Loose Lips (Paperback)

by Rita Mae Brown (Author)
Key Phrases: shell earrings, Extra Billy, Mary Miles, Julia Ellen (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
In Bingo and Six of One, Rita Mae Brown made a name for herself--and the unforgettable Hunsenmeir sisters--with her talented depictions of early 1940s life in a small southern town. Now, in Loose Lips, we follow the continuously strained relationship of the outrageous siblings, Julia (Juts) and Louise (Wheezie).

Juts and Wheezie can't pass up a chance to push each other's buttons, and their joint ownership of a beauty salon in this latest installment creates many opportunities to do so. As Wheezie faces her 40th birthday with grim denial, Juts considers motherhood, and the rest of the town braces for their inevitable clashes.

Brown's snappy dialogue and artful situations skillfully communicate the surprising complexity of small town life and sibling relationships. Between the moments of straight comedy (a panicked confusion between bombers and geese makes a great running joke), the meatier issues of adoption, fidelity, piety, and, most importantly, loyalty, are considered, making Loose Lips both a hilarious and heartfelt read. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal
They're back! The irrepressible Hunsenmeir sisters of Runnymede, the fictional town straddling the Maryland-Pennsylvania line, are literally in fighting form after a long hiatus. Louise and Julia (Juts), both in their thirties in 1941, squabble at the town soda fountain and cause almost $400 (in 1941 dollars!) in damages in just the opening pages. In the 11 years spanned here, Hansford Hunsenmeir returns years after abandoning his wife and daughters, Louise copes with daughter Mary's first love and daughter Maizie's confusion, childless Juts and husband Chester adopt Nicole, and the sisters' Civil War Patrol duty provides endless town gossip after Louise mistakes a flock of geese for German Stukas and the alarm rouses Chester from his mistress's bed. This is neither prequel nor sequel to either Six of One (LJ 9/1/78), which introduces Runnymede's residents, or its sequel Bingo (LJ 10/15/88) but basically a loving, laugh-provoking expansion of years covered in the former. Time has honed Brown's literary skills but not lessened her love for these characters, and she has a winner here.
-AMichele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Arlington, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (May 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553380672
• ISBN-13: 978-0553380675
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #183,088 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Rita Mae is capable of much better, November 29, 2000

By	dampscribbler (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews

"Six of One" and "Bingo" were strong, funny books. Unfortunately, "Loose Lips" is a weak follow-up. The first third of the book disappointed me most, with its brief retellings of some of the best stories from the earlier two books.

"Loose Lips" begins in 1939, not long before the US entered WWII. The Hunsenmeier sisters are already grown, and Wheezie's two daughters, Mary and Maizie, are soon to leave her house. The primary relationships explored in this book are the ones between Juts and Wheezie and between Juts and her adopted daughter, Nickel. Unfortunately, we don't learn anything new about the relationship between sisters, and the mother-daughter relationship comes into the book pretty late. As Nickel develops into a headstrong little kid, the book gets more interesting, but I didn't really feel like it was worth slogging through the disappointing retellings of great stories like the night of Nicekl's adoption. For better entertainment than this book offers, re-read the first two books ("Six of One" and "Bingo",) and then read Brown's autobiography "Rita Will."

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh out Loud !, December 28, 1999

By	Susann M. Saghatelian "yosmystic" (Fresno, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Loose Lips (Hardcover)

Another Rita Mae masterpiece. Jutz & Wheezie once again square off with dynamic and often hysterically funny exchanges. The touching part is that their love for one another always shines through. Cora continues with her compelling wisdom, Ramelle with her gentleness and charm. A must read if you enjoyed Six of One and Bingo.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brown at her witty best., November 25, 1999

By	Joi Cardinal (northern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Loose Lips (Hardcover)

Loose Lips was a pleasure to read, and Brown just gets better with age. Her incredible ear for dialogue always thrills me, and here she reaches new heights with Louise and Julia's zingy repartee. Unfortunately Brown focuses so much on how her characters talk that she fails to create vivid pictures of how they look. I used to think this was a purposeful technique in her Mrs. Murphy mysteries (since who would expect a cat to pay attention to people's looks), but I found the same situation in Loose Lips: in my mind her characters tend to be witty, fast-talking amorphous blobs. Brown's characters also unabashedly face the realities of raising children, the honest truth that there probably is not a mother alive who, as Louise so cleverly puts it, hasn't thought at some desperate or frazzled time in her life of making her child an angel, i.e., dispatching her to heaven. WARNING: If descriptions of horrendous child-rearing offend you, this is probably a book better left unread. Juts' verbal and physical abuse of Nickel (including burning her with her cigarette), while entirely in character, is just plain frightening, and makes the latter, post-adoption portion of the book much less enjoyable than the beginning.