her headstrong support of social causes almost cost her a hard-earned education and her outspokenness in the early days of the women's movement got her drummed out of NOW, and how the release of her first novel, the scandalous classic Rubyfruit Jungle, made her an overnight phenomenon—the most famous openly gay person in America—and took her from the heights of the New York Times bestseller list to the surreal playhouse that is Hollywood.
Through it all, Rita Mae has drawn strength from her profound bond with animals, from her abiding affection for the South and its native tongue, and from the great passions of her life. She writes with close-to-the-bone honesty about woman-woman love...including her love-at-first-sight relationship with a popular actor and her headline-making romance with tennis great Martina Navratilova. With her trademark humor, she unflinchingly bares her own flaws, flouting public opinion yet displaying the unflappable good sense that shows through everything she writes.
A look into a woman's mind and a writer's irrepressible spirit, Rita Will is quintessential Rita Mae Brown—a book that feels like a kick-your-shoes-off visit with an old friend.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
October 28, 2009 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780307573926
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780307573926
- File size: 5866 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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September 29, 1997
The bestselling author of Southern fiction, screenplays and mysteries (the last, Murder, She Meowed, coauthored with a cat named Sneakie Pie) has produced an inspiring and flavorful autobiography. Of itself, the skeleton of Brown's life promises--and delivers--a progression of star-studded episodes with lessons to impart: the author was a founding member of the feminist movement; the first openly gay writer to break into the mainstream; and an ex-lover of tennis legend Martina Navratilova. From the start, Brown demonstrated bravery and integrity, and it's clear she considered her political activism and path-breaking "outness" to be matters not of choice but of course. This attitude, like many others revealed in her wonderfully thoughtful, funny memoir, bespeaks a truth at once self-evident and sensible to the point of surprise. Illegitimate and adopted as a child, the future writer knew from the start what it means to be an outsider. Fans of her novels will enjoy seeing how much of her bestselling fiction is pulled from real life. Brown's account of her childhood is consummately readable, bearing all the hallmarks of a coming-of-age novel--though fans know how she turns out.
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