What do you think?
Rate this book
Venus Envy
At thirty-five, Mary Frazier Armstrong, called "Frazier" by friends and enemies alike, is a sophisticated woman with a thriving art gallery, a healthy bank balance, and an enviable social position. In fact, she has everything to live for, but she's lying in a hospital bed with a morphine drip in her arm and a life expectancy measured in hours. "Don't die a stranger," her assistant says on her last hospital visit. "Tell the people you love who you are." And so, as her last act on earth, Frazier writes letters to her closest family and friends, telling them exactly what she thinks of them and, since she will be dead by the time they receive the letters, the truth about herself: she's gay.
The letters are sent. Then the manure hits the fan in Charlottesville, Virginia, because the funny thing is, Frazier Armstrong isn't going to die after all.
The letters are sent. Then the manure hits the fan in Charlottesville, Virginia, because the funny thing is, Frazier Armstrong isn't going to die after all.
400 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
48 people are currently reading
1357 people want to read
About the author
Rita Mae Brown
174 books2,233 followersRita Mae Brown is a prolific American writer, most known for her mysteries and other novels (Rubyfruit Jungle). She is also an Emmy-nominated screenwriter.
Brown was born illegitimate in Hanover, Pennsylvania. She was raised by her biological mother's female cousin and the cousin's husband in York, Pennsylvania and later in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Starting in the fall of 1962, Brown attended the University of Florida at Gainesville on a scholarship. In the spring of 1964, the administrators of the racially segregated university expelled her for participating in the civil rights movement. She subsequently enrolled at Broward Community College[3] with the hope of transferring eventually to a more tolerant four-year institution.
Between fall 1964 and 1969, she lived in New York City, sometimes homeless, while attending New York University[6] where she received a degree in Classics and English. Later,[when?] she received another degree in cinematography from the New York School of Visual Arts.[citation needed] Brown received a Ph.D. in literature from Union Institute & University in 1976 and holds a doctorate in political science from the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.
Starting in 1973, Brown lived in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. In 1977, she bought a farm in Charlottesville, Virginia where she still lives.[9] In 1982, a screenplay Brown wrote while living in Los Angeles, Sleepless Nights, was retitled The Slumber Party Massacre and given a limited release theatrically.
During Brown's spring 1964 semester at the University of Florida at Gainesville, she became active in the American Civil Rights Movement. Later in the 1960s, she participated in the anti-war movement, the feminist movement and the Gay Liberation movement.
Brown took an administrative position with the fledgling National Organization for Women, but resigned in January 1970 over Betty Friedan's anti-gay remarks and NOW's attempts to distance itself from lesbian organizations. She claims she played a leading role in the "Lavender Menace" zap of the Second Congress to Unite Women on May 1, 1970, which protested Friedan's remarks and the exclusion of lesbians from the women's movement.
In the early 1970s, she became a founding member of The Furies Collective, a lesbian feminist newspaper collective in Washington, DC, which held that heterosexuality was the root of all oppression.
Brown told Time magazine in 2008, "I don't believe in straight or gay. I really don't. I think we're all degrees of bisexual. There may be a few people on the extreme if it's a bell curve who really truly are gay or really truly are straight. Because nobody had ever said these things and used their real name, I suddenly became [in the late 1970s] the only lesbian in America."
Brown was born illegitimate in Hanover, Pennsylvania. She was raised by her biological mother's female cousin and the cousin's husband in York, Pennsylvania and later in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Starting in the fall of 1962, Brown attended the University of Florida at Gainesville on a scholarship. In the spring of 1964, the administrators of the racially segregated university expelled her for participating in the civil rights movement. She subsequently enrolled at Broward Community College[3] with the hope of transferring eventually to a more tolerant four-year institution.
Between fall 1964 and 1969, she lived in New York City, sometimes homeless, while attending New York University[6] where she received a degree in Classics and English. Later,[when?] she received another degree in cinematography from the New York School of Visual Arts.[citation needed] Brown received a Ph.D. in literature from Union Institute & University in 1976 and holds a doctorate in political science from the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.
Starting in 1973, Brown lived in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. In 1977, she bought a farm in Charlottesville, Virginia where she still lives.[9] In 1982, a screenplay Brown wrote while living in Los Angeles, Sleepless Nights, was retitled The Slumber Party Massacre and given a limited release theatrically.
During Brown's spring 1964 semester at the University of Florida at Gainesville, she became active in the American Civil Rights Movement. Later in the 1960s, she participated in the anti-war movement, the feminist movement and the Gay Liberation movement.
Brown took an administrative position with the fledgling National Organization for Women, but resigned in January 1970 over Betty Friedan's anti-gay remarks and NOW's attempts to distance itself from lesbian organizations. She claims she played a leading role in the "Lavender Menace" zap of the Second Congress to Unite Women on May 1, 1970, which protested Friedan's remarks and the exclusion of lesbians from the women's movement.
In the early 1970s, she became a founding member of The Furies Collective, a lesbian feminist newspaper collective in Washington, DC, which held that heterosexuality was the root of all oppression.
