The Sweet Potato Queens' First Big Ass Novel: Stuff We Didn't Do, but Could Have, and May Yet
Jill Conner Browne with Karin Gillespie, 2007
Simon & Schuster
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780743278348
Summary
How much more? The #1 New York Times bestselling author of five works of nonfiction now serves up The Sweet Potato Queens' First Big-Ass Novel: Stuff We Didn't Actually Do, but Could Have, and May Yet. The humor in this uproarious coming-of-queen novel is more delicious than a favorite dessert (the Queens favor Chocolate Stuff™, of course).
In Jackson, Mississippi, Mary Bennett, Patsy, Gerald, and Jill are high school classmates whose daily routine is paced like a shuffle through the local red dirt—until the arrival of a redheaded newcomer banishes monotony forever. With her luxurious mane and voluptuous figure, Tammy Myers aspires to join the silver-spooners, who make things happen in their lives. When Jill convinces Tammy and the others that money might buy a certain kind of good time and that true friendship has no price tag, the "Sweet Potato Queens" are born. "If it ain't fun, we ain't doin' it," runs their official club motto, and the Queens are true to their word.
Together, the Queens laugh out loud as they step down the long—and not altogether pretty—road toward making their very own queen dust, the sparkle that comes from livin' and lovin' their own lives. The Sweet Potato Queens' First Big-Ass Novel: Stuff We Didn't Actually Do, but Could Have, and May Yet reveals that the journey isn't always easy, but in the company of the Queens, you can sparkle, too. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1953
• Where—Tupelo, Mississippi, USA
• Education—N/A
• Currently—lives in Jackson, Mississippi
Those without a sense of humor need not read any further.
Now that that's out of the way, welcome to the world of Jill Conner Browne, self-proclaimed "Sweet Potato Queen" and internationally-proclaimed fabulously funny writer of romantic advice, tantalizingly tasty recipes, and—now, for the first time —rip-roaring fiction!
While Browne is no doubt the queen-bee of the Sweet Potato set, apparently there are factions of other such queens all across the nation. You may even have one in your very own neighborhood; they can always be recognized by their flashy sunglasses, even flashier red fright wigs, their sly pseudonyms of "Tammy" (which they acquire to protect their identities'), and the chilly margaritas inevitably clenched in their hands. The illustrious Sweet Potato Queens have all loved and lost, maybe they're approaching middle-age, and they certainly enjoy a bawdy tale as much as a frosty beverage. As their ranks continue to grow, Jill Conner Browne's popularity and success does, as well—which is quite an improvement over her less than ideal beginnings.
About fifteen years ago, Browne was awash in financial troubles, twice divorced, and responsible for a little girl and a sickly mother. To combat her less-than-glamorous life, she and a clutch of friends took on the absurdly glamorous personas of the Sweet Potato Queens, parading around the streets of Mississippi in a sweet potato farm truck, dolled up in outrageous tiaras and feather boas. Soon enough the Sweet Potato Queens became something of a local phenomenon, which Browne parlayed into hilariously in-your-face columns about love, life, family, and men.
The publication of her very first book The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love followed. The volume was an all-out explosion of ribald, good-natured advice (ex: "The True Magic Words Guaranteed to Get Any Man to Do Your Bidding") and, of course, a smashing recipe for the perfect margarita. With the massive success of Browne's first book, her life suddenly took a turn for the better and she became one of the hottest writers going. Her uproarious sequel God Save the Sweet Potato Queens solidified Browne's status as a role model for other women looking to break out of their shells. The book offered up more advice ("Dating for the advanced, or advancing"; "The joys of marriage—if you must"), as well as more lip-smacking recipes.
Such recipes were the chief focus of The Sweet Potato Queens' Big-Ass Cookbook (and Financial Planner) , a carefree compendium of secret recipes ("The Gooiest Cake in the World"; "Bitch Bar Bacon Swimps") and some tongue-in-cheek financial advice ("Hope that Daddy lives forever").
By now, the Sweet Potato Queens had grown into a veritable nationwide army, eager to devour new titles like The Sweet Potato Queens' Field Guide to Men and The Sweet Potato Queens' Wedding Planner/Divorce Guide. With The Sweet Potato Queens' First Big-Ass Novel, Browne's first foray into fiction, the origin of the Queens is finally (and fictionally) revealed.
