Southern Discomfort

by Rita Mae Brown

Fiction, Novel

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, LGBT, Queer, Southern, Romance, Contemporary

277 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Rita 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."

Reviews

[dianne b.]

Disturbing rather than humorous; if this is the American South, good Lord keep me far north. Flat, predictable characters, who neither change nor grow. Dense racism - you know, all in good fun…there’s even a lynching but we’re never told who he was, only that he “ran rum” - yeah, lots of white guys were lynched in Alabama in 1928. The panoply of stereotypic characters include a crass, manipulative, money grubbing, evil Jew, a bevy of golden-heartened and basically flawless whores in three competing houses on the same street, all gifted with endless mediocre but snappy one-liners, a golden haired, spoiled brat rich kid (who, in contradistinction to the whores, has no redeeming qualities), the “good” Black family (really, "good" Blacks and "bad" Blacks are described). Must go on…throw in some nauseating incest that didn’t have to occur, but was allowed - and you’ve got just a few of the reasons this book should be avoided.

So it’s 1918 for the first 100 or so pages. Now, you think, why do I remember that year? Right, the 1918 Flu that killed between 50 and 100 million people, usually in the prime of life (20-40 years old). Did that warrant a mention? Nosirreee. This despite Alabama having had so many deaths and cases that they were considered “too numerous to count”. Including that unavoidable history might have helped the plot move along. There was no compelling story to keep one wanting to move forward - everything that happened was completely predictable. Many small plot lines. It rather resembled a sh*tty Scheherazade; instead of a compelling ending, she kept Shahryar wanting with absolutely nothing - he thirsts for a real story. He promises not to behead her if she can find something, anything, to intrigue him by tomorrow.

I think Rita Mae wishes she could create a place with vibrant, hilarious and unpredictable characters - like Louis de Bernières’ Cochadebajo. Alas, Montgomery and Cochadebajo are as far apart as the Andes are from Alabama.

[Dharma]

I remember I LOVED this book. Someday I may reread and see what I think decades later.

[Denise]

Forget the talking animals. Those are delightful, but I think this is Rita Mae Brown's best work. She deals with every conceivable social wedge between people and arrives at the end with compassion and redemption. Read this and all the others set in this era.

[Freyja Vanadis]

I liked this book okay, except for two things. I took one star off because all her characters are the same from book to book, i.e. they're all hilariously witty, and they all resort to physical violence when angry or perturbed. The other thing I took the second star off for was the scene of incest between Hortensia and her son Paris. I was absolutely appalled at the cavalier way she treated such a terrible subject, especially when Hortensia does some soul-searching about it later and comes to the conclusion that it's just "making love", and making love is making love. Really, Rita Mae? You consider forcible incest to be "making love"? You have some pretty strange ideas there, lady. There's nothing loving about it. At best, it's just sex. At worst, you should be horsewhipped.

[Harry Kloss]

Brown tells us about Montgomery, Alabama in the early 20th century from the perspective of the apex of society and the nadir and what happens when the two come in contact. Interesting characters, fascinating situations, this is a laugh out loud read.

[Toni Wheeler]

I love this book; it's one of the few books that stay in my permanent collection for multiple readings.

[Beth James]

Great on the character development; heavy, although not unduly graphic, on the sexual content from secretive interracial underage, bisexuality, Oedipus complex, incest, & gender confusion, as well as which secondary characters regularly visited the whorehouse. There were only two couples who had committed long term exclusive relationships. The characters were developed well enough that I cared to find out what happened to them, but for me personally, the sexual extremes were a little much to all be in one story.

[Carrie Scott]

For the most part this was fun and engaging. Brown does a great job of giving life and depth to a number of characters in Montgomery, Alabama, starting in 1918 and jumping ahead to 1928. Brown uses some great turns of phrase and has some very funny lines. Several of the major plot points were big time head scratchers that seemed very out of place, but aside from that I enjoyed it!

[Jaclyn]

Well.....it maybe badly written but I can’t say it’s boring

[Joc]

+++

I read this ages ago and decided to re-read it. The final reveal was shocking back then. Times have changed but I enjoyed Southern Discomfort.