Brown told Time magazine in 2008, "I don't believe in straight or gay. I really don't. I think we're all degrees of bisexual. There may be a few people on the extreme if it's a bell curve who really truly are gay or really truly are straight. Because nobody had ever said these things and used their real name, I suddenly became [in the late 1970s] the only lesbian in America."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 144 reviews
October 8, 2019
This book has a great beginning, then a middle lots of folks thought was dated - mostly the consequences and fear of being out as gay, and “old-fashioned” overt racism. But I think that represents opinions of the fortunate who live among the... un-deplorable? I have friends who live in Southern and Mid-Western States who are still tightly closeted and know, for certain, that their careers would be threatened if they peeked out. And, frankly, with the rise of White Nationalism in the USA, lead by the loathsome Cheeto-in-Chief Trump who defines Neo-Nazis as “fine people”, to pretend we have made progress there is specious as well.
So i was enjoying my way through the book until the last horrible 50 pages or so. WTF was that about? Was there no other way to include a mandatory sex scene? Did Rita owe a debt to the estate of Robert Graves or Jean Shinoda Bolen? I had been finding the human development quite interesting when suddenly, “Ciao”. No more of the characters you’ve just spent 300 pages learning about. Just cartoons and ejaculating rainbows. Eye roll.
It was an Olympic-sized tot deos et machinis.
Or an amputation with a chain-saw. Painful and insufficiently anesthetized.
So i was enjoying my way through the book until the last horrible 50 pages or so. WTF was that about? Was there no other way to include a mandatory sex scene? Did Rita owe a debt to the estate of Robert Graves or Jean Shinoda Bolen? I had been finding the human development quite interesting when suddenly, “Ciao”. No more of the characters you’ve just spent 300 pages learning about. Just cartoons and ejaculating rainbows. Eye roll.
It was an Olympic-sized tot deos et machinis.
Or an amputation with a chain-saw. Painful and insufficiently anesthetized.
July 6, 2023
Recently, I reread Rita Mae Brown’s lesbian classic “Rubyfruit Jungle” and was astonished to find that I liked it much more than I thought. Now I just read her novel “Venus Envy” again and was surprised to see that I didn’t like it very much!
There are twenty years between these books (the first one was published in 1973, the other one in 1993), but I don’t have the feeling that the author developed much in the meantime, or at least not in the right direction.
Rubyfruit Jungle was about a young woman who had to find her own way in life against all odds, and Venus Envy seems to deal with a very similar topic, but under completely different circumstances: This time, the main character isn’t an adopted child from humble backgrounds who has to fight for her success. Quite the contrary: MC Frazier from Venus Envy is a beautiful, successful and popular 35-year-old woman who comes from a good family. Her only “flaw” is that she’s sexually interested in women – a “dark secret”, which causes quite a stir when revealed.
So far, so good.
The problem is that the novel isn’t really funny (as it’s supposed to be), but actually very superficial and not too well-written, in my opinion. The story doesn’t have much depth and it’s difficult to empathize with the characters, and the only original scenes are Frazier’s (imaginary?) encounters (and sex!) with the Graeco-Roman deities from a huge painting.
Our “heroine” is no young woman struggling to find herself, but actually quite an annoying, self-righteous know-it-all who wants to be accepted, but doesn’t accept other people herself. There are countless tedious, pseudo-ethical monologues and dialogues about family, relationships, friendship and love, right and wrong, good and evil and even touchy issues like racism, but in reality, only opinions that support Frazier’s world view are tolerated.
It’s very obvious that the author only has sympathy with her MC and like-minded characters, whereas Frazier’s sister-in-law and particularly her mother are portrayed in such a negative way that they’re actually bitchy southern-belle caricatures who don’t progress at all in the course of the story and who can’t really be taken seriously.
I think it wouldn’t have hurt the author to deal with her mommy issues before writing this story!
And given the fact that this is a story about a lesbian (well, bisexual) coming-out, there are way too many penises and too much male sex in great detail.
2.5 Stars, rounded up.
There are twenty years between these books (the first one was published in 1973, the other one in 1993), but I don’t have the feeling that the author developed much in the meantime, or at least not in the right direction.
Rubyfruit Jungle was about a young woman who had to find her own way in life against all odds, and Venus Envy seems to deal with a very similar topic, but under completely different circumstances: This time, the main character isn’t an adopted child from humble backgrounds who has to fight for her success. Quite the contrary: MC Frazier from Venus Envy is a beautiful, successful and popular 35-year-old woman who comes from a good family. Her only “flaw” is that she’s sexually interested in women – a “dark secret”, which causes quite a stir when revealed.
So far, so good.
The problem is that the novel isn’t really funny (as it’s supposed to be), but actually very superficial and not too well-written, in my opinion. The story doesn’t have much depth and it’s difficult to empathize with the characters, and the only original scenes are Frazier’s (imaginary?) encounters (and sex!) with the Graeco-Roman deities from a huge painting.
Our “heroine” is no young woman struggling to find herself, but actually quite an annoying, self-righteous know-it-all who wants to be accepted, but doesn’t accept other people herself. There are countless tedious, pseudo-ethical monologues and dialogues about family, relationships, friendship and love, right and wrong, good and evil and even touchy issues like racism, but in reality, only opinions that support Frazier’s world view are tolerated.
It’s very obvious that the author only has sympathy with her MC and like-minded characters, whereas Frazier’s sister-in-law and particularly her mother are portrayed in such a negative way that they’re actually bitchy southern-belle caricatures who don’t progress at all in the course of the story and who can’t really be taken seriously.
I think it wouldn’t have hurt the author to deal with her mommy issues before writing this story!
And given the fact that this is a story about a lesbian (well, bisexual) coming-out, there are way too many penises and too much male sex in great detail.
