| Title | The Lager Queen of Minnesota |
| Author | J. Ryan Stradal |
| Copyright | 2019 |
| Type | Fiction |
| Length | 349 pages |
| Finished Reading | July 15, 2023 |
| Notable Information | 2022 Willa Literary Award National Bestseller |
| Ratings | Personal: ★★★★ Amazon: 4.3 (4,684 ratings) Goodreads: 4.01 (40,814 ratings) |
J. Ryan Stradal’s novels focus on conflicts in midwestern (often Minnesota) families working in the food industry. Edith and Helen are two sisters with very different temperaments. They separate with animosity in young adulthood and are estranged for decades before (spoiler alert) finally reconciling. Helen drank her first beer at 15; meanwhile Edith is a quiet soul who looks to help out where she can.
Edith was only sixty-four years old, but if she died right then, she would’ve felt the most important things a Minnesotan, woman or man, can feel at the end of their lives. She’d done what se could, and she was of use. She helped.
Page 2
This is Edith’s (and Diane’s) novel. In what one would hope would be her retirement years, Edith’s husband becomes incapacitated and soon after her son dies leaving Edith’s granddaughter, Diane, in her care. Diane is like her grand aunt Helen, and gets into trouble as she moves headlong into the world. Rather than being turned over to the law in an attempted theft, the owner of a local brewery takes Diane on as a janitor. One thing leads to another and years later Edith, along with her group of friends – “The Grandmothers” – become brewers. Sister Helen is also in the beer business and decades after their split she and Edith bury the hatchet.
Stradal fully develops his characters and we can’t help but care about them. Whatever problems come her way she did what she was raised to do: just keep trying. When she learns her son and his wife have died:
That day, and for a long time after, she’d grapple with God’s injustice too, but it was also a long time before she learned that God needed an indestructible person for the tasks the lay ahead, and this is how they’re forged.
Page 88
We see Edith’s money concerns throughout.
She looked at money like how a motorcycle driver looks at asphalt. The more of it you see, the farther you can go, but a single mistake with it can finish you.
Page 17
And when she has to move…
There weren’t a lot of rental properties in Nicollet Falls, and few of them were affordable; looking through the real estate listings, she felt like she was asked to buy lunch for four at Red Lobster with a ten-collar gift certificate.
Page 70
Stradal’s novels are great reads. They have relatable characters in realistic situation and the action just clips right along. I’ve read three of his novels now: Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, along with Kitchens of the Great Midwest – which I read immediately after finishing the Lager Queen and will review soon. This book – The Lager Queen – is my favorite although the other two are excellent as well.
