Jill Conner Browne with Karen Gillespie, The Sweet Potato Queens' First Big-Ass Novel

The Sweet Potato Queens' First Big-Ass Novel

Simon & Schuster, Jan 2007, $22.95

ISBN: 0743278275

In 1968 Jackson, Mississippi, the Fab Five (Jill, Mary, Patsy, Tammy and Gerald) became tight friends because of their belief that they are magnificent though the existing high school clubs and other teen associations rejected each of them. The outsiders dubbed themselves the Sweet Potato Queens with their vision to enjoy life to the fullest for "If it ain't fun, we ain't doing it."

After graduation they remained friends, though each went their separate way. Mary went Hollywood; Gerald comes out of the closet in San Francisco; Tammy becomes a Jackson TV weather reporter; Patsy becomes a mom in Atlanta, while Jill becomes a personal trainer and columnist. Each has met life head on, but now twenty-plus years later, following marriage, death, and relationship blunders, they meet in London to save Tammy from what her four bosom buddies think is a tragic mistake.

Though more vignette than novel, this is a fine fictionalization of Jill Connor Browne's The Sweet Potato Queens. The five protagonists are a likable quintet as they help each other stay balanced over the years. Fans of the Karen Gillespie's Bottom Dollar Girls, the Mossy Creek sagas or the Sweet Potato Queens will enjoy this humorous slice of life.

Harriet Klausner