I read this book for my book club. I was really excited to read a book that takes place in the South and has a major wlw relationship! It was promising at first, with a snappy and fun tone and style. I knew ahead of time that this book deals with some heavy stuff. I knew the movie, even though I hadn't seen it, was very popular and well received. Lots of books have problems, and I can get past that most of the time, but, ultimately, I couldn't like this book because it has PROBLEMS. Detailed below...

RACE: This book does not shy away from talking about racial issues in the South, particularly in the 1930's-40's. It does a bad job. This book is riddled with racial stereotypes (Mammy/Uncle Tom archetypes) and racist descriptions of black characters, and the story lines around race ultimately left me with a foul taste of white saviorism. There is one interesting story line about a black character, but it is overshadowed by everything else.

GENDER: I was excited to read a book that included wlw written by a queer woman! And the romantic relationship is very clearly there, with it being (albeit tacitly) acknowledged by the other characters, and these two women even co-raising a child. And yet. One of the women in the wlw relationship is a mysogynist, and her partner is a delicate flower whose only trait is that she is "beautiful". There are also some dicey messages about love and sex, which I won't repeat here.

FATPHOBIA: There is a character in this book who is going through a severe depression, dealing with suicidal thoughts and an eating disorder (though it is not named such). I thought this was dealt with well until the resolution, when it became a complete joke and was resolved through fat camp and becoming a successful Mary Kay saleswoman. This was so disappointing because the book actually depicts depression and dementia (in a different character) in a poignant way, but all of that was thrown away in a way that I felt was ultimately harmful.

All things considered, it made for a good book for book club because BOY did we have a lot to talk about. And the movie actually fixes a lot of the problems from the book! It still doesn't deal with race great, eliminating most of the race problems simply by eliminating most of the black characters and story lines and leaving a few minor Mammy/Uncle Tom characters, but the misogyny is removed and the women characters given some more depth and personality, and the ending for our depressed character feels a lot more like someone taking control of their life than "weight loss + make-up = happy".

My recommendation: maybe check out the movie (so exciting to see wlw in an early 90's movie!), skip the book.