2.5 Stars, rounded up.
March 26, 2019
Venus Envy is a novel of trite escapism for wealthy white folks with a dash of awkward magical realism.
This would have received two stars, but Brown states that gay people exist to serve the community of heterosexuals. That is some bullshit that no one should read.
This would have received two stars, but Brown states that gay people exist to serve the community of heterosexuals. That is some bullshit that no one should read.
February 17, 2014
This book hasn't aged well within the current sphere of LGBT politics, but I can imagine it made quite a splash when it came out. I must say, though, I haven't thoroughly enjoyed a character as much as I enjoy Mary Frazier Armstrong in a long time.
So, this book very narrowly missed a very Lifetime premise--woman believes she is dying, makes deathbed coming-out confessional, then whoops, not dying! And she has to deal with the aftermath--socially-conscious mothers, screw-up brothers, appalled ex-lovers, catty friends. Life is pretty much sucking for Frazier--and then we add a mythological painting and the world's coolest ending, and we have a pretty damn decent book.
It's cheesy at times, the language is dated, but it's a lot of fun and a great story.
So, this book very narrowly missed a very Lifetime premise--woman believes she is dying, makes deathbed coming-out confessional, then whoops, not dying! And she has to deal with the aftermath--socially-conscious mothers, screw-up brothers, appalled ex-lovers, catty friends. Life is pretty much sucking for Frazier--and then we add a mythological painting and the world's coolest ending, and we have a pretty damn decent book.
It's cheesy at times, the language is dated, but it's a lot of fun and a great story.
August 23, 2019
This book, quite honestly, is fucking ridiculous. The premise was intriguing-- very much so-- but the writing is incredibly weak in places to the point where I am strongly reminded of a rusted-out tin roof as I read. The author uses colloquial phrases I hope she got from someone else, because if she's a native Virginian then she manages to sound like a hokey imitation of a Southerner being portrayed by someone who has never been near the South.
She goes off on absolutely ridiculous rambling tangents as though the characters in the book forget their place in the plot during a good smoking session or being deep in their cups and nearly derail the point of the story (what the hell is supposed to be the point of the story? I THINK it's supposed to be some kind of reflection on being true to oneself no matter what, and forgiving others their ignorance, blah blah blah but who the hell can tell?) constantly.
Worst of all (and I really hate this in a book), Brown doesn't even seem to know what genre she's writing. She starts out writing a relatively realistic fictional novel...and quite suddenly, some chapters in, the main character begins seemingly hallucinating due to a painting of Olympian gods-- or so we think, until her assistant Mandy begins smelling and hearing the same things. Is this going to turn out to have a logical explanation? Perhaps Frazier's gallery is being attacked by homophobic townspeople using gas in the vents?
No! Of course not! Instead, there is zero explanation for these hallucinations-- and even better, Frazier falls off a ladder, at which point with absolutely no explanation (again) she is somehow on Mount Olympus.
Mere dreaming, the reader thinks, brought on by being temporarily unconscious, right? It should end in a couple pages. But no! Instead, this dream, fantasy, hallucination, whatever the hell it's supposed to be, goes on for multiple chapters and features horribly written sex scenes between Frazier and Venus, Frazier and Mercury, and a threesome between Frazier, Mercury and Venus. Because who doesn't love completely ridiculous and extraneous mortal-immortal sex that has nothing whatsoever to do with the plot, interspersed with random pseudo-philosophical rambling about humanity, gender and sexual orientation?
Me, that's who.
Especially when it ends with Jupiter "expanding himself" so that he fills the sky, jerks off and sprays his semen across the sky in-- get this-- RAINBOWS, which brings the wrath of Juno down on Frazier and Jupiter because apparently anytime she sees a rainbow she knows Jupiter just had an orgasm.
At what point will this novel actually veer onto a proper course and become a real book? I couldn't tell you. I have about 14 pages to go, and it has yet to achieve that noble purpose. I do not hold out much hope, and I thank all the gods of literature and hand-me-downs that I found this book among my ex-partner's ex-girlfriend's left-behinds and didn't waste money on this book myself.
She goes off on absolutely ridiculous rambling tangents as though the characters in the book forget their place in the plot during a good smoking session or being deep in their cups and nearly derail the point of the story (what the hell is supposed to be the point of the story? I THINK it's supposed to be some kind of reflection on being true to oneself no matter what, and forgiving others their ignorance, blah blah blah but who the hell can tell?) constantly.
Worst of all (and I really hate this in a book), Brown doesn't even seem to know what genre she's writing. She starts out writing a relatively realistic fictional novel...and quite suddenly, some chapters in, the main character begins seemingly hallucinating due to a painting of Olympian gods-- or so we think, until her assistant Mandy begins smelling and hearing the same things. Is this going to turn out to have a logical explanation? Perhaps Frazier's gallery is being attacked by homophobic townspeople using gas in the vents?
No! Of course not! Instead, there is zero explanation for these hallucinations-- and even better, Frazier falls off a ladder, at which point with absolutely no explanation (again) she is somehow on Mount Olympus.
Mere dreaming, the reader thinks, brought on by being temporarily unconscious, right? It should end in a couple pages. But no! Instead, this dream, fantasy, hallucination, whatever the hell it's supposed to be, goes on for multiple chapters and features horribly written sex scenes between Frazier and Venus, Frazier and Mercury, and a threesome between Frazier, Mercury and Venus. Because who doesn't love completely ridiculous and extraneous mortal-immortal sex that has nothing whatsoever to do with the plot, interspersed with random pseudo-philosophical rambling about humanity, gender and sexual orientation?
