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(More customer reviews)"The Sweet Potato Queen's Book of Love" will have you calling friends and reading them quotations, which is usually annoying, but in this case will probably make them want to buy their own copy, and I heartily suggest that they do. The Book is at once hilariously funny and utterly sensible. My copy has taken up residence on the shelf along with a few treasured others, to be read and re-read innumerable times in the future.
The Sweet Potato Queens take a bit of explaining. A tradition in the Jackson, Mississippi Saint Patrick's Day parade since 1982, they were founded by the Original and Supreme Queen, author Jill Conner Browne. They are all women of a certain age; past the first bloom of youth, one might say, but proof that you can blossom into something better after. The Queens appear in the parade, waving graciously from their float and tossing trinkets to the adoring crowds. They are easy to spot, traditionally garbed in green sequined mini-dresses (with hugely amplified bosoms and busts), flowing red wigs, Revlon Love That Pink lipstick, and majorette boots. It is often said of the Queens that "[they] turn into someone else when they put those outfits on." Queen Jill responds that they in fact are completely themselves only when they put those outfits on, and this is what the book is hilariously, wisely about; living the life you like, giving yourself what you desire, and having a really good time.
Queen Jill graces the lucky reader with advice on how to live a Queenly life. I could begin quoting the parts that made me laugh, but that would mean copying out the whole book, so I'll simply tell you that The Book is consistently, screamingly funny without ever being mean. You will laugh through advice on child-rearing, getting a man, getting rid of a man, getting over a man, what to do when there's a possum under your bed, and why you never wear panties to a party. And then there's the chapter on "What to Eat When Tragedy Strikes." This is a collection of recipes for people who absolutely do not care, and which are therefor irresistible. Chocolate Stuff. Armadillo Dip. Fat Mama's Knock You Naked Margaritas. A coconut caramel pie simply called "Oh, God!" And Danger Pudding (Boil an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk for an hour. Bear the name in mind before deciding this is a good idea.).
I enjoyed myself so much reading about the Queens, it never dawned on me that I was reading advice until the very end, when Queen Jill tells us that if life seems lifeless, "[you] don't have to move or change jobs or leave your husband or unnaturally alter your state of consciousness. We're not after an altered state; we're after our True State - unbridled joy." Any number of New Agey books have been written on this theme, but none, I think, have succeeded in making it seem as possible as The Book. Browne closes with a quotation from George Eliot: "It is never too late to be what you might have been." Read "The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love" and laugh yourself sensible.
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