Rita Mae Brown is as subversive as apple pie. Her favorite author, according to the flyleaf of Six of One, is Mark Twain. It doesn't surprise me a bit. Imagine, if you will, Tom Sawyer, only smarter; Huckleberry Finn, only foulmouthed, female, and lesbian, and you have an idea of Molly Bolt, heroine of Rubyfruit Jungle. This largely autobiographical first novel … [features] an exuberantly raunchy style and the toughest heroine this side of Mae West. The book was funny, explosive, shocking—a clear hit, and one that landed Brown … a reputation as a radical feminist.
[Rubyfruit Jungle is] a classic American success story, really; by a winning combination of pluck, wit, and good looks the hero rises out of poverty and ignorance and into a fine liberal arts college, embarks bravely on a career, and returns home at tale's end to measure the distance traveled. Brown's perspective, though, is original. While American heroes may occasionally be women, they may not be lesbian. Or if they are, they had better be discreet or at least miserable.
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