Venus Envy [Paperback]

Rita Mae Brown (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Bantam Books (1996)
• ASIN: B000OV51F4
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)

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 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What promise this story had!, November 8, 2000

By 

Starr "carnevalestarr" (St Gallen, Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Venus Envy (Mass Market Paperback)

When I started reading this book, I thought, Good ol' Rita Mae has out-done herself this time--it was the funniest, cleverist beginning of a book I have ever read--but I would rate the whole book as one of her worst. I recommend you read only the first 4 or 5 chapters--it is hilarious--but then close it up and give it to the book exchange before you get bogged down in the almost unreadable ending. I am a dyed-in-the-wool Rita Mae Brown fan--but this one really goes bad at the end. Her earlier works are much better; Rubyfruit Jungle, Six of One, and Southern Discomfort, High Hearts, and Sudden Death being her best.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars a premise that holds promise lost in bad writing, August 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Venus Envy (Mass Market Paperback)

When I read what this book was about, I thought it sounded interesting - what would we do if we thought we weren't going to live. However, I found the interesting idea was way overshadowed dull characters and writing. The characters are either goody/goody or someone absolutely hateful - very one-dimensional and totally unrealistic. As for style of writing, I felt like the book was written for pre-teenagers - very, very simplistic, although the subject matter certainly is adult. The ending read like some kind of inane dream that the author had one night, embellished with some kind of misdirected how-can-i-make-this-seem-spiritual mythology which seemed to me to be just asinine. I was bored from the beginning but kept reading, hoping it would pick up. Alas, it never did - I was embarrased for the author.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Normal is just the average of deviations.", September 6, 2004

By 

mrstoast (NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Venus Envy (Mass Market Paperback)

I do like Rita Mae Brown. I share many of her notions of the world. I picked this book up as a second RMB read after reading (finally, after all these years) Rubyfruit Jungle to see what was the author and what was the story, if you know what I mean. The premise of the book is great fun! I must say though that reading this book felt like living in someone else's head as they worked through their processes, demons, angels, trying to convince themselves (& the reader). That grew a bit tiresome, esp. towards the end. While Rita can turn a phrase nicely, I found, generally, her dialog was preachy, a little too unnatural for conversation, her arguments a tad pat, abet "unconventionally" so. I will read more Rita Mae.