Help, Flist. - Book rec.

[pprfaith]

Sorry to spam you guys today, but I need a book rec from you.

It has to be a novel by an American women's writer, preferably something published in the eighties or roundabout there, so it matches Oranges are not the only Fruit, which is what I picked for the British equivalent

Comments

[eumelia]

Well, the famous equivalent is "Ruby Fruit Jungle" by Rita Mae Brown, but it was published in the late 70's.

Sarah Schulman wrote "After Delores" in 1988 and "People in Trouble" in 1990, these aren't "coming of age" stories like "Oranges", but they are lesbian fiction and pretty gritty too.

[pprfaith]

Oh, I'll look those up. Ruby Fruit Jungle sounds like it may be what I'm looking for and a few years plus/minus won't hurt. Thank you!

And as for The Color Purple, god, I cried for hours after the movie. Probably not the best book to pick for a scientific discussion. :)

Question

[anonymous]

What themes/experiences etc in Oranges... Do you want it to be similar too?
~spirare

Re: Question

[pprfaith]

Oranges is a lesbian coming of age story. I highly recommend it, btw. It's surprisingly poetic and ends abruptly, just like I love my books. :)

And now, they theme doesn't need to be similar. It should have a feminist theme, but that's pretty much my only requirement, aside from nationality. The criteria for the literature list I need to put together are ridiculous, truly.

[eumelia]

Oh! There's "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker, which was published in the early 80's. But it's a historical-ish novel, not contemporary like the recs above.

[kageno_tenshi]

... Sorry, I'm a lurker, just wanted to mention one of my favorite books, since you were asking for suggestions

[pprfaith]

Thank you so much, I'll look into it, even if I probably won't pick is for my exam. I love a good book rec!

[open_summer]

Try the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. It's a coming of age like Oranges are not the only fruit dealing with indentity issues. It's a bit outside the time period you were asking for (published in '63) but in the US it's required reading for most womens literature classes.

[paregmenon]

The Bell Jar is such a good book. I love it.

[pprfaith]

I don't know how I could forget about the Bell Jar. I guess it's to do with how I tend to file Plath under poetry and that's that.

But, oh, yes. I'll definitely take that one, and forget the twenty years of difference in publishing.

[pprfaith]

I automatically file Plath away under poetry, so I never would have thought of the Bell Jar.

Thank you so much!