Loose Lips

By Rita Mae Brown

Book Overview

If you crossed Mitford, North Carolina, with Peyton Place, you might come up with Runnymede, Maryland, the most beguiling of Southern towns. In Loose Lips , Rita Mae Brown revisits Runnymede and the beloved characters introduced in Six of One and Bingo , serving up an exuberant portrayal of small-town sins and Southern mores, set against a backdrop of homefront life during World War II. "I'm afraid life is passing me by," Louise told her sister. "No, it's not," Juts said. "Life can't pass us by. We are life." In the picturesque town of Runnymede, everyone knows everyone else's business, and the madcap antics of the battling Hunsenmeir sisters, Julia (Juts) and Louise, have kept the whole town agog ever since they were children. Now, in the fateful year of 1941, with America headed for war, the sisters are inching toward forty...and Juts is unwise enough to mention that unspeakable reality to her sister. The result is a huge brawl that litters Cadwalder's soda fountain with four hundred dollars' worth of broken glass. To pay the debt, the sisters choose a surprisingly new direction. Suddenly they are joint owners of The Curl 'n' Twirl beauty salon, where discriminating ladies meet to be primped, permed, and pampered while dishing the town's latest dirt. As Juts and Louise become Runnymede's most unlikely new career women, each faces her share of obstacles. Restless Juts can't shake her longing for a baby, while holier-than-thou Louise is fit to be tied over her teenage daughter's headlong rush toward scandal. As usual, the sisters rarely see eye to eye, and there are plenty of opinions to go around. Even the common bond of patriotic duty brings wildly unexpected results when the twosome joins the Civil Air Patrol, watching the night sky for German Stukas. But loose lips can sink even the closest relationships, and Juts and Louise are about to discover that some things are best left unsaid. Spanning a decade in the lives of Louise, Juts, and their nearest and dearest, including the incomparable Celeste Chalfonte, Loose Lips is an unforgettable tale of love and loss and the way life can always throw you a curveball. By turns poignant and hilarious, it is deepened by Rita Mae Brown's unerring insight into the human heart.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553380672
• ISBN13: 9780553380675
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Can I move to Runnymeade?

Ahh, small town life! Stradling the Mason-Dixon line, Runnymeade makes it's own rules which suits the main characters perfectly. Lots of colorful characters involved in love, hate, gossip, and typical everyday life. The pages fly by as you get to know everyone and what makes them tick. I love Ms. Brown's style; lots of details that make you want to know "then what happens?", but without being boring or slow moving. I love all three books on those crazy sisters, Juts and Louise! Actually, I think they'd make an awesome tv series or movie, but sometimes things are better left to the imagination. If you haven't had the pleasure of reading Six Of One or Bingo, please do so immediately!

Laugh out Loud !

Another Rita Mae masterpiece. Jutz & Wheezie once again square off with dynamic and often hysterically funny exchanges. The touching part is that their love for one another always shines through. Cora continues with her compelling wisdom, Ramelle with her gentleness and charm. A must read if you enjoyed Six of One and Bingo.

Brown at her witty best.

Loose Lips was a pleasure to read, and Brown just gets better with age. Her incredible ear for dialogue always thrills me, and here she reaches new heights with Louise and Julia's zingy repartee. Unfortunately Brown focuses so much on how her characters talk that she fails to create vivid pictures of how they look. I used to think this was a purposeful technique in her Mrs. Murphy mysteries (since who would expect a cat to pay attention to people's looks), but I found the same situation in Loose Lips: in my mind her characters tend to be witty, fast-talking amorphous blobs. Brown's characters also unabashedly face the realities of raising children, the honest truth that there probably is not a mother alive who, as Louise so cleverly puts it, hasn't thought at some desperate or frazzled time in her life of making her child an angel, i.e., dispatching her to heaven. WARNING: If descriptions of horrendous child-rearing offend you, this is probably a book better left unread. Juts' verbal and physical abuse of Nickel (including burning her with her cigarette), while entirely in character, is just plain frightening, and makes the latter, post-adoption portion of the book much less enjoyable than the beginning.

A Book Every Person with Sisters Should Read & Enjoy!

This was a hoot. Just like that Mason-Dixon Line, sometimes sisters are on opposites sides of the street; but they are united when things go bad. I cried as much as I laughed with Juts and Wheezie.

This is Rita Mae Brown at her best

Loose Lips is the continuing story of Juts and Wheezie, two sisters from the Maryland side of the Mason-Dixon line. It is the third book Ms Brown has given us (Six of One and Bingo are the first two)about these battling hilarious sisters. This book chronicles their World War II adventures-they put the town in panic after they set off the air raid siren when a flock of geese fly overhead and the trip to get Juts adopted child that Wheezie took in a snowstorm. It is warm and wonderful and I wished it never ended--I'm hoping for a fourth installment in the lives of Juts and Wheezie. Read it and enjoy.