Extras
• Now that Browne has introduced the world to the Sweet Potato Queens via her hilarious books, she is continuing to spread the word in person. She regularly does public appearance tours in which she speaks "about all things Queenly."
• Browne is not the only writer in the Conner clan. Her sister Judy is the author of the similarly humorous Southern Fried Divorce. (From Barnes & Noble.)
Book Reviews
After five nonfiction bestsellers, Browne leaps into fiction (with assistance by Bottom Dollar Girls creator Karin Gillespie) and delivers a GEN-U-WINE page-turner of a novel. Fans won't be surprised that Browne's combination of bawdy humor and self-empowerment affirmations easily translates in novel form. An unexpected delight is how deftly Browne creates fully dimensional supporting characters surrounding her first-person narrator, Jill Connor. (In her nonfiction adventures, all the other queens are named Tammy and intentionally blend together.) Beginning in 1968 with five high school misfits thrown together, Browne traces the core members of the Sweet Potato Queens through two decades of weddings, funerals and disastrous relationships. While readers learn the origins of "The Promise" and the motto "Never wear panties to a party," Browne also invents some new lingo (tyrants at work are "bossholes" and men adept in bed "know about the little man in the boat"). Fans of the Queen's artery-choking recipes are in luck; after the final chapter, Browne offers menu items from Rest in Peace, a restaurant the Queens would love to open that would only serve food found at Southern funerals. Browne's hilarious and heartwarming debut sets sturdy groundwork for future fictional follies.
Publishers Weekly
More vignette than novel, this is the tale of a group of Southern gals and a gay guy as they help one another through marriages, divorces, funerals, and other life experiences, served up with plenty of wit in roughly five-year updates. The characters are colorful and likable, but the humor is mostly coarse and overly peppered with profanities. The book seems more an inconsistent retelling of Browne's previous nonfiction material now cast in a fiction mold rather than a tour de force of fresh, new stories. Browne's reading of her work is clear and solid. Also included are some recipes and an interview with the author. Recommended for larger libraries or for adult chick-lit collections
Denise A. Garofalo - Library Journal
Five high-school friends from Jackson, Miss., forge an enduring bond, based on their mutual belief in each other's fabulousness. As an antidote to the snooty clubs that won't have them, offbeat teens Jill, Mary Bennett, Patsy, Tammy and Gerald come together to form the Sweet Potato Queens, founded on the principle "If it ain't fun, we ain't doing it." Sharing humor and outsider status in school, the pals regularly get together to eat lots of pork and to gossip, and each year they dress in red wigs and sequin gowns and attend the St. Patrick's Day parade. The friends remain close long after graduation, despite taking divergent paths. Rich-girl-with-a-secret Mary Bennett heads off to soap-star fame in Hollywood; Gerald (to no one's surprise) comes out in San Francisco; and beautiful aspiring singer Tammy becomes a local TV weathergirl who drowns her numerous insecurities in a string of extramarital affairs. Midwestern-transplant Patsy moves to Atlanta and becomes a mom, while Boss Queen Jill muddles through a dull job and even duller love life. Tall and athletic, she eventually hits her stride, finding satisfaction as an in-demand personal trainer and a popular local columnist. Meanwhile, the queens experience the requisite laughter, tears and general messiness of life, all culminating in a last-minute London intervention to save Tammy from her latest bad decision. This fictionalized account of the origins of Browne's real-life SPQs (The Sweet Potato Queens' Wedding Planner and Divorce Guide, not reviewed, etc.) has a slapdash feel. Co-written with Gillespie, author of the Bottom Dollar Girls series, it reads less like a novel than what it is: the latest extension of this successful southern-fried brand. Breezy, but likely to move only existing fans of the Sweet Potato Queens.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The novel begins with the question "Is a queen created or is she born that way?" (1) Do you agree that we must learn to "make our very own queen dust" (6), or do you think some people naturally sparkle more than others? Jill claims you can see "the gleam of a queen" (1) in baby pictures of Queen Elizabeth, Cher, and RuPaul. What other celebrities—male, female, or somewhere in between!—might have been born with a queenly glimmer in their eyes?
2. Jill narrates the novel in the first-person voice. How does this affect the way the story unfolds? Discuss what the novel might be like from the point of view of another one of the Queens. Could Mary Bennett, Gerald, Patsy, or Tammy capture the uproarious humor of Jill's narration?
