God Save the Sweet Potato Queens

Starred review from January 8, 2001
Grab your Fat Mama's Knock You Naked Margarita mix, a bag of Fritos, a pan of Chocolate Stuff and turn off the phone, because Browne is back with a sassy and hilarious sequel to 1999's The Sweet Potato Queen's Book of Love, and you're not going to want any interruptions. Browne and her co-Queens (all named Tammy to protect their privacy) are back with more outrageous tales (including scathingly funny and surprisingly touching letters Browne wrote while pregnant) and artery-clogging/death-defying recipes. (Warning that "delaying gratification has always been tough for me," she begins preparation for Twinkie Pie, "Start with a crate of Twinkies.") Browne is a laugh-out-loud delight. On her perfect fianc : "He loves me beyond reason and lives 200 miles awayDshow me the flaw in this deal." On marriage: "Those dresses are some powerful juju and once you try one on, you're a goner." On buying new clothes after a little weight loss: "If that zipper closes, honeyDit fits! Doesn't matter if the pleats and pockets are all stretched out." Her final chapter (which starts: "I've written this entire book to avoid writing this chapter"), a tribute to two men she lost, is as heartbreaking as the rest of the book is hilarious. Browne succeeds at both extremes, writing a jaundiced but life-affirming book with sweetness and heart.

November 1, 2000
\deflang1033\pard\plain\f3\fs17 Browne, a Sweet Potato Queen (SPQ) herself, says that to really appreciate this book, you must understand what the SPQs are. Imagine a sorority's worth of southern women dressed in sequined outfits featuring oversize prosthetic busts and butts and wearing big, curly red wigs. On the evidence of vintage photos in a splashy color section, the SPQs at first had antennae and neither huge hair nor strategically enhanced sequined outfits. Their pelvic-thrust-centered dance routines and lifestyle advice, however, were already in place. The SPQs advocate queenliness, which entails healthy enjoyment of life and blunt understanding of how things really work. Consider their contention that if a girl--and "being Southern," they say, "we will refer to ourselves as 'girls' throughout eternity--wants to "get any man to do [her] bidding," all she has to do is promise that "a blow job is in the offing." Should a girl find that prospect distasteful, fear not: "performed correctly, it is 100% guaranteed [that] the Promise is pretty much all you will have to perform." If you want to know "what to do when the rabbit dies," "how to be a girl," and all, or something, about "sex, Fritos, and the talking vagina," grab this little guide and launch a more dynamic and hilarious lifestyle. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2000, American Library Association.)