The "rules" in 1918 for southern people especially woman are not surprising but still shows the class and race discrimination.

The characters are uniquely interesting.

I only gave three stars because I took a long time to read it. Most of it is not suspenseful so it is not the kind of book I would devour in a day. It is worth the read however.

[Angela]

Revoke my dyke card, I just can't get into Rita Mae Brown no matter how hard I try. (This goes for both her lesbian-themed books and her mysteries.) It's all just too cloyingly sentimental. Her writing immerses the reader in the Deep South, but not in an intriguing way; more like having your head dunked in a bucket.

[Becky]

One of my top 10. I read this book years ago. I was going through a depressing divorce and this book actually made me laugh out loud.

[Dixie]

It's Rita Mae Brown - always fun, easy read about crazy southerners. I can identify :-)

[April M Morin]

I don't give away spoilers in my reviews.
A friend recommended this book to me after I read Ms. Brown's Sudden Death book. I loved both books. My friend is not a reader but said Rita Mae Brown writes like she and her friends talk.
I loved all the characters in this book as well as the twists and turns.

[Maida]

I love books based in this era as much as reading about Southern characters. Brown's writing style just does not impress me as much as Southern books by Michael Lee West (Crazy Ladies, She Flew the Coop) whose books I have loved.

[meg thomas]

This is like reading an entire season of Days of our Lives. It’s well-written, but there are so many characters and side plots that it makes it difficult to follow. There is also a pretty intense incest scene that made me physically nauseous.

[Beta]

Ein spontaner Glückgriff aus einem Bücherverschenkregal. Richtig gut und klug mit genug politischen Fragwürdigkeiten (nach heutigen Maßstäben), um zu bemerken, was das für ein alter Schinken ist.

[Ed]

I cared more about the characters than I thought I would

[Christine Stoll]

Recommended by Susan Duncan

[Lauren]

*3.5 stars

[Maria Fledgling Author Park]

Second only to Rubyfruit Jungle in excellence.

[Sharon]

Read 1988

[Lara]

I liked everything except the incest

[Lezley]

Recommended by Dennis

[Hillevi]

extremt explicit på ett frigörande sätt men det gör också att den ligger på den där väldigt spännande gränsen mellan skräplitteratur och vad som i stort betraktas som "riktig" litteratur. inte nödvändigtvis så välskriven men väldigt rolig och läsvärd.

om jag hade möjligheten skulle jag sätta southern discomfort i händerna på en högstadieklass. jag är ganska säker på att alla skulle vara eniga i de ras- och klassfrågor tas upp, men jag är osäker på hur samstämmiga de skulle vara i köns- och sexualfrågorna.

[Monica]

I love Rita Mae Brown, she is my favorite author. I've read a number of her books and I have never been disappointed.

Rita Mae creates the BEST characters. And in this book, I think she has too many of them. There are at least 3 separate stories in this book, any and all of which could have a complete novel dedicated to their stories. And I think the stories would have been better told. The novel was scattered, and I'm left wanted to know more....the ending seemed too pat.

[Lorik]

Rita Mae Brown does a beautiful job in relating the characters to the readers in a personal manner. We as readers are able to understand what these characters are going through in their different standards of living. The restrictions the poor, the rich, and different races deal with. The play with words Brown does in this book, will have you go back and read it again and again. Bravo!!!

[Leigh]

I had to read this book for a literature class and honestly didn't expect to like it even a little bit. Other than the absolutely outrageous character names the book was enjoyable. A little cringe worthy in some sections it was a decent story. Doubt I'll read anything else by Rita Mae Brown, but it was nice to branch out a bit.

[Rachel]

Well-written, but one of the creepiest, most depressing books I've ever read. Honestly I wish I hadn't read it because it was so disturbing. I think it could make a good movie though - I can imagine Charlize Theron and Taye Diggs playing the lead characters.

[Dawn]

If you want great characters, read Rita Mae Brown's novels. I love her books, I laugh out loud not matter how many times I reread them. The characters just come alive and dance around my imagination.