Me, that's who.
Especially when it ends with Jupiter "expanding himself" so that he fills the sky, jerks off and sprays his semen across the sky in-- get this-- RAINBOWS, which brings the wrath of Juno down on Frazier and Jupiter because apparently anytime she sees a rainbow she knows Jupiter just had an orgasm.
At what point will this novel actually veer onto a proper course and become a real book? I couldn't tell you. I have about 14 pages to go, and it has yet to achieve that noble purpose. I do not hold out much hope, and I thank all the gods of literature and hand-me-downs that I found this book among my ex-partner's ex-girlfriend's left-behinds and didn't waste money on this book myself.
March 18, 2018
Hard to write an objective review here. I read this sooooooo many times in my 20s that no denying I was kind of skimming through the more talky sections, looking for those favorite parts. The characters do talk a lot. I can't remember the experience of reading this for the first time, but obviously it was good because I kept coming back to it!
August 8, 2024
Rita Mae Brown, you have deceived me with your book's premise and tricked me into reading a novel that is almost exclusively concerned with men, their penises, heterosexual relationships, and snorting coke off of said penises. You've stated that a "stone" homosexual's true purpose is to care for a het couple's progeny, and that lesbians should be put on a front line ahead of married heterosexual men in the event of war. The MC blows her life apart to come out as gay and then spends the whole novel reflecting on almost nothing but men, sex with men, how handsome men are, and what women think about men. There is more heterosexual and gay male sex featured in this book than there are kisses between women. The one lesbian sex scene in this entire novel lasts for less than two pages before swiftly and fearfully changing to another drawn out description of a man's penis and buttocks before the Venus, the goddess of love herself, sprouts a dick to fuck him with while he fucks our MC. Heterosexuality squared? A threesome to the third power? And yes, don't worry, we do get a description of his asshole!! Thank god, because I know I was just biting my fingernails to know what it looked like. Oh and the great god Jupiter jacks off into the sky and makes a rainbow. Why not?!
I'm not even going to get into the clumsy observations on racism or the weirdly persistent misogyny shown towards women whose greatest crime is not making the men in their life happy enough. I'm not going to get into the purple prose, the avalanche of brand names, the specification of salted or unsalted butter that adds to an already bloated word count. I won't talk about clunky dialogue or awkward sexual choreography. It all pales in comparison to all the musings on blowjobs I slogged through in the hope that at some point, I would arrive at something that would make reading this book worth my time. Obviously, I did not. I want my dollar back from the feminist mobile library, this is NOT a lesbian romance novel!
I'm not even going to get into the clumsy observations on racism or the weirdly persistent misogyny shown towards women whose greatest crime is not making the men in their life happy enough. I'm not going to get into the purple prose, the avalanche of brand names, the specification of salted or unsalted butter that adds to an already bloated word count. I won't talk about clunky dialogue or awkward sexual choreography. It all pales in comparison to all the musings on blowjobs I slogged through in the hope that at some point, I would arrive at something that would make reading this book worth my time. Obviously, I did not. I want my dollar back from the feminist mobile library, this is NOT a lesbian romance novel!
December 17, 2019
Picked up on a whim from the library stacks long ago. In a great, instant-hook beginning, a woman finds out she is dying and sends out a batch of letters telling her loved ones what she really thinks of them Then the reactions to the letters start getting unlikely, and the story turns stupid and there are , because when blocked writers need to deliver the contracted page count to their publishers, they can get desperate.
Anyway, I'm apparently annoyed enough about Brown's trashing of a promising idea that I still remember this bitterly twenty years later, which I guess brings it up from one star to two.
Anyway, I'm apparently annoyed enough about Brown's trashing of a promising idea that I still remember this bitterly twenty years later, which I guess brings it up from one star to two.
November 14, 2017
This book was actually enjoyable and amusing at times, especially the first half, but the second half was just a mess.
First of all, why all the trouble to categorize the heroine into the role of lesbian when she was really bisexual?
Not that it matters anyway. You are what you are and you love who you love. I'm just saying this because the author had Frazier herself and pretty much every other character call her a lesbian as if she couldn't stress that enough.
But Frazier herself said she was into both genders and if that ending really happened and she wasn't majorly tripping due to her fall, she had sex with a man and she clearly took pleasure from it.
What was with those chapters about the Greek gods anyway? Weird!
November 8, 2023
I bought this book based on the interesting premise, which doesn’t seem to actually take up much of the story at all. I appreciate the short chapters, which made it easier to get through. It is well written, not super well edited, and had a lot of missed potential.
It is a strange choice to make a pivotal point of the book be that a character is a lesbian, constantly call her a lesbian, and then have the character not be a lesbian. It could’ve worked just as well had she accepted that she was bisexual or otherwise. But to my surprise, the MC had hardly anything good to say about any women, beyond observances of beauty, and was far more interested in and forgiving of the men in her life. Sort of makes the entire plotline moot, doesn’t it?
I really wanted to like the characters. I think each one had a lot of potential but all in all, there is not much character growth. Everybody seems to stay the same way as they started, the feuding sister and brother relationship starts off heated and suddenly they are best friends without a satisfying development to get us from point A to point B. No proper development, no proper conclusions.
