Customer Reviews

Southern Discomfort

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

And that's saying something cause I've read almost all of them, and loved most! The characters in this novel are so vivid and well developed you'll finish the novel feeling like you know them personally. Fast, smart, funny and ultimately heartbreaking (I cried for an hour after the ending), this is definitely a must for any fan of Rita Mae Brown.

This book was a little different than the other Rita Mae Brown books i've read, but just as enjoyable.
It takes place during the 20's in a southern town... and tells the story of people from all walks of life - blacks, the wealthy whites, and some white prostitutes. She tells the story of each group of people in a very authentic way and gives each group a sense of pride. And of course... the stories mingle as the characters begin mingling outside theor social circles.
The way i'd say this book was different than some of her others (and i've read about 10), is that it's more... well... more like a soap opera. (along the lines of V.C. Andrews). There is incestual sex, illigitamate pregnancies, etc.
This book was definately fun to read though... and has a beautiful message...

Rita Mae Brown's Southern Discomfort is warm and fuzzy in all the good ways. She earns the pleasurable feelings from her readers through the creation of her dazzling cast of characters and spinning them through a marvelous narrative. I laughed and I cried and sometimes often at the same time. The author writes beautifully and easily allows the reader to soak into the Southern pool of charm she creates. I have enjoyed many of her novels but this is the one that always draws me back. It is the perfect novel for a summer day sipping a mint julep and wondering how eccentric your friends and neighbours could be if only they were Southern.

Southern Discomfort is pure delight that is enhanced by author Rita Mae Browns wit, wacky characters, wild tales, and wonderful writing style. Southern Discomfort spans two decades in Montgomery, AL, in which beautiful, old-money Hortensia (married) meets the man of her dreams: a spectacularly gorgeous young prizefighter. Youve got your small-town scandal, complete with Banana Mae and Blue Rhonda, a couple of high-class whores. Wonderful writing accents this surprisingly touching story.

One of my favorite books of all time. I laughed and laughed...when my father read it, even he was rolling on the floor in stitches!

It is difficult for me to dislike anything which is well written, let alone a book with characters named "Blue Rhonda Latrec" "Hercules" and "Banana Mae." Hercules, a 16 year-old black youth in segregated society, has a few trysts with a white, "society" woman many years his senior; only to die shortly in a railway accident, but not before impregnating the older white woman. This smacks a little contrived, as does Rita Mae's overuse of cliches, but the book is still a joy to read. The author writes characters SO well that I find it difficult to dislike this book except for a few complaints (probably because I'm a man and don't understand women :). And as a former Virginian, I love anything which excoriates my former state--yet manages to keep ALL humanity in full flower. I preferred "Venus Envy" and "Rubyfruit Jungle," but "Southern Discomfort" remains a minor treasure!

This book was both hilarious and very sad. It spanned a broad range of topics and emotions. There was a large cast but characters were very easy to get to know and it was easy to form opinions about them. There were several surprises in the book from near the beginning to the very end, some easy to predict and some came as a real suprise to me. Much of it was a real cultural learning experience for me- a New Englander! I would recommend it for the laughter and the tears. It is a fairly fast read, though complex, and I had trouble putting it down.

Ms. Brown remines the emotional landscape of Six of One, here the time period and characters are different but issues of humanity, gender and race (and how a small town deals with it) are discussed with humor, irony, wit and heart

When "Rubyfruit Jungle" bubbled up from the radical lesbian underground to become a cult best-seller back in 1977, a new literary star was born. As books go it was boisterously funny, unself-pitying, straightforwardly sapphic,eons removed from that old Radclyffe Hall, "Well of Loneliness," love-that-dare-not-speak-its-name genre. It left readers wanting more.

So "Southern Discomfort"was more, but also less: it's a skinny book. It's a romance set earlier in the century in Montgomery, Alabama; and skinny though it is, it's generous in the ways that count. Just bursting with fanciful characters, unorthodox sexual couplings, preposterous happenings. It's even funnier than "Rubyfruit Jungle," as it's not so autobiographical, and its canvas is bigger. It gives us more of Brown's talent for establishing place, and elucidating the ties that bind. It demonstrates her knack for making the bizarre seem appropriate, and for delivering it in an understated "isn't all the world like this" style.

Plainly, while Brown's an avowed lesbian and lesbian themes are important to her, she's also working in the popular Southern Gothic style, as exemplified by Flannery O'Connor and others.

Brown's rendition of Montgomery, Alabama, its mores, its minor characters, and its annual Halloween Great Witch Hunt is delicious. We learn that "people could tell you that an Orange captain of 1835 went on to become a Confederate colonel, or a Black captain of 1852 made a fortune in railroads. As it turned out, most captains did well in this world: a few degenerated into drunks or scoundrels, but not many. Lila Reedmuller was Orange captain of 1891. She was one of the four girls ever chosen for that honor, and Lila went on to reign over Montgomery society...."

And we meet Blue Rhonda Latrec, who "was eighteen years old and at the top of her profession. She was a first-class whore. On this hot day she plopped her butt on the front stoop of her small frame dwelling on Water Street. Blue Rhonda considered herself fortunate in her location, as the train station was just down the road. From the mouth of that beautiful structure poured a steady stream of new customers...."

"Southern Discomfort" is an entertaining book, but Brown often pulled her punches. With a little more courage, she could be delivering top-flight Southern Gothic,which, at its best, needs ferocious conviction.

The publisher promised "witty & warm" I found nothing close to either. In my opion,the book was pooly written, no charm, humor or even believable. The setting was Montgomery Alabama, 1900,it could have been LA, Chicago or New York and almost any year with the lack of real reference to the time and place. The author tried way too hard to come up with unusual names for her characters to the point that it was ridiculous . I just didn't believe the characters and didn't care.