Loose Lips - Hardcover

Brown, Rita Mae

3.82

874 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0553099728 ISBN 13: 9780553099720

Publisher: Bantam, 1999

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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.

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Review:

In Bingo and Six of One, Rita Mae Brown made a name for herself--and the unforgettable Hunsenmeir sisters--with her talented depictions of early 1940s life in a small southern town. Now, in Loose Lips, we follow the continuously strained relationship of the outrageous siblings, Julia (Juts) and Louise (Wheezie).

Juts and Wheezie can't pass up a chance to push each other's buttons, and their joint ownership of a beauty salon in this latest installment creates many opportunities to do so. As Wheezie faces her 40th birthday with grim denial, Juts considers motherhood, and the rest of the town braces for their inevitable clashes.

Brown's snappy dialogue and artful situations skillfully communicate the surprising complexity of small town life and sibling relationships. Between the moments of straight comedy (a panicked confusion between bombers and geese makes a great running joke), the meatier issues of adoption, fidelity, piety, and, most importantly, loyalty, are considered, making Loose Lips both a hilarious and heartfelt read. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien

From the Back Cover:

"Juts, Wheezie, and the rest of Runnymede pour an intensity into life we should all aspire to."
--Chicago Sun-Times review of Bingo

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