It’s definitely outdated by todays standards. Nobody really wants to read long pages about how homosexuals should serve heterosexuals, that they should be the first to die in war, etc. I can’t see that being well received at any point in time, really. Not sure how any of these ideas made it to paper especially when they’ve got nothing to do with the story. (As an important note, I’d like to say that I’m not somebody who insists that character dialogue or even narration is an indication of how the author thinks or feels but the way it is framed is important here because these are gods and goddesses delivering these statements to the MC as life lessons. To have these messages be the culmination of the last 300 or so pages feels like a kick to the reader. What was the point of this story? Is this truly the payoff?)
The entire ending is a huge mess that has nothing to do with the rest of the story. The author surely had no clue how to end this tale and went off on a long horny tangent hoping that it would do the trick, then went back to add in some half baked mythological hallucination foreshadowing to make it look like it was done on purpose. Unfortunately, even long before the befuddling end, it felt as if the plot had been lost. How anybody has made it that far in the story, who knows.
It is a strange choice to make a pivotal point of the book be that a character is a lesbian, constantly call her a lesbian, and then have the character not be a lesbian. It could’ve worked just as well had she accepted that she was bisexual or otherwise. But to my surprise, the MC had hardly anything good to say about any women, beyond observances of beauty, and was far more interested in and forgiving of the men in her life. Sort of makes the entire plotline moot, doesn’t it?
I really wanted to like the characters. I think each one had a lot of potential but all in all, there is not much character growth. Everybody seems to stay the same way as they started, the feuding sister and brother relationship starts off heated and suddenly they are best friends without a satisfying development to get us from point A to point B. No proper development, no proper conclusions.
It’s definitely outdated by todays standards. Nobody really wants to read long pages about how homosexuals should serve heterosexuals, that they should be the first to die in war, etc. I can’t see that being well received at any point in time, really. Not sure how any of these ideas made it to paper especially when they’ve got nothing to do with the story. (As an important note, I’d like to say that I’m not somebody who insists that character dialogue or even narration is an indication of how the author thinks or feels but the way it is framed is important here because these are gods and goddesses delivering these statements to the MC as life lessons. To have these messages be the culmination of the last 300 or so pages feels like a kick to the reader. What was the point of this story? Is this truly the payoff?)
The entire ending is a huge mess that has nothing to do with the rest of the story. The author surely had no clue how to end this tale and went off on a long horny tangent hoping that it would do the trick, then went back to add in some half baked mythological hallucination foreshadowing to make it look like it was done on purpose. Unfortunately, even long before the befuddling end, it felt as if the plot had been lost. How anybody has made it that far in the story, who knows.
September 15, 2016
This story is both advanced for its time (its bisexuality) and totally outdated (clumsy acknowledgment of racism). It would be unfair to give it 3 stars for my disagreeing with its cis-sexism, but holy cow did it need editing. Venus Envy reads like a first draft, complete with pages of dialogue, scenes that go forever long and repetition which interrupt the flow and make the ending lose its punch
Not bad overall but Rita Mae Brown is a better writer than this.
Not bad overall but Rita Mae Brown is a better writer than this.
July 23, 2024
3.75/5
I picked this book up simply because the wordplay of the title. I enjoyed a lot of this book, the characters are all really neat. Spoilers for this 3 decade old book, I guess, but the whole mt. Olympus end was so out of left field, but was randomly one of the more enjoyable depictions of the Greek/Roman pantheon. I take off .25 from an original 4 star rating as the book lacks even an ounce of subtlety, and at a certain point it became ludicrous. Characters were constantly turning to the audience and saying the themes of the book, this would be maddening of the themes about love were less interesting. A highlight was the lovely rich prose.
I picked this book up simply because the wordplay of the title. I enjoyed a lot of this book, the characters are all really neat. Spoilers for this 3 decade old book, I guess, but the whole mt. Olympus end was so out of left field, but was randomly one of the more enjoyable depictions of the Greek/Roman pantheon. I take off .25 from an original 4 star rating as the book lacks even an ounce of subtlety, and at a certain point it became ludicrous. Characters were constantly turning to the audience and saying the themes of the book, this would be maddening of the themes about love were less interesting. A highlight was the lovely rich prose.
August 19, 2019
Fun premise with lots of ensuing small town drama written with an interesting voice, but with some questionable points of view and an ending that went completely off the rails for no reason.
One flaw of this book is that characters continually monologue about their philosophy, as if the author wanted to fit in more life lessons than made sense in the story. This was grating even when I agreed with what was being preached, but for every good point there was also some nonsense. I’m not sure whether it’s due to the author or just the time the book was written, but the way some issues were handled was awkward at best. Some examples are that racism was addressed but not well and the black character seemed kind of tokeny (my opinion here isn’t super important since I’m white but it felt weird to me), and also this book pushed the ridiculous idea that everyone is really bisexual and being completely gay or straight (or also being monogamous) is wrong because it’s just limiting yourself. Possibly the worst and definitely the most baffling problem is a statement made very near the end of the book that said the purpose of gay people is to serve heterosexuals. Seriously. This is said by a character who is presented as good and wise and the statement is not challenged by any other characters when it is said - it is accepted as logical and true. I was absolutely dumbfounded and if this had occurred anywhere earlier than the last few pages of the book I wouldn’t have finished it.
I’m leaving two stars because I did find entertainment in this book but it had some glaring flaws throughout and then the last few chapters departed from the rest of the story and frankly were just stupid. This book had potential and got me excited but it didn’t live up to it.
