My interest in the kitch lit genre began in 2015, with J. Ryan Stradal’s Kitchens of the Great Midwest. His story of a chef, a home cook and the people that surround them and come into (and, sometimes, leave) their lives captured my imagination. Anyone who has asked for a book recommendation in the past four years has endured my nearly begging them to read it. Now Stradal is back with The Lager Queen of Minnesota, another foray into the familial bonds of Midwestern families with their trademark civility, work ethic and stubbornness.
Edith and younger sister Helen have little in common. Edith is straight as an arrow while Helen lives life a little closer to the edge. When Helen’s ambition trumps family circumstance, Helen and Edith find themselves estranged for decades. Each leads a seemingly fulfilled life, though with one giant piece of the puzzle is missing. Edith finds herself widowed and raising her granddaughter at an age when working minimum wage retail jobs should be long behind her. Edith’s granddaughter Diana eventually becomes the center of the story and her resilience in the face of difficult circumstance is simultaneously remarkable and a foregone conclusion. Of course Diana will survive in this world, she knows no other option.
As a non-drinker (I know, that’s a bummer), the words hops and barley are not completely foreign to me but I have very little interest in how the care and handling of those ingredients affects the taste of the brew. While Lager Queen did not have me quite as caught up as Kitchens - perhaps because my interest in the core subject is minimal, but Stradal expertly weaves a storyline across multiple generations. This is not just the story of a brewery. With descriptive prose and compelling characters Stradal wins over even the staunchest of non-drinkers.
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