Brown, Rita Mae

(US, 1944– )

Rita Mae Brown's first novel, Rubyfruit Jungle (1978), could be mistaken for just another in that genre of growing up gay, which you suspect is 95 per cent autobiography and 5 per cent fiction. But this powerful story of self-belief is now recognized as a classic of lesbian writing. The novel tracks Molly from her dirt-poor Southern childhood to student life in the big city, tackling bigotry and sexism head-on. A satisfying story for any reader who loves a rebel. Brown's later ventures into genre writing, such as Sudden Death (1984), a thriller set on the tennis circuit, are best avoided, but don't let them put you off reading Rubyfruit Jungle, which is everything it's cracked up to be.

  Alice Walker, Charlotte Brontë  RV