VENUS ENVY

Rating:
Summary: Nothing to Envy
Review: A novel like this needs a light touch. Instead, Brown gives us a fantasy sex scene after which the lovers lie in each other's arms discussing Reagan-Bush AIDS policy & the evolutionary purpose of gay people.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing to Envy
Review: After searching for months for a lesbian novel told in the third person, i was really excited to find Venus Envy. I am currently on chapter 22 and I think i'll stop here. I didn't like hte beginning, I haven't liked the progression into the middle and after reading these reviews, I think i'll jsut skip the end. I read Brown's Ruby Fruit Jungle and i had really loved it. Despite some far-fetched plot points, I was able to suspend my belief and give her the benefit of the doubt, but this one.. it just doesn't work. I blame the dialogue. It's really awful. But not that the rest of it is helping much. It feels as if the author let the plot dictate the novel and not the characters and that just makes for bad writing. I'd go for other Brown books, but just not this one.

Rating:
Summary: "Normal is just the average of deviations."
Review: I do like Rita Mae Brown. I share many of her notions of the world. I picked this book up as a second RMB read after reading (finally, after all these years) Rubyfruit Jungle to see what was the author and what was the story, if you know what I mean. The premise of the book is great fun! I must say though that reading this book felt like living in someone else's head as they worked through their processes, demons, angels, trying to convince themselves (& the reader). That grew a bit tiresome, esp. towards the end. While Rita can turn a phrase nicely, I found, generally, her dialog was preachy, a little too unnatural for conversation, her arguments a tad pat, abet "unconventionally" so. I will read more Rita Mae.

Rating:
Summary: Pure "Envy"
Review: I thoughly enjoyed this book about a women who decides to comes out to her friends ands family when she is mistakenly diagonsed as dying. With a premise that that sure to be a sure fire pressure cooker for the some reason this book never fully takes on. Still all and all, I enjoyed the book. The "Zeus/Mount Olympus" is pure fun. A nice message too, Live you life and make you life your own, who cares about some one else expectations?

Rating:
Summary: Amusing Story with an Insight in Southern Culture
Review: Rita Mae Brown is fantastic at creating a well-round up character - in this story it is Frazier. A woman of 35 years who takes a down-to-earth approach of life after discovering that she does not have to die afterall. Frazier, now, evaluates life and her relationships in a different light and discovers who her true friends are after the whole town is talking about her being gay. The novel is very inspiring to the extent of what one chooses to talk about in his/her final moments. It invites you to be true to yourself and to your community. Overall, the book is hard to put down - a lot of laughing throughout the entire story. I read it within a day since I could not stop. Weird ending, however, that is why I did not give it a 5-star rating. After having spent two years in Charlottesville, VA myself this book was a small journey back to this beautiful small town in Central Virginia.

Rating:
Summary: A Big Disappointment
Review: This book in not anywhere near Ms Brown's usual standards. Lacklustre story based on an unbelievable premise. Too bad!

Rating:
Summary: A Big Disappointment
Review: This book in not anywhere near Ms Brown's usual standards. Lacklustre story based on an unbelievable premise. Too bad!

Rating:
Summary: College Prep Review: Venus Envy
Review: Venus Envy was an enjoyeble book that got my attention and kept it the entire way through. The relationships between the main character, Frazier, and her family and friends, were developed so well that you were screeming at the book when her mother would call, and wishing that you had a friend like Mandy, her best friend.
Through her characters Brown shows a very realistic view of the pressures homosexual women feel. In her impressive character developement of Frazier she shows the fears an American woman may have of coming out. Such as being feared by parents and losing money in her business.
Over all Venus Envy was a well written book that showed true friends are the ones who accept you for who you are. I would recommend reading this book. And I look forward to rading more of Brown's books.

Rating:
Summary: What promise this story had!
Review: When I started reading this book, I thought, Good ol' Rita Mae has out-done herself this time--it was the funniest, cleverist beginning of a book I have ever read--but I would rate the whole book as one of her worst. I recommend you read only the first 4 or 5 chapters--it is hilarious--but then close it up and give it to the book exchange before you get bogged down in the almost unreadable ending. I am a dyed-in-the-wool Rita Mae Brown fan--but this one really goes bad at the end. Her earlier works are much better; Rubyfruit Jungle, Six of One, and Southern Discomfort, High Hearts, and Sudden Death being her best.