Satire AnomalyRita Mae Brown has a history of being an activist, a feminist, and a lesbian, attributes of which she inputs a lot into her writing. In Loose Lips, published by Random House Publishing, and written in 1999, Rita Mae Brown chronicles middle age life for two sisters, in small town Maryland. The novel is set in the early forties and continues on into the late fifties. Brown conveys, satirically, through Julia (Juts) and Louise (Wheezie), the evolution of women’s roles, as well as life on the home front during WWII. tThe story starts off with disaster for the sisters. Juts makes fun of Wheezie’s approaching forty, and it results in a fight that breaks the window of a local store. In order to make money, and to keep their husbands from having to work extra, the two sisters open up a hair shop. The hair shop becomes quite popular and soon becomes gossip central. Juts and her husband struggle with trying to have a baby, eventually adopting the daughter of a local unwed mother. All the while, Wheezie makes fun of Juts for not being a mother, and then later for not being a “real” mother, “Well, you didn’t’ carry the baby. It’s different when they grow inside you” (Brown 254). Wheezie plays the typical housewife of her time period, religious, stern, and demanding. Juts is the more playful one, who is okay with bending the rules. Juts experience a mini crisis of sorts when she catches her husband cheating one night, while she and Louise are on “guard duty” watching for enemy planes (Brown 234). Juts is only able to snap out of it when she adopts the baby, of an unwed runaway mother that used to live in town. Her husband, Chester, really steps up to the plate as a father as well, and is able to reignite the bond between husband and wife. Meanwhile, the reader gets to watch how a small town deals with World War II when sending off their boys to war. The town also forms a group of people to help the war from town, by preparing for emergencies and watching out for enemy planes. Nickel, Juts’s daughter, takes after her by being unafraid to step over the lines that define her gender, much to the chagrin of Wheezie. Brown’s novel shows how women’s roles change over the course of World War II and even through Nickel, sets the course for the sixties as well. Brown provides her own answer to English and Enrenreich “Woman Question”, of which what are women’s roles as society changes? (7).Wheezie would dictate the role as home maker, wife, and mother primarily. However, she is forced to step out of this role because of the damage to the store’s window that she and Juts have to pay for. Juts allows for a little variation than Wheezie because she’s a little more open minded, her role being more flexible however similar. Nickel is really when the reader sees a change in not only Juts’s point of view role wise, but Chester’s viewpoint becomes clear. They both desire to see Nickel happy, and that includes appeasing her unconventional tastes of wearing pants and doing “boy” things, like racing in the derby. Nickel causes Juts to question a why women are inhibited so much in “male things”. Chester is completely open to allowing his daughter to pursue her happiness in any shape or fashion, for him, a woman’s role has not set standard. With Juts being tolerant of Nickel’s behavior, Wheezie herself becomes more intolerable and inflexible with what women are supposed to and how they are supposed to act, her own daughters the model to be measured by.Brown delivers Juts and Wheezie’s growth quite hilariously while being satirical throughout the entire novel. Juts and Wheezie are the main characters and over exaggerated, and who are always fighting over little things, never mind the huge things that are happening all around them. The ability with which Brown is able to deliver the humor, while having serious undertones is adept, providing many laugh out loud moments. The sister dynamic only enhances the humor, while the whole town is privy to the inside of their lives. Brown utilizes heavy symbolism throughout the novel to show the impact of war on a community as well as comic relief through the sisters. Brown also uses repetition, and a bit of irony with the phrase “loose lips”, a play on the idea that one might accidentally give the enemy information just by talking nonchalantly. It’s no small thing that Brown also chooses this as the title. Juts and Wheezie are oblivious to the world around them and use the idiom quite frequently to dissuade each other from telling their secrets.Brown cleverly pokes fun at traditional roles, and small town communities by using Julia and Louise as the main source of ideology. Louise is horribly pious and almost cruel to Julia for her inability to be a mother, or for not having a child by blood. Julia responds childishly in the only way she knows how, by making fun of Louise’s impending age. Neither of the women seemed focused on the war, but are instead stuck in the small town obsession of gossip. The book seems to be a lesson on the never-ending circle that can consume life if one becomes too stuck on gossip, “loose lips sink ships”.
I was really disappointed in this book, as Six of One and Bingo are both among my very favorite books. This felt like a half-hearted attempt at adding to a very successful duo of books with resoundingly terrible results. The writing style was not nearly up to par (sadly, I personally feel that Ms. Brown's writing has headed South of late), and there were glaring inconsistencies in the plot and simple details, such as Nickel's middle name(!?!). Why change such basic and mostly meaningless details after they have been established in earlier works? It made me think that this book was very hastily written and published as an attempt to win back readers who loved Six of One and Bingo along with many of her earlier works (fans such as myself), but (again, like myself) have a hard time with the all too cutesy series she is now "co-authoring" with her cat. It makes me sad... many of Ms. Brown's books had a fairly strong impact on me, despite the fact that she tends to write about the same (albeit differently named) main characters who are clearly not-so-thinly-veiled versions of the author herself. That, I can get past, and even enjoy. The inconsistencies in this book, I cannot. I truly finished this book wondering why she bothered.
What do You think about Loose Lips (2000)?
This is allegedly one of the Six of One books, being a more detailed account of Juts, Wheezie, Nickel, etc. during the 1940s & 1950s/ However, it has several weaknesses. The primary one is that the quality of writing has deteriorated markedly since Six of One. The narrative is full of cliches and descriptions of weather, cars, and fashions obviously gathered from old newspapers. The conversation is forced and not consistent with the natural style and humor in Six of One. The plot devices are not consistent with character development, and the time table doesn't match either. It felt a lot like Ms. Brown forgot to reread Six of One before writing Loose Lips to check for "who" and "when" details.Further, Ms. Brown obviously has no new ideas and has had to fall back on trying to elaborate on something she already wrote, thus capitalizing (or trying to) on previous success - much like her attempts to capitalize on Lillian Jackson Brain's success by trying to write "cat mysteries." Ms. Brown has sold out, on herself and on those of us who used to think that she had an original mind.
—Deena
I read this book for a book group and, having never read the other books in the trilogy, was unfamiliar with any of the backstories for the characters. Perhaps this explains why after the first 40 or 50 pages I was ready to put the book down and just skip the book group meeting. I was utterly bored by the antics of the sisters, the two main characters, in the beginning of the book.Lucky for me, the story eventually expanded to include all of the goings-on and other people in the sisters' lives and those things were fairly interesting. I mean, teen pregnancy, infidelity, and motherhood are fascinating topics, no? And surprisingly, after the trite, uninteresting opening, Brown provides some good insights into said topics. Still, I'll never read the book again, won't backtrack to the other books in the trilogy, and can't honestly recommend this book to anyone else.
—Dannielle
I usually love Rita Mae Brown's books. I plowed through this one as I am almost incapable of not finishing a book even if I am not enjoying it. Its set in small town America during the ten yrs or so from Pearl Harbor to early 50s. Its not really a homefront novel, or a war time novel. Its the story of a couple of sisters and their lives, loves and going on in the town. I think what really frustrated me was the number of discussions of being a mother and if you adopted where you a real Mother. Over and over with the two sisters quarreling. In the end I think I know what Brown thinks but then again maybe I don't. And the ridiculous fights, food fights, fights in local stores and in church...silly especially when it was 2 grown women.On the plus side there is Brown's usual adept dialogue and entertaining animals.
—Mascanlon
