Alma Mater [Hardcover]

Rita Mae Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2001

"Sex makes monkeys out of all of us. If you don?t give in to it, you wind up a cold, unfeeling bastard. If you do, you spend the rest of your life picking up the pieces."
--from Alma Mater

From the bestselling author of Rubyfruit Jungle comes an erotic and heartfelt new novel of sexual awakening, family loyalty, and unexpected first love.

Everyone on the William & Mary campus knows Victoria "Vic" Savedge. The six-foot-tall, raven-haired beauty can hardly blend into the cobblestones? especially on the arm of Charly Harrison, the school?s football star and son of one of Virginia's most prominent families.

Now, at the start of her senior year, Vic's future is mapped out in detail, courtesy of her mother, R.J., and her aunt Bunny. The plan is simple: Vic will marry Charly and settle into the role of a well-respected politician's wife. Though bright and branded by a fiery streak of independence, Vic hasn't really considered any other options. Until she meets a woman named Chris.

A transfer from Vermont, Chris is new to Southern mores and attitudes. Instantly captivated by Vic's beauty and larger-than-life personality, she finds herself drawn to the entire quirky but charming Savedge family. But the young women's friendship is not your basic college-girl variety. For neither can resist their mutual attraction?an attraction that erupts into a passion that will forever change the course of both their lives.

To embrace her true sexuality and sacrifice happiness with a man whom she truly loves are the wrenching decisions that Vic must face. It is a struggle at once terrifying and exhilarating. Just when she makes up her mind, she discovers that fate has its own surprising plan awaiting in the wings.

In her inimitable fashion, Rita Mae Brown brings to life plucky Southern sensibilities and characters grappling with profound emotional issues. A young woman's sudden, intense knowledge of herself?and all the conflicts and physical joys that it entails?are the backbone of this bold and tender love story.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

opular and prolific Brown (Rubyfruit Jungle, etc.) lavishes her attention and breathless prose on another lesbian coming-of-age tale set in Southern belle territory. Victoria "Vic" Savedge is a gorgeous 22-year-old senior at the College of William and Mary in present-day Virginia. Her parents, Frank and R.J., little sister Mignon and best friend Jinx Baptista all expect Vic to marry her rich football star boyfriend Charly Harrison after graduation. However, in the opening scene, Vic meets Chris Carter, a female transfer student to whom she is increasingly attracted. Their flirtatious behavior deflates any suspense Brown may have hoped to create; it's clear Vic's commitment to Charly is shaky. As she unconvincingly struggles to choose between lovers, Vic ponders with Jinx the roles fate, honor and individual responsibility play in life. During weekend visits to her ancestral home, Surry Crossing, Va., Vic is entertained by the smalltown antics of her womanizing Uncle Don and sex-deprived Aunt Bunny, and the Wallaces, neighboring middle-aged sisters who pathetically vie for their elderly father's favor. Brown's tendency to tell rather than show ("Raised in a judgmental family, Chris had survived by nourishing her sense of rebellion. She didn't know what she was looking for until she met Vic") and filler dialogue ("Sit down. It's my turn to give you a Coke" and "Mother, do you want a refill?" "No, thank you. But you may clean the ashtray") wear on the reader, and the one-dimensional characters and soap opera story line provide little relief. Brown's good-natured humor and exuberant treatment of her themes may satisfy her fans, but she's unlikely to pick up new readers this time around. 8-city author tour.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Brown, the author of the Sneaky Pie Brown mysteries, returns to her lesbian roots in Alma Mater. Vic and Chris are two coeds who meet at William and Mary College and, much to their surprise, are mutually attracted and launch an intense affair. Though Vic is involved with the star football player, and though neither woman has ever considered the possibility that she might not be heterosexual, this life-changing turn of events does not seem to faze either of them. Brown usually excels at offbeat characters, and while she does offer readers an amusing and outlandish supporting cast (thanks to the Southern locale), her latest novel lacks the freshness and believability of her now classic Rubyfruit Jungle. Still, fans will welcome her return to the theme of her earlier work. Recommended for most public libraries.
- Caroline Mann, Univ. of Portland
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1 edition (October 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 034542820X
• ISBN-13: 978-0345428202
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,029,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rita Mae Brown is the bestselling author of the Sister Jane novels-Outfoxed, Hotspur, Full Cry, The Hunt Ball, The Hounds and the Fury, The Tell-Tale Horse, and Hounded to Death-as well as the Sneaky Pie Brown mysteries and Rubyfruit Jungle, In Her Day, Six of One, and The Sand Castle, among many others. An Emmy-nominated screenwriter and a poet, Brown lives in Afton, Virginia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Rita Mae book yet., April 1, 2006

