Novel: Six of One

Overview
Six of One is a richly comic and warmly observant novel set in the fictional town of Runnymede, Virginia. The narrative unfolds like a social tapestry, tracing the lives and entanglements of several families across generations. Humor and sharp social observation sit side by side with tender scenes of friendship and love, producing a portrait of small-town America that is both affectionate and unsparing.
The novel balances episodic anecdotes with longer, interweaving storylines, moving easily between the public rhythms of elections, gossip and civic rivalry and the private dramas of romance, grief and ambition. The result is an ensemble piece in which community life, its loyalties, hypocrisies and resilience, becomes the central character.

Structure and Plot
Rather than following a single linear plot, Six of One unfolds through a series of interlinked episodes that illuminate the past and present of Runnymede. Generational conflicts and alliances recur: family histories inform present quarrels, old loves cast long shadows, and political skirmishes inflame personal grudges. These recurring motifs create a sense of continuity and change, as characters reinterpret older events and navigate shifting social expectations.
The novel pivots between lighter comic set pieces, witty one-upmanship at town gatherings, mouthy debates over local elections, and quieter, more poignant moments of intimacy and reckoning. The connected vignettes allow the town to feel lived-in and layered, with recurring details and relationships deepening the reader's sense of the place and its people.

Characters and Relationships
At the heart of the book are the women of Runnymede, who drive much of the action and provide its moral and emotional core. Friendships, rivalries and romances among women receive sustained attention, revealing how bonds of affection sustain people through scandal, loss and change. Men appear in a variety of comic and serious roles, but the emotional energy of the novel frequently emanates from the female characters' conversation, counsel and scheming.
Intergenerational ties, mothers and daughters, siblings, long-standing neighbors, shape motivations and add depth to personal histories. The ensemble cast is vivid and distinct enough that the town feels populated by characters with particular voices and private codes, and the narrative lingers on their interior lives long enough to make their choices and compromises feel real.

Themes and Tone
Six of One interrogates the contradictions of small-town life: its caring communal instincts alongside its propensity for gossip and exclusion. The novel is unafraid to satirize local pretensions and political theater, but its satire is tempered by genuine affection for the people who live there. Issues of gender, social propriety and personal freedom recur, often explored through wry dialogue and situational comedy rather than heavy-handed exposition.
Tone shifts deftly between ribald humor and gentle melancholy. Moments of comic mischief, furious debates, social one-upmanship, farcical complications, are balanced by scenes of moral seriousness: reckonings over past wrongs, quiet reckonings with aging, and the hard work of sustaining relationships. This tonal range gives the novel emotional ballast and keeps the satire humane rather than corrosive.

Legacy and Appeal
Six of One launched a loose series set in Runnymede and helped establish Rita Mae Brown's reputation for blending wit with social commentary. Readers drawn to character-driven fiction, comic insight into human foibles, and novels that foreground women's networks will find much to enjoy. The book's charm lies less in plot twists than in its ability to render a community convincingly: its disputes, its loyalties, and the small acts of courage people perform to keep one another afloat.