One flaw of this book is that characters continually monologue about their philosophy, as if the author wanted to fit in more life lessons than made sense in the story. This was grating even when I agreed with what was being preached, but for every good point there was also some nonsense. I’m not sure whether it’s due to the author or just the time the book was written, but the way some issues were handled was awkward at best. Some examples are that racism was addressed but not well and the black character seemed kind of tokeny (my opinion here isn’t super important since I’m white but it felt weird to me), and also this book pushed the ridiculous idea that everyone is really bisexual and being completely gay or straight (or also being monogamous) is wrong because it’s just limiting yourself. Possibly the worst and definitely the most baffling problem is a statement made very near the end of the book that said the purpose of gay people is to serve heterosexuals. Seriously. This is said by a character who is presented as good and wise and the statement is not challenged by any other characters when it is said - it is accepted as logical and true. I was absolutely dumbfounded and if this had occurred anywhere earlier than the last few pages of the book I wouldn’t have finished it.
I’m leaving two stars because I did find entertainment in this book but it had some glaring flaws throughout and then the last few chapters departed from the rest of the story and frankly were just stupid. This book had potential and got me excited but it didn’t live up to it.
July 5, 2023
hoe kan een boek gaan van ‘ik schrijf dat ik gay ben omdat ik denk dat ik dood ga’ naar ‘ik sex met venus en mercury’ en dat laatste gebeurde opeens uit het niets in de laatste 50 pagina’s😭😭 wel een slay boek vond het wel leuk om te lezen maar het was gewoon beetje crazy
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 9, 2025
This is in my very small collection of books I really did not enjoy at all. It starts of not spectacular or so, but well, not horrible. Middle part: downhill. Last share of the book: what in the name of the whole Greek mythology is going on here. Nope.
August 5, 2012
This book is bad. I don't know what else to tell you. Venus Envy starts off so boring that you want to quit reading. GOOD NEWS IS that if you stick it out long enough to actually care about the characters, Rita Mae Brown punishes you by completely abandoning those characters and babbling about Greek mythology for ten chapters until the book ends. OK, that was actually bad news. I apologize.
I understood that this book is trying to tell you to be honest with people about who you are and what you believe. You shouldn't be afraid of what other people think, blahblahblah. But as soon as the main character embraces this idea and executes the whole "be yourself" thing, she seems like a total bitch and a lot more unhappy than she was before. Mixed signals much? I just didn't get it, and I don't think you will either. Not because I'm doubting your intelligence, but because I think the book was very poorly written. Just don't bother with Venus Envy. Try a book that actually makes sense.
I understood that this book is trying to tell you to be honest with people about who you are and what you believe. You shouldn't be afraid of what other people think, blahblahblah. But as soon as the main character embraces this idea and executes the whole "be yourself" thing, she seems like a total bitch and a lot more unhappy than she was before. Mixed signals much? I just didn't get it, and I don't think you will either. Not because I'm doubting your intelligence, but because I think the book was very poorly written. Just don't bother with Venus Envy. Try a book that actually makes sense.
June 22, 2017
This book starts out very funny & engaging. The setting gives an amusing peek into the subculture of the moneyed classes in the racist & homophobic southern US. Nearly every character is a stranger to her or his own self, living out a societally proscribed façade of a life. Our heroine, after a brush with death, overturns the anthill of her repressed life & family, with hilarious results. Then around the middle, the somewhat heavy-handed but bearable polemic begins. It’s been over a decade since I read a Rita Mae Brown book so it’s possible that my taste for her style has diminished, but I feel like ‘Rubyfruit Jungle’ & the Sneaky Pie books were more entertaining. I especially wondered why all the most unsympathetic, heteronormative-gender-socialization-promoting characters were women. A dash of magical realism at the end softened my disappointment. Still entertaining enough that I read it in 2 days.
September 30, 2012
A damning look at small-minded people in the South. I really enjoyed most of the book and was very interested in what was going to happen. Brown lost me at the end, though. The last section of the book takes a very strange twist that i couldn't get into. It's like Brown wanted to teach her main character a bunch of lessons and couldn't come up with any other way to do it in her allotted page limit set by a publisher. So she had to come up with a scenario that, to me, seemed like a total diversion from the rest of the book. I kept waiting for her to pick back up with the main story. Unfortunately, she only did that in the last 1/4 page of the book. Argh! Also, most of the book was told from one character's point of view. Brown would occasionally throw in another character's perspective, which always came off to me as incredibly jarring, unexpected, and not at all smooth. Far from Brown's best, most entertaining, or funniest book. But still worth the read, even if the ending was lousy.
June 13, 2024
Kann ich mir nicht antun. Dialoge und Schreibweise sind extrem schlecht.