3. Jill introduces the city of Jackson, Mississippi, by emphasizing the divide of Yazoo Road: "If you lived north of Yazoo, like Marcy Stevens did, you peed champagne and blew your nose in silk. If you lived south—as I did—you peed Dixie Beer and blew your nose in burlap" (9). What is the "personality" of Jackson? How is the town like another character in the book, or even another Queen? If this novel were set in your hometown, how would it be different?
4. Jill describes her thirteen-year-old self like this: "I was so skinny?that when I ran I looked like an eggbeater coming down the road. If I turned sideways and stuck out my tongue, I looked like a zipper" (6). Think back to your own early teenage years. How would you humorously describe what you looked like back then? Were you as awkwardasyoung Jill?
5. Jill's friends describe her as "a whiz at motivating people," "a born leader," and "a helluva cook" (44). So why does Jill think, "I must have been absent when God handed out talents" (45)? What do you think is behind her late-blooming career and unsatisfying love life? What has been holding her back?
6. The Sweet Potato Queens' four food groups are sweet, salty, fried, and au gratin! What are yours? Are they just as indulgent as the Queens'?
7. One of the themes of the novel is the importance of creating your own positive self-image. Take Tammy as an example. Discuss how her character evolves, from the Key Club incident in high school to realizing she's been "royalty in Jackson all along" (271). What mistakes does Tammy make, and how do they affect her self-image? What does it take for Tammy to accept herself as a real-life Sweet Potato Queen, instead of a fantasized "Lady Tammy" (218)?
8. Jill's writing career grows over the course of the novel, from joking about sending her articles to the Fish Wrapper Gazette (148), to her beloved column in The Diddy Wah Diddy, to realizing she should write a book about the Sweet Potato Queens. What helps Jill gain confidence in her writing? Do you think she successfully balances her career as a personal trainer with her love for writing?
9. How does Ross quickly win over Jill, who admits, "It was positively head-spinning how quickly my feelings for Ross had grown. I was like a sports car that had gone from zero to sixty in three dates" (183)? What are some of the warning signs that Ross is too good to be true? If you were in Jill's position, do you think you would fall for Ross's charms? Why or why not?
10. Compare the Tammys' 1968 homecoming float (on pages 38 to 42) to the Sweet Potato Queens' St. Paddy's Day Parade of 1989 (pages 271 to 278). What has changed on their float over the years, and what has remained the same?
11. What is Patsy's special talent, which earns her the nickname "Queen Poot" (274)? How does Patsy use her unique skill on Marcy Stevens? Does Marcy get what's coming to her?
12. What do you think of the novel's ending? Is this a happy ending for Jill, who has not yet found love? Discuss what Jill means by this statement: "Some day my king will come... . For the very first time, I thought I might be willing to let it happen" (278).
13. Which of the Sweet Potato Queens do you relate to the most, and why? Which Queen do you find the most comical, and which is the most practical?
14. The novel ends in 1989. Where do you see Jill, Tammy, Mary Bennett, Patsy, and Gerald in 2007, eighteen years later? Do you think the middle-aged Queens would still look just as fabulous in their St. Paddy's Day Parade prom gowns?
15. Name a scene in the book that made you laugh out loud. Did other members of your book club chuckle at the same moments?
16. If you've read any of Browne's other Sweet Potato Queens books, how does the Big-Ass Novel compare to her previous nonfiction titles? If this is your first time with the Sweet Potato Queens, are you planning to read the rest of the series?
Enhance Your Book Club:
1. If you haven't already, start your own O-fficial Chapter of the Sweet Potato Queens! There are more than five thousand chapters registered nationwide. Come up with a name and a motto, and nominate a member (or yourself) as Boss Queen. To get inspired, registered, and fully accessorized, visit the Sweet Potato Queens website.
2. Have members of your book club make some of the recipes in The Sweet Potato Queens' First Big-Ass Novel. Share the food at your book club meeting. You might want to call your meeting to order by announcing, "COME AND GIT IT! (That's y'allbonics for bon appétit.)" (280)
3. Do a little research on Jackson, Mississippi. Have each member of your book club bring in one fun fact about the town, or a map or picture of a Jackson landmark. Maybe your group will want to take a field trip next March, for Mal's St. Paddy's Day Parade!
(Questions issued by publisher.)
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