Six of One (Paperback)

by Rita Mae Brown (Author)
Key Phrases: good old summertime, Julia Ellen, Extra Billy, Fannie Jump (more...)

Editorial Reviews

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

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



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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 1st Edition edition (July 6, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553380370
• ISBN-13: 978-0553380378
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #229,533 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 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 (REAL NAME)

"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

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

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

By A Customer

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 (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.