September 3, 2023
While I definitely love the Mrs. Murphy & the Sister Jane series books best followed by the Runnymede books, I'm not as dedicated to the stand alone books. I do like their straightforward, honest, plain talking on a variety of subjects. Rita Mae has no problem expressing her opinions in the voices of her characters or telling it like it is and like it should be. This book is no exception. Mary Frazier Armstrong, a beautiful Southern woman who has made a success of her art gallery & enjoys the good things in life, is dying. She's in the hospital on morphine to dull the pain, & her family & friends are making what may be their last visits. Her mother, with whom she doesn't get along, blames her (as usual) for stressing out the family; her brother who despises his marriage, overspends, hates his job, & has a mistress is sad to lose his childhood pal & champion; her dad, whom she adores, regrets spending so much time working & so little time with his children; her dearest friend & public "date" says he would've married her (even though he's a closeted gay man) because they'd make an unbeatable team; her business associate, Mandy, a lovely African-American woman, is devastated thinking about her dear friend & boss' loss. After the visits, Frazier is contemplating her life--so short & so dishonest--she feels she hid her true self & true feelings from the world & regrets not being the person she wanted to be. She decides to write a letter to each of her friends & family members & tell them exactly who she is & what she thinks & at least go out honestly; it won't matter because she'll be dead. The next morning, Frazier awakes to find herself still among the living & her doctor apologizing for making a terrible error--his diagnosis was wrong, Mary Frazier doesn't have cancer. She will recover from her severe bronchitis. After the wave of relief passes, she notices the letters she wrote & left on her bedstand are gone. The nurse collected them & sent them to the post office. Frazier is in a panic because, in those letters, she announced to everyone that she is a lesbian & told them exactly what she thinks of them. For loved ones like her father, brother, aunt, & business partner, it's not as bad since she thanked them & expressed her love (along with some opinions & suggestions), but for others like her mother (a stickler for social niceties & proper behavior), the contents will be a bombshell. The remainder of the book deals with the fallout from her admission & the strong opinions regarding treatment of gay people, especially women, along with several other issues. There is a little fantasy sequence at the end of the book when Frazier, after suffering an electric shock, visits Mount Olympus & the gods & goddesses. It was a good book with great characters & much commentary on the issues of the time, many very relevant today. I enjoyed it.
May 14, 2020
This book has an interesting premise. A woman thinks she is about to die and thus writes a letter to each person in her life telling them what she really thinks of them and she comes out as gay. Naturally these get posted but Frazier doesn’t die after all and thus has to live with the consequences of coming out in a town which is rather horrified by her admission. The language of the book is very dated and so are the politics, some parts come across as particularly insensitive to the modern reader but the story itself is quite enjoyable. I do think that the main character being characterised as a lesbian is a misnomer as she admits that she is bisexual and expresses interest in men but equally I don’t want to get into the questioning of a fictional character’s sexuality. She states throughout that she is a lesbian. I do think perhaps it would have been better to have her be gay or have her be bi and thus let her interact with the different responses that entails (especially involving bi erasure etc) rather than flirting with both. Now I come to the final fifty pages. It was the most bizarre ending to a novel I have ever read. 50 pages before the end Frazier goes to Mount Olympus and has a threesome with Venus and Mercury. I’m not kidding. It’s a really jarring end to a conventional novel and it isn’t even supposed to be a dream sequence exactly. I felt like someone had pieced it together from a different book entirely. It tries to be philosophical but with some takes that are... problematic to say the least. So yeah. A strange book. I would have preferred a resolution to the main story rather than such explicit sex scenes with deities.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 10, 2018
Mary Frazier Armstrong thinks she has a terminal cancer, writes letters of goodbye to all her friends and enemies, only to find out that the doctors have made a mistake and that she is going to live after all. Except for the fact that she told her not-so-good friends what she really thought of them, she also came out of the closet as a lesbian.
This is a novel with an unlikeable character, who lives in wealth but never really has to work and who behaves as if the world revolves around her. She'd fit in perfectly in "Sex and the City". Now after the fake cancer diagnosis and the coming out, she becomes even more the center of her own universe, enjoying every minute of it.
And then there's a lot more self-glorification, some lesbian sex and a weird finale in which the gods of the Olympus descend to make love to our heroine, to show her that she is actually bisexual and will enjoy life even more once she fully realizes that.
What is harder to imagine, is a single reason to read this book. I didn't find one.
This is a novel with an unlikeable character, who lives in wealth but never really has to work and who behaves as if the world revolves around her. She'd fit in perfectly in "Sex and the City". Now after the fake cancer diagnosis and the coming out, she becomes even more the center of her own universe, enjoying every minute of it.
And then there's a lot more self-glorification, some lesbian sex and a weird finale in which the gods of the Olympus descend to make love to our heroine, to show her that she is actually bisexual and will enjoy life even more once she fully realizes that.
What is harder to imagine, is a single reason to read this book. I didn't find one.
October 18, 2025
A book that changed how I saw the world — and a person who changed my life.
I first met you on May 22, 1992, and you had a major impact on my life. The question was asked, “Do you believe in reincarnation?” and we looked at each other and both said, “We don’t disbelieve it either.” There was this unmistakable mutual connection — that strange, electric sense of having known you before. I feel lucky to have known you then, and luckier still to know you now.
Venus Envy carries that same spirit — witty, sharp, fearless, and profoundly humane. Rita Mae Brown writes about mortality, truth, and the mess of being human with such clarity that laughter and heartbreak arrive in the same breath. It’s a novel about facing death that somehow teaches you how to live better — honest, irreverent, and deeply alive.
Thirty-plus years later, it still feels like both a conversation and a homecoming.
I first met you on May 22, 1992, and you had a major impact on my life. The question was asked, “Do you believe in reincarnation?” and we looked at each other and both said, “We don’t disbelieve it either.” There was this unmistakable mutual connection — that strange, electric sense of having known you before. I feel lucky to have known you then, and luckier still to know you now.
Venus Envy carries that same spirit — witty, sharp, fearless, and profoundly humane. Rita Mae Brown writes about mortality, truth, and the mess of being human with such clarity that laughter and heartbreak arrive in the same breath. It’s a novel about facing death that somehow teaches you how to live better — honest, irreverent, and deeply alive.
