Customer Reviews

Six of One

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"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

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.

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.

I read this when I was very young, not long after reading the gripping but totally depressing Well of Loneliness. Six of One was the first lesbian title I read that made me laugh and feel hopeful. What a Joy!!

Six of One deserves to be ranked among the best works of modern authors in America. Rita Mae Brown's wit, wisdom, and winning prose capture the true flavor of much of the 20th century, with realistic characterizations which universally represent much of what is familiar to us all. This is not a book about a single subject, it is a book about life, and about love. But most of all it is a book about perspective and the genuine values in life. In this book, laughter resides at the top of the list. God help us all if Rita Mae Brown ever writes a comedy...I nearly died of laughter from this work of real life drama!

I've read this out loud to family and friends whenever I loaned out this book, and every time I laughed my head off. So did my mother, my gay neighbor, and my eight-year-old brother. This is funny stuff and it holds up over time, a hallmark of good writing.

Clearly, her outrageous characters and improbable situations won't appeal to everyone, but Rita Mae Brown is one hilarious writer. Her tone can be a mite self congratulatory, with an "Aren't I the smart one" undercurrent, but she is an outstanding storyteller.

Even if she never wrote another word, "Six of One" is a gift for every reader who picks it up.

I'll tell you how good I found this book: I've read it so many times, it's falling apart. I'm about to get a new copy. This book is laugh-out-loud-til-you-cry funny!

This is the first Rita Mae Brown book I have read. I purchased it at a used book sale when the stall was about to close; a friend pointed it out to me. You have to read it -- you'll love it! she enthused. I paid for it before the books were packed away and sent to the Peace Corps as donations. I was so glad she'd seen it, for this book made me laugh and smile and get choked up, too. My daughter kept interrupting me to give her brief rundowns of the chapter I was reading: she saw how involved I was. She goes to a French/Arabic school and does not yet read English fast enough to enjoy this book but she was tremendously interested in the characters and I am certain that she will read it in the next few years when her English improves. I cannot say enough good about this wonderful book. She made the great women of Runnymeade come alive for me and the only thing I did not like was the fact that it ended too soon for me! Not only will I recommend it to my friends here in Africa but I also plan on reading more of her books in the future. Thanks, Rita Mae, for giving us such a memorable book.

I had never read anything by Rita Mae Brown prior to reading Six of One...what an introduction! Ms. Brown came highly recommended to me, as I love authors who write southern fiction, complete with quirky and eccentric characters and a laugh on every page. And Six of One offers a heapin' helpin' of the good stuff! Juts and Wheezie's revenge against each other will keep you rolling. It is sibling rivalry at it's best. Plus, I love the fact that the book spans eighty years, so we get to see what happens to most of the characters from life until death. Thank goodness there are two other books in the Hunsenmeir sisters series. Don't want to miss out on any more of their crazy antics!

Rita Mae Brown has written a modern classic about the vagaries of life itself and the interaction of various people throughout life and from a variety of perspectives. It is easy to love the characters in this book, mainly because they are presented as well rounded and complete people, but also because we see in them members of our own lives. I read constantly and from all genres of writing, without any doubt this is my favorite book of the thousands I have read. I first read "Six of One" twenty years ago and am right now waiting for my fifth copy from the bookstore. I wore the pages out of the others amid much laughter and tears.