Alma Mater

October 1, 2001
Popular and prolific Brown (Rubyfruit Jungle, etc.) lavishes her attention—and breathless prose—on another lesbian coming-of-age tale set in Southern belle territory. Victoria "Vic" Savedge is a gorgeous 22-year-old senior at the College of William and Mary in present-day Virginia. Her parents, Frank and R.J., little sister Mignon and best friend Jinx Baptista all expect Vic to marry her rich football star boyfriend Charly Harrison after graduation. However, in the opening scene, Vic meets Chris Carter, a female transfer student to whom she is increasingly attracted. Their flirtatious behavior deflates any suspense Brown may have hoped to create; it's clear Vic's commitment to Charly is shaky. As she unconvincingly struggles to choose between lovers, Vic ponders with Jinx the roles fate, honor and individual responsibility play in life. During weekend visits to her ancestral home, Surry Crossing, Va., Vic is entertained by the smalltown antics of her womanizing Uncle Don and sex-deprived Aunt Bunny, and the Wallaces, neighboring middle-aged sisters who pathetically vie for their elderly father's favor. Brown's tendency to tell rather than show ("Raised in a judgmental family, Chris had survived by nourishing her sense of rebellion. She didn't know what she was looking for until she met Vic") and filler dialogue ("Sit down. It's my turn to give you a Coke" and "Mother, do you want a refill?" "No, thank you. But you may clean the ashtray") wear on the reader, and the one-dimensional characters and soap opera story line provide little relief. Brown's good-natured humor and exuberant treatment of her themes may satisfy her fans, but she's unlikely to pick up new readers this time around. 8-city author tour.

July 1, 2001
Gorgeous Victoria is expected to marry her football hero boyfriend, but this being a novel by the author of the juicy Rubyfruit Jungle, there's inevitably a twist. Vic falls for a new woman on campus named Chris and must learn how to juggle her various loves.

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2001
Brown returns to her roots in a novel reminiscent of her early successes, " Rubyfruit Jungle" (1973) and " Six of One" (1978). " Alma Mater" is rife with daft southern sensibility from the moment William and Mary college senior Vic greets her new neighbor and fellow coed Chris, a northerner. Vic brings Chris home for a relaxing weekend, and soon Sissy Wallace screeches up to confer with Vic's lawyer dad because she has just shot her "Poppy." Why? He prefers daughter Georgia, who tried to kill him by dropping a bale of shingles on him from the roof, to her, and has accordingly changed his will, even though Sissy fired a warning shot over his head. Since this is just another incident in the "recurring cycles of violence" in Sissy's family, Vic's mom, R. J. ("Orgy"), casually mixes doubles for everyone, as Poppy and Georgia roar up the driveway in pursuit of Sissy. Never a dull moment, R. J. remarks--happily, since she loves to entertain. Never dull, indeed, as Vic and Chris develop a passion (aside from the three-way with Vic's fiance) that is sure to disrupt a world of southern gentility in which a woman fellating a high-school boy may or may not be statutory rape but, Georgia assures us, is certainly bad manners.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)