Ruby Cathy feels left without friends, without comfort and without love. Then she meets Daphne Duprey, who is "cool, calm, cultured, sophisticated and refined" - everything that Ruby is not. Together, Ruby and Daphne build a relationship that gives each young woman a new understanding of strength, friendship and love.
Ruby
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Review
"Rosa Guy has shown that she was not afraid to be tough while examining the very fine webs of love. --Maya Angelou
From the Publisher
Ruby Cathy -- Eighteen and desperately lonely, she has adjusted from a life in the sun and blue seas of the West Indies to the mean, crowded streets of Harlem. Her mother is dead, and her father is obsessed with the American passion to succeed. Ruby makes the painful transition from girl to woman when she meets the beautiful and bitter Daphne.
Daphne Duprey -- She prides herself on always being "cool, calm, collected, poised, sophisticated, cultured, and refined." Ruby is drawn to this girl,who, in Ruby's eyes, is everything she is not. They fill the aching emptiness in each other, love each other, despite the shared knowledge that their happines will end as abruptly as it began. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By N. Joli
Format:Mass Market Paperback
As a native New Yorker, and Harlemite, this book brings back so many fond memories of my growing up in Harlem, New York in the 1980s.
I read this book for the first time when I was sixteen years old. I was in high school and as an only child, I'd often experienced the loneliness that Ruby felt. I immediately identified with her character. Daphne DuPrey is an intriguing character, someone that you would want to know and know about. You learn about Ruby as she learns more about herself and about Daphne as Ruby learns about her.
It is a wonderful coming of age story. Though it deals with a lesbian romance, I don't think it's the primary focus of the book. The fact that it is a same-sex relationship, that is. I think it's more about a young woman coming to terms with who she is as a person and being free to be herself.
I highly recommend it.
I read this book for the first time when I was sixteen years old. I was in high school and as an only child, I'd often experienced the loneliness that Ruby felt. I immediately identified with her character. Daphne DuPrey is an intriguing character, someone that you would want to know and know about. You learn about Ruby as she learns more about herself and about Daphne as Ruby learns about her.
It is a wonderful coming of age story. Though it deals with a lesbian romance, I don't think it's the primary focus of the book. The fact that it is a same-sex relationship, that is. I think it's more about a young woman coming to terms with who she is as a person and being free to be herself.
I highly recommend it.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I first reqd this book when I was fourteen years old. I was enthralled because I suppose I was fairly sheltered and had not read many books about African-Americans in the inner cities, and I was especially naive about lesbian romance. And yet I related to Ruby and her family problems and her love for Daphne. It seemed perfectly natural that she should fall in love with this striking, brilliant girl who fills a huge void in her life. I never thought of them as lesbian per se, I just thought they were young and beautiful and very naturally in love. (Ruby also appears in Rosa Guy's earlier book, "The Friends," which focuses on Ruby's sister, Phylissia, and in that book Ruby has a brief romance with a boy.)
Rosa Guy finds beauty in the grittiest reality. No insipid dilemmas about prom queens and boyfriends; these are people who are struggling to find a sense of self and preserve their dignity and security against the constant shadow of racism, poverty and social upheaval. I have since read everything by Rosa Guy that I could find.
Rosa Guy finds beauty in the grittiest reality. No insipid dilemmas about prom queens and boyfriends; these are people who are struggling to find a sense of self and preserve their dignity and security against the constant shadow of racism, poverty and social upheaval. I have since read everything by Rosa Guy that I could find.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I'm still amazed by the emotional intensity of this book. I first read it about two years ago, and have read it again, beginning to end, more times than I can remember. This book passes no moral judgements on the characters, particularly the two protagonists -- it just tells their story as is, with all the power and confusion of a first love, especially one that doesn't fit with society's ideas of what love should be
Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Ruby, by Rosa Guy - review
My fifteen-year-old daughter is bright, obedient, and appriciative - but I learned an important lesson when I ordered this childhood favorite of mine... Read more
Published on May 4, 2010 by a. pippens
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best ever
I have read the Friends another book from Rosa Guy which is mainly about Ruby's sister Phyillisa and her poor friend Edith Jackson . Read more
Published on February 1, 2003
2.0 out of 5 stars
If only.
This book could have been so much better. If only the author didn't rush the ending that way. The relationship in this book between Ruby and Daphne was fasinating and engaging. Read more
Published on June 8, 2000 by Akemi
5.0 out of 5 stars
A bittersweet love story -- and more
The personal is political, and vice versa. In clear and understandable language, Rosa Guy explores questions of race, class, gender, sexuality and what it means to be an activist. Read more
Published on June 4, 2000 by A.J. Chodan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding
Rosa Guy's Ruby is an excellent piece of reading material. I myself have read it several times over and the intensity of the writing pulls the reader right in. Read more
Published on February 22, 2000 by Shea'-Lynn
3.0 out of 5 stars
This is a novel about a girl that went through changes
The main character of my book is a girl named Ruby. She came from the West Indies and moved to Harlem with her father and her sister. Ruby's mother already had passed away. Read more
Published on May 19, 1999
