58 pages • 1 hour read
J. Ryan StradalThe Lager Queen of Minnesota
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 8-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “$100,000”
One year later, Diana shares with Edith and Andy that she is pregnant again. Frank is still alive, though he has not recovered from his stroke. Anna, Frank’s wife, informs Diana that she is selling Heartlander. Another brewer offered to buy the company’s brand and beer recipes, many of which were crafted by Diana, though they are owned by Frank. Anna also reveals that she intends to give each full-time employee a severance payment of $100,000. After an unsuccessful attempt to rally the former Heartlander employees to open a brewery together, Diana enquires about purchasing the brewing equipment from Anna. Anna confesses that Diana was Frank’s favorite employee, seeing ambition and potential in his youngest brewer. She offers to sell Diana the brewing equipment for a fraction of its worth and introduces Diana to her real estate agent so she can discuss purchasing the property. Diana creates a business plan for her brewery.
Diana’s symptoms become more intense as her pregnancy develops. She works long hours every day of the week trying to establish her brewery. The former employees of Heartlander all take jobs elsewhere, though Mo returns to help Diana craft an IPA. Diana has difficulty building trust with outsiders, but all her friends and family are too busy with child-rearing and career-building to give her much help. Diana asks Edith to work with her, but Edith does not want to leave her position at Arby’s or her volunteer work at Autumn Pines.
Feeling defeated, Diana returns to work at her brewery, which she names Artemis. A woman with four young children enters the building, though the soft opening is not for another two days. All Diana has to offer is an IPA, which the woman does not want. Diana sells the woman her last bottle of Heartlander Porter, a beer she wanted to save for after the birth of her daughter. She splits one root beer equally between the four children, who make a giant mess of Diana’s homemade pretzels. When the woman refuses to leave a tip, Diana swears at her. Later, the children’s father calls Artemis to inform Diana that he plans to leave a poor review of the brewery, making sure people know it is not family-friendly.
Mid-phone conversation, Diana moves to let Mo inside, tripping over a bag of malt and crashing down onto her knee. Diana’s water breaks, and she goes into labor, though her due date is still weeks away.
Chapter 9 Summary: “$200”
The narrative jumps back to 2001, following Helen on vacation. Blotz Brewing is in debt and rapidly declining in value. Newer craft breweries making a more diverse variety of beer are straining corporate breweries. Agatha suggests Blotz make an IPA, but Helen does not like the bitter, hoppy taste of the brew. After Helen falls in the shower one morning, she and Orval start to think about retirement. They offer to leave Blotz Brewing to Agatha, but Agatha declines. Orval suggests bequeathing Blotz to Edith, reminding Helen that she owes her sister half of their father’s inheritance. Helen’s feelings toward Edith have grown complicated over the years. She believes giving Edith money will not repair their relationship, and she does not feel good about gifting Edith or her family the brewery. Helen decides to keep the brewery operational for as long as possible.
15 years later, Blotz Brewing is on the brink of collapse unless Helen and Orval make drastic changes to their business plan. Helen returns to the idea of brewing an IPA, but Agatha believes they have missed their opportunity. Orval suggests they acquire smaller breweries on the fall or rise, offering to help them either way. Shortly after sharing this idea with Helen, Orval dies suddenly from a brain aneurysm.
Helen feels alone at Orval’s funeral. She wishes Edith would appear, even though Helen knows she did not support her sister after Stanley or Colleen’s deaths. She confesses to Agatha how isolated she feels, noting that Agatha is the only person left in the world whom she trusts. Although Agatha suggests Helen take a break from work, Helen insists on returning to the brewery the following day. She asks Agatha to find a small brewery on the rise that she can purchase.
Chapters 8-9 Analysis
Helen’s only friend and confidant, Agatha Johnston, grounds Helen in her passion for brewing quality beer. Agatha keeps Helen abreast of trends in the beer industry as “the youngest person in the room; she would know. As the director of quality, she’d also know if what they were sampling was tainted or compromised” (260). Agatha respects Helen’s authority but recognizes that her refusal to evolve will drive Blotz Brewing to failure. When she successfully developed and sold Blotz Special Light, a beer she hates, Helen lost the part of herself that is crazy about beer, focusing instead on financial success. Agatha observes the decline of Helen’s passion and refuses to follow in her footsteps.
When Helen reveals to Agatha how lonely she feels after Orval’s death, she underscores The Significance of Family and Community Support. Helen considers Edith’s experience with loss and grief: “at least Edith wasn’t alone, she thought. Edith still had a son, a granddaughter. Helen had Helen” (270). Helen realizes her estrangement from her sister prevents them from comforting and assisting each other after significant life crises. Without friends and family to share her fortune, Helen discovers that her financial and professional success means little to her. Helen’s lack of community stems partly from entering into a male-dominated industry, where she experiences difficulty relating personally to her masculine colleagues, some of whom joke around about threatening women’s safety. Helen’s desire to be a part of a primarily male industry isolates her, limiting her ability to build community support.
Conversely, the women rushing to Diana’s aid while she experiences a medical emergency further illustrate the significance of family and community support. As the novel nears its climax, Edith and The Grandmas fulfill necessary roles at Artemis without being asked. Without their help, Artemis Brewing would undoubtedly fail before experiencing its soft opening. Realizing she cannot let her granddaughter’s business flounder because of unfortunate circumstances, Edith calls on “a reliable inner circle of fellow grandmas [...] and three of them said they would help, right away” (278). While Edith may not have financial security, she has a dependable group of people to help in times of crisis. Comparatively, Blotz Brewing experiences a downward spiral, losing millions of dollars in value annually. Helen has no community to assist her with her professional troubles, aside from Agatha, whose advice Helen ignores.
In addition to constructing a cast of ambitious, hard-working women, J. Ryan Stradal explores The Benefits and Ramifications of Legacy in the context of relationship dynamics. The novel shows how men support and fail to support their female partners in heterosexual relationships. When they first meet, Helen and Orval epitomize partnership in relationships: “[H]e shared not only a passion with her, but an ambition [...] it made him wonderfully, irretrievably attractive” (52). Helen ends her relationship with Chesley, realizing he desires a wife who will sacrifice any ambition outside of being a farmer’s wife. Helen and Orval’s relationship highlights the importance of shared values in marriage as a way for partners to support each other equally. They depart from the legacy of their parents’ generation to their mutual benefit.
Edith and Stanley share similar values as parents, but their traditional marriage prioritizes Stanley’s profession over Edith’s. As a result, Edith never experiences professional growth until she nears her golden years. Had Stanley viewed Edith’s skills and talents as one of Minnesota’s best bakers as an asset to their family’s earning potential, Edith and Diana might not have struggled with financial hardships. Moreover, Diana’s failed romance with Paul and subsequent marriage to Andy illustrate the significance of mutual support in successful relationships. Although Paul finds Diana’s beer brewing an exciting hobby, he loses interest in their relationship when Diana decides not to follow him to Stanford. Andy encourages Diana to further her career as a brewer, sharing her desire for children, and he offers his unwavering support when achieving her goals proves difficult.
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