Customer Reviews

Venus Envy

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

A novel like this needs a light touch. Instead, Brown gives us a fantasy sex scene after which the lovers lie in each other's arms discussing Reagan-Bush AIDS policy & the evolutionary purpose of gay people.

This book in not anywhere near Ms Brown's usual standards. Lacklustre story based on an unbelievable premise. Too bad!

After searching for months for a lesbian novel told in the third person, i was really excited to find Venus Envy. I am currently on chapter 22 and I think i'll stop here. I didn't like hte beginning, I haven't liked the progression into the middle and after reading these reviews, I think i'll jsut skip the end. I read Brown's Ruby Fruit Jungle and i had really loved it. Despite some far-fetched plot points, I was able to suspend my belief and give her the benefit of the doubt, but this one.. it just doesn't work. I blame the dialogue. It's really awful. But not that the rest of it is helping much. It feels as if the author let the plot dictate the novel and not the characters and that just makes for bad writing. I'd go for other Brown books, but just not this one.

This is the third Rita Mae Brown book I've read. I loved the first two (Rita Will, Sudden Death). The premise in this novel is hilarious, and about the first third of the book does not disappoint. I'll admit, I could not put it down, but after the first third, it seemed to lose some steam. In other words, the great premise doesn't carry the whole novel. It may have been better as a short story. Anyway, all we're left with when the premise poops out are very one-dimensional characters who are either lovable 100% tolerant saints, or 100% prejudiced, narrow-minded bigots whom you can't choose but to hate. No character falls in between. A few of the plot lines ended up very unrealistic, at least to me. Unlike some of these other reviews, I absolutely loved the sequence in the painting, but I wouldn't have ended the book with it either. The problem is, by the time you get to the painting sequence, the plot has pretty much fallen apart anyway into either the mundane or the wholly unreal. Don't get me wrong, it is an interesting read and the author's humor stays with you throughout, but once the premise wears off, the novel falls apart a little.

This book might help you to discover your own truth about life. Every part of the book was marvelous and the ending turned out to be exactly the way I expected. I would like to thank Rita Mae Brown for writing this book.

I read this book and it began really well, and I thought that the story had promise but when I read the last quarter of this book, it got really boring, and had to put it down. The book started off well showing promise but faltering at the end. I was disappointed. The ending should have been better.

I thought the beginning of this book was GREAT! So funny and smart. And then it's not. One specific complaint is she has one of the characters go on a page-long tirade against Michael Milken and Reagan and other evil people from the 80s. It seems like she wanted to say these things and instead of cleverly weaving her opinions into her story through her character, she just has them say it, even when it hurts the flow of the story. It seemed lazy. And that was a problem throughout the book for me; good idea but poorly executed.