By 

V. Meredith Toenjes (Kansas City, KS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alma Mater (Paperback)

Other than her mystery series, I've read every novel Rita Mae Brown has written. I read "Rubyfruit Jungle" so many times in my teen years that I'd memorized quite a bit of it. "Six of One" is also one of my favorite reads in any genre. Alma Mater is both of those all grown up. It is all the good parts of those books and more. Set in 1980, two girls at the end of their time in college meet and, in a suprise for both of them, they fall in love. What happens around that and the characters that inhabit their lives makes for an incredible read.
Once I read it, I wanted to be able to read it again for the first time.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Once Upon A Time . . . But No More, November 18, 2001

By 

C. Wilcox "Rainbow Goddess" (Seattle WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alma Mater (Hardcover)

I confess. Once upon a time I was a great fan of Rita Mae Brown. Unfortunately, "Alma Mater" provides indisputable proof that her talent is diminishing at an alarming rate. This story of a young woman's coming to terms with her sexuality is inexplicably set in 1980. There is no reference to the culture or politics of the time (do Ronald Reagan & Anita Bryant ring a bell?). The only apparent reason for the trip back in time is so that the characters can indulge in unprotected sex. And even those pedestrian sex scenes can't spice up this tripe. The book follows the life of college senior Victoria Savedge and her family, friends and neighbors, good Southerners all. Ms. Brown has a tendency to create flat characters who are all flawlessly beautiful, who say and do the right thing. She doesn't seem to know the difference between dialog and diatribe. The book is full of lengthy speeches and ruminations on the nature of love, loyalty, fate, etc. Victoria must choose between the expectations of her parent & society or following her own heart (and other parts of her anatomy). This is ground that Ms. Brown has covered previously, and it's not clear why she feels the need to repeat herself. If Ms. Brown spent as much time plotting her novel as she does describing the Virginia sky, this would probably be a different book altogether. As it is, one finds it difficult to care about the characters, especially when their actions and reactions are so unrealistic as to border on ridiculous. Overall, this book feels like a first draft that was never corrected -- an oversimplified plot, cardboard characters, and a rushed and unsatisfactory ending. A story with a lot of potential that follows the most predictable, and sometimes ludicrous, path. So don't waste your time. Read some of Rita Mae's work prior to 1987 if you want to find out what a great writer she used to be.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Ugh. Save your money and time for something better., May 1, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Alma Mater (Paperback)

I for some reason wanted to read a particular Rita Mae Brown book (this wasn't it) but forgot which one when I went to the library. So I chose this one off the shelf because I went to the College of William and Mary, a prestigious university. I wish she'd just made up some school, because it embarrasses me that she's supposed to be writing about my alma mater. She has no idea what she's talking about and is way off on a lot of the details, terminology, and layout, which just bugged the heck out of me. Now those of you unfamiliar with W&M may say, "So what?" and not care, but this just shows you that the author did not do her research and thus you have to wonder about the research, thought, and effort that went into the rest of this book and her other books. If you're going to pick a real university as your backdrop, get the details right!

A student with a clean record would not be expelled for dressing up a statue with no permanent damage, even if the statue were a religious one off campus, as it is in this book. On W&M's campus, Thomas Jefferson gets a party hat and balloons every year on his birthday, and a pumpkin on his head for Halloween.

I don't think her depiction of life and attitudes in that part of Virginia is at all accurate, even for 1980, which is when the story takes place. And I seriously doubt there are several new car dealerships in Surry County (if any). The little details can make all the difference, and when they're inaccurate, the entire work suffers.

The characters are not fully developed and I didn't care about a single one of them. The writing was poor and the story fairly predictable. I found myself skipping over large parts of text and skimming a lot. The epilogue crams the resolutions of the characters' lives into a hastily written five pages.

Reading this was a waste of time.