Introduction

“Funny, sad, and tender… Mimi Herman has written a novel that possesses a true and hard-won understanding of the South.” —David Sedaris, author of Happy-Go-Lucky

Fifteen-year-old Mattie Lee Watson dreams of men, not boys. So when James T. Cullowee, the Kudzu King, arrives in Cooper County, North Carolina in 1941 to spread the gospel of kudzu—claiming that it will improve the soil, feed cattle at almost no cost, even cure headaches—Mattie is ready. Mr. Cullowee is determined to sell the entire county on the future of kudzu, and organizes a kudzu festival, complete with a beauty pageant. Mattie is determined to be crowned Kudzu Queen and capture the attentions of the Kudzu King. As she learns more about Cullowee, however, she discovers that he, like the kudzu he promotes, has a dark and predatory side. When she finds she is not the only one threatened, she devises a plan to bring him down. Based on historical facts, The Kudzu Queen unravels a tangle of sexuality, power, race, and kudzu through the voice of an irresistibly delightful (and mostly honest) narrator.

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Excerpt

You could tell Mr. James T. Cullowee was something from the moment he drove into Pinesboro in his shiny green Chevy truck. He was a man, not like the boys I
knew, with their skinny chests and spotty faces.
That morning, the first Saturday of April, 1941, my mother was shopping with the rest of the mothers in Aronson’s grocery. Every county needs a seat, a place to settle when it gets tired of expanding in all directions, but from what my mama told me, it only took a decade after Pinesboro was incorporated for the townspeople and farmers of Cooper County to start believing they’d emerged from different species. The town folk saw us as inbred idiots up to our ankles in cow manure, while we thought they were helpless do-nothings with an allergy to work. However, despite our differences, the whole county poured into town like grain from a feed sack every Saturday for groceries and gossip. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. Mattie has been compared to Scout from the classic To Kill a Mockingbird—what characteristics do Mattie and Scout have in common? How are they different?
2. The Kudzu Queen raises questions of race, class, gender roles, sexuality, and power. How did the events in the book cause you to examine your own assumptions?
3. Did you feel that Mattie was in danger at any point in your reading? What about Lynnette or Rose?
4. Why is Mattie the right narrator for this story? How would the story be different if told from the point of view of a different character? (Lynnette, Danny, Glynis, etc.)
5. Which characters in The Kudzu Queen drew you in? Who was the most relatable and why?
6. What did you notice about the time period and setting of the novel? What’s changed and what has remained the same?

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