A review by readingpicnic
The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal

  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

In the words of Pete "Flavor Dave" Michaels, this book was "just OK." I had the lowest expectations going in to this book as a "feminist" book written by a man, and it was better than I expected it to be. I quite liked it to begin with; I thought it was funny and enjoyed reading about Helen's childhood and Edith working in the senior home. However, it felt like trauma p*rn for most of the book where traumatic events kept happening to all of the main characters, just hardship after hardship and death after death to the point where I got desensitized to these horrific events and got kind of...annoyed when tragedy struck, as bad as that is. The pacing felt pretty weird as a result of these constant dramatic moments, and the big reveals were all very predictable and obvious. I feel like only
throwing Helen and Edith together for a reunion in the very last chapter of the book didn't give them enough time to actually talk, and although the whole book felt like it was leading up to that moment, I was disappointed with how brief and rushed it seemed. However, I did really like the last paragraphs where Helen reimagines a past where she brought Edith with her when she stole those beers as a child, as it was very beautiful and heartfelt.
I feel like I was expecting Helen to be queer due to some brief mentions of her attraction and obsession with certain women, such as the lasso woman and Tippi, but these were never explored more sadly. Also, I feel like there were too many characters in this book and that the author expected me to keep track of them all for a brief callback much later in the book, and I had forgotten their names by that point... The book also seemed to be critical with Diana's commentary on the subject of the "American Dream" mindset that if you work hard, it'll pay off and you'll achieve wealth, but then kind of went back on that by showing Helen and Diana achieving wealth by working hard/being gifted things by wealthier people? I wasn't sure what the message was supposed to be there, and it wasn't very intersectional in that Diana and Helen being white was never brought up for why they may have been able to achieve this "American Dream" lifestyle, only that they overcame the hurdles of being women in a male-dominated industry. Did Diana never consider that her whiteness protected her when she got caught stealing tools from people's garages? Would Frank have given a job to a person of color whom he caught stealing from his garage? Also, they often made a point of hiring people specifically who were women to uplift them, but didn't mention hiring diversely in any other regards, so in summary, it felt like a white feminism book.
I'm glad Diana called out Helen for her bullshit with not giving them any money while Edith was working two part time jobs and Diana was trying to support them by working in a cafe and stealing power tools, meanwhile Helen was living a lavish existence for a while there. Helen also seemed pretty dismissive of Edith having lost both her husband and a child and having to take care of her grandchild on her own, only saying that she had "heard" these things happened to her; from whom, she did not say.
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