Rita Mae Brown: From Lesbian Lit to Crime-Fighting Cats

Contemporary fans of Rita Mae Brown's bestselling mystery novels might be surprised to learn she wrote lesbian fiction in the 1970s. Starting in 1990 with Wish You Were Here, Brown has written about Mrs. Murphy, a cat who helps solve murders. Each book includes a co-author credit for Ms. Brown's cat Sneaky Pie. The comparison of Brown's early work with the more recent novels is striking; her tone, themes and characters are far removed from each other. Yet digging deeper, one can see that the progression from lesbian lit to crime fighting kitty was a natural one, and most of the differences are cosmetic.

In 1973 Brown sold her first novel, Rubyfruit Jungle, to Daughters Press for $1000. The book became popular with no ad campaign or marketing. A few years later, Daughters sold the book to Bantam books. It became a bestseller. The cover of the 1988 paperback reprint calls it a "landmark bestseller." While it is one of the first mainstream literary works to feature openly lesbian characters, this alone does not account for its success. People read and enjoyed Rubyfruit Jungle for the same reason people have always read fiction: it entertains them and appeals to their emotions.

Rubyfruit Jungle's main character, Molly Bolt, escapes poverty and an oppressive adopted mother to go to film school, first in Gainesville, Fla., then at NYU, where she graduates at the top of her class. There the book ends, but without a clear resolution. In the late 60s, when the story takes place, no film or television studio will hire a woman. One director offers Molly a secretarial position. Another wants to give her an absurd starring role in an underground play. Rejecting these offers out of hand, Molly derides the patriarchy that denies her the success her male classmates find. She ends her saga with a vow to make movies that will turn the world on its ear.

Its more prurient elements notwithstanding, the essence of Rubyfruit Jungle is the story of someone smarter and more perceptive than those around her. From her dirt farm childhood, Molly wants more out of life than her family and their rural neighborhood could offer. She is ambitious, and her peers resent her for it. A fiery, rebellious girl, too smart for her own good, she grows into a tough, determined, capable woman who has sex with other women. She sees no reason to hide her sexuality.

This is the triumph of Rubyfruit Jungle. For all its descriptions of sex between women, its tales of conniving "kept" women and the older lesbians who support them, this is a coming-of-age story with universal themes to which anyone who has struggled with identity, or suffered for being a bit more curious than her peers, can relate. It is lesbian fiction, as Brown is a lesbian writer, but it appeals to a diverse readership.

If Rubyfruit Jungle is the story of a girl struggling to be heard, Sour Puss is what that girl's voice might sound like thirty years into success. Sour Puss is a 2006 Mrs. Murphy mystery novel, the fifteenth in the series.

There is nothing revolutionary or groundbreaking about Sour Puss. It is a murder mystery, genre fiction with talking animals. The book begins with the wedding of the series heroine, Harry Harristeen, and her longtime beau Fair, a vet. Mrs. Murphy and her friends gossip about the wedding party and each other until talk becomes action. They disrupt the ceremony with their antics, chasing and hissing at one another until "the humans" step in and break it up.

The cats, along with one dog, a blacksnake, a possum and a large barn owl, can speak to each other but not to their owners. When a visiting professor disappears, the animals help investigate. The professor's car turns up, then his body. More people are killed, and finally the villain has a showdown with Harry in her barn. Harry and most of the other characters own grape orchards. They work as vintners, and a subplot involves bioterrorist attacks on their crops.

The book, and Brown's shift in subject matter, might be startling to a reader of her earlier works. But it only shows the passage of time. For readers willing to ponder the matter, strong similarities emerge. Both Sour Puss and Rubyfruit Jungle feature dynamic women dedicated to their passions and vocations. Harry has left a career at the post office to take a chance on winemaking. Mrs. Murphy the cat is like Molly Bolt the film student in that they are more intelligent than their peers. However, Mrs. Murphy has learned to be tolerant and to work with others' shortcomings. Molly lacked the years and experience to do this, as did Brown when she invented her.

Brown has kept her career going, and done well, by growing up and sticking to what works. Her Mrs. Murphy books are consistent bestsellers. She is not an activist writer. She was politically active in the sixties, but says herself (on her website) that she found politics boring. She is a lesbian, but her sexuality does not define her writing. She has refused to let that happen, instead using fiction techniques to make an emotional connection with her readers.

Emotion is the backbone of fiction. Rita Mae Brown knows this. She has spent the last three decades making her readers care what happens to her characters. It doesn't matter if those characters are angry young lesbians or cat-loving wine growers. In her public life, Brown has never tried to hide her sexuality. Neither has she made it the focus of her writing. Her website makes no mention of it; Brown is more interested in promoting her books. By taking this attitude, Brown has delighted more readers than she could have if she had worked within the frame of lesbian lit.