Thirty-plus years later, it still feels like both a conversation and a homecoming.
December 29, 2024
Such a beautiful and clever read!! It felt like an accurate and heartfelt representation of being a queer woman in the south. It was witty and left me with a feeling of deeper insight of the world, which is really what I think a good book should do! A lot of people in these reviews are upset by the politics of this book, but in my opinion as a country lesbian myself it feels truthful of Ms. Brown to have a flawed outlook. When you grow up somewhere devoid of a lot of diversity it's not like being a lesbian suddenly takes away your capacity for biases. Maybe my own situation just makes me very tolerant of people like that, I don't know. And as for the ending, it seemed to be humourous to me. Sort of like Rita Mae Brown giving a nod to absurdism. Maybe I'm just justifying myself for loving this indefinitely imperfect book.
June 27, 2017
It was very interesting to read a book about coming out in the early-mid 90's and think about how fraught that act was, that it was something that could cause you to lose friends, family, your job. Beyond that there was this hesitancy to actually have this main character be gay, and her past relationships, mainly because of the need to hide, were without any real love or emotions, wrapped in a sense of shame. This is the era that I came out in and I remember how shocked and vaguely disgusted a lot of the people who knew me were when they found out that I was gay. Things are so different now, mostly, that it's always important to remember that it's because of writers like Rita Mae Brown that we have the level of acceptance and freedom that we do now.
December 2, 2018
Started off with an interesting setup : a 30-something closeted lesbian is told she is gonna die so she sends letters to the people in her life and when she doesn't die everyone has to deal with the truths she said in those. unfortunately I couldn't find a way to relate to the character(s) : different generations (it was written and set in the 90s) and different social background. Kind of like watching The L Word : entertaining but unrelatable. So I decided to keep reading this book as a testimony if its age : AIDS crisis, criticism of open racism, commentary on the Reagan-Bush administration. But then it turned into a Greek Gods AU fanfiction with terrible terrible porn (honestly hands down the worst smut I've ever read) and I don't know, I'm confused...
January 7, 2021
Zuerst war ich etwas abgeschreckt von der doch ziemlich obszönen Ausdrucksweise in den ersten paar Kapiteln.
Das legte sich jedoch und ich war begeistert von der Beleuchtung jedes Themas, über das die Gesellschaft sich Gedanken macht/machen sollte. Leben und Tod, Liebe, Sexualität, Sexismus, Rassismus. Alles wird auf erfrischend moderne Weise (für das Erscheinungsjahr 1993) behandelt.
Und dann gelangt die Protagonistin plötzlich in den Olymp und vögelt mit jedem greifbaren Gott?!
WTF? Das kam so aus dem nichts. Es war, als ob plötzlich ein ganz anderer Autor schreiben würde. Hat für mich das Buch von 4-5 Sternen auf 2 Sterne runtergestuft.
Das legte sich jedoch und ich war begeistert von der Beleuchtung jedes Themas, über das die Gesellschaft sich Gedanken macht/machen sollte. Leben und Tod, Liebe, Sexualität, Sexismus, Rassismus. Alles wird auf erfrischend moderne Weise (für das Erscheinungsjahr 1993) behandelt.
Und dann gelangt die Protagonistin plötzlich in den Olymp und vögelt mit jedem greifbaren Gott?!
WTF? Das kam so aus dem nichts. Es war, als ob plötzlich ein ganz anderer Autor schreiben würde. Hat für mich das Buch von 4-5 Sternen auf 2 Sterne runtergestuft.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 8, 2021
Re-read it for a book challenge and because I just couldn't remember much of it. Now I remember why. 3 stars may be a bit generous but I liked the characters, the story line and the idea. The first half of the book was really good and I was glad to re-read it. It was actually a novel. Then the second half, maybe a little less, was a philosophy thesis of sorts. Most of which I agreed with (not all) and was ok remembering what life was like and the author's interpretation of interpersonal and social dynamics. But the end...the mythology...was beyond the pale. Hated it. And would have rather seen a little resolution in life, not fantasy.
July 14, 2023
I was SO excited for this book. I even bought it for my friend as well, before I even read it. I had such high hopes. But honestly, this was such a letdown.
The painting is annoying the ever living shit out of me. 2,5 pages describing a painting? End me. The last few chapters? I felt they were so stupid, I just skimmed them. I started appreciating the book a little before that again, but that killed it for me.
Now there were some funny remarks that made me giggle though. And I did feel some attachment to some characters, some that grew on me throughout the book as well. But I don't think it made up for the time I wasted on this book.
The painting is annoying the ever living shit out of me. 2,5 pages describing a painting? End me. The last few chapters? I felt they were so stupid, I just skimmed them. I started appreciating the book a little before that again, but that killed it for me.
Now there were some funny remarks that made me giggle though. And I did feel some attachment to some characters, some that grew on me throughout the book as well. But I don't think it made up for the time I wasted on this book.
September 7, 2020
This was a very enjoyable story to read; Ms. Brown is a superior storyteller, and this is a fine example of her ouvre. I thought that the ending was a bit abrupt, and would have liked to have seen what happened to Frazier AFTER she "returned" from her visit to Olympus (or recovered from her fall; take your pick.) One could argue that a story that leaves me wanting more must be a good one, and that's a fair point. I just didn't have a satisfactory feeling of closure at the end, which is why I've docked it a star. But it's well worth the read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 144 reviews