Six of One [Paperback]

Rita Mae Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 6, 1999

Perched right on the Mason-Dixon line, tiny Runnymede, Maryland, is ripe with a history almost as colorful as the women who live there—from Celeste Chalfonte, headstrong and aristocratic, who murders for principle and steals her brother’s wife, to Fannie Jump Creighton, who runs a speakeasy right in her own home when hard times come knocking. Then of course, there’re Louise and Julia, the boldly eccentric Hunsenmeir sisters. Wheezie and Juts spend their whole lives in Runnymede, cheerfully quibbling about everything from men to child-rearing to how to drive a car. But they never let small-town life keep them from chasing their biggest dreams—or from being true to who they really are. Sparkling with a perfect combination of sisterhood and sass, Six of One is a richly textured Southern canvas—Rita Mae Brown “at her winning, fondest best”(Kirkus Reviews).

Editorial Reviews

Review

“It’s like listening to Virginia Woolf and her pals gossiping and philosophizing.”—Glamour

“Brown has some of the same effervescent yet secure trust in her local characters that Eudora Welty feels for hers...when history nicks them, they slap right back.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A lively and very lovely book.”—Publishers Weekly

No matter how quirky or devilish, Brown’s people cavort in an atmosphere of tenderness....It is refreshing to encounter this celebration of human energy.” —Chicago Sun-Times

From the Publisher

Whether careening through town propelling cars like long-range missiles, or laying waste to a costumed July Fourth parade, Wheezie and Juts Hunsenmeir are Runnymede's most irrepressible, mule-headed sister scat. together these unrivaled Southern siblings cheerfully raise hell-and a hell of a family-among some of the most colorful townsfolk you're ever likely to meet. Chief among them is elegant Celeste Chalfonte. As exquisite as she is fearless, Celeste kills a man and marries a woman, sloe-eyed Ramelle Bowman. And when Ramelle has Curtis Chalfronte's child, no one bats an eye-even though Ramelle has no intention of leaving her beloved Celeste. Then there's Fannie Jump Creighton who runs a speakeasy in her mansion. And activist Fairy Thatcher, who disappears into Hitler's Germany. Through it all run Wheezie and Juts, heading pell-mell into the future with their hands firmly gripped around each other's throats. spanning more than fifty years of the tumultuous twentieth century, six of One is a joyous celebration of the human sprit-and the ties binding even the unlikeliest families.

"Joyous, passionate and funny."--The Washington Post . --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 1st Edition edition (July 6, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553380370
• ISBN-13: 978-0553380378
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.7 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #424,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #59 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Parenting & Families

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

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rita Mae Brown at her best!, April 9, 2002

By 

S. Stinson "book lover" (Oklahoma USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Six of One (Paperback)

"Six of One" is a rousing tale of two sisters told by Rita Mae Brown in her unapologetic, eccentric Southern style. She introduces us to Julia and Louise Hunsenmeir, fondly known as Juts and Wheezie, an indomitable pair of quarreling sisters born around the turn-of-the-century in Runnymede, Maryland. Spanning almost a century, we watch the madcap life of Juts and Wheezie take them from small tots following their mother around in the local rich lesbian's Georgian mansion to the birth of their own children and the mayhem that follows, to Juts and Wheezie as old cronies, still tangling in their 80's.

The ensemble cast features Cora, their strong and caring single mother, housekeeper of Celeste; the formidable Celeste Chalfonte, a charming lesbian without apology, and her lover, the elegantly beautiful Ramelle Bowman; Fairy Thatcher and Fannie Jump Creighton, ever-scheming schoolchums of Celeste; and in later chapters, Chessie and Pearlie, long-suffering husbands of Juts and Wheezie. These eccentric characters embody all the character flaws and quirks one would expect from a Rita Mae Brown novel depicting Southern characters, and is done as only she can.

Simply put, "Six of One" is a hoot! You'll laugh, cry, and laugh again at the shenanigans of this Runnymede bunch! Don't miss it

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars literature for people, August 26, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Six of One (Paperback)

IMHO this is the best book that Rita Mae Brown has written. As other reviewers have noted there are hilarious scenes in the book. If the events occurring during the fourth of July parade don't have you falling off your chair, then you're not breathing. Although the book is quite funny, that's not what I enjoy most about it. What makes 6 of 1 so special to me is the way it describes relationships between people. These relationships strike home and appear real rather than fictional. When I looked at 6 of 1 on amazon many of the 'listmania' lists categorized this as literature for lesbians. I disagree, this is literature for everyone.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A hilarious family saga on the Mason Dixon Line, October 15, 2003

By 

Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Six of One (Paperback)

As the town of Runneymede is divided by the Mason Dixon Line, so is the family that Rita Mae Brown chronicles through several generations in this, one of her best loved and most popular books. Nobody writes internal family bitchy dialogue better than RMB, and she's off and running at top speed in Six of One. Love and war are nothing when it comes to sibling rivalry in a small town. Cora is the mother of this contentious clan of spirited, cranky, opinionated women. Spanning years from the early 1900s to the 1980s, the book alternates between past tense for the old years and present tense (told in the POV of Nickel, the bisexual daughter of Juts, one of the feuding sisters) for the more modern years.
Wonderful, nearly epic, and very very funny.