"Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" is a beautiful story of friendship, family, and love that has stood the test of time. Fannie Flagg has succeeded in creating characters with the depth and warmth that make them feel like part of the family. The storyline occasionally slows, but the energy mimics that of the real highs and lows of life. It is a story that can be put down and when you come back to it, feels like coming home. 

The story follows that of middle-aged housewife Evelyn Couch who feels very lost in both her identity and her marriage. When she meets Mrs. Virginia (Ninny) Threadgoode at the Rose Terrace Nursing Home, she is drawn in by the older woman's story of the town of Whistle Stop, Alabama in the 1930's, particularly that of Idgie Threadgood and her best friend, business partner, and love of her life, Ruth Jamison. Mrs. Threadgoode through story-telling and wisdom befriends Evelyn, teaching her lessons that ultimately change Evelyn's life.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, not knowing however how very different it was from the movie. The only thing I didn't like was the transitions between Evelyn's story, The Weems Weekly and Idgie and Ruth's stories. I felt the transitions could have been smoother and in the beginning got confused on a few occasions. This is one book I will more than likely read again!

Yes! 

They cancelled school because it's below freezing and sleeting and other Okies freak out over bad weather. So I'm home with the kiddo tomorrow. And just like a Godsend, Overdrive came thru with my hold for this. I plan on cranking the gas logs, opening up a new jigsaw puzzle, letting Danny out of his cage and listening to stories of Towanda all day tomorrow. If only I had wine.

I mean, what girl doesn't love this movie? If it doesn't make you cry you are soulless.

Plus, I adore Kathy Bates. I hope the book doesn't crush my movie love.

When I was about 13 or 14, my grandma had the movie. I absolutely loved it! A few years after, I found the book. I was so excited when I bought it. After all, I loved the movie and of course they always say that the book was better than the movie...I doubted it! I was wrong to an extent... Not quite but almost the same. I loved this absolutely because it was so much like the movie, yet so different! The way it was written was so amazing. I believe the book is a masterpiece! Also, the love Idgie had for Ruth and their son, was the best kind of love! It was pure. Yes, it was full of Idgie's full hearted emotions that sometimes were...terrible, but Idgie loved Ruth more than anything in  the entire world! 

The problem most of the time is the book is better than the movie. In this case, I found the movie to be better than the book.

I think the fact that book jumped around a lot made it a bit hard to follow. And the ending was definitely bittersweet with so many characters who had lived with each other for decades who ended up moving on when their little town started to die. I guess this book made me a bit homesick and sad, since I see my hometown going the same way. It's slowly dying and eventually I think in a generation it will be almost a ghost town. 

"Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" begins with a woman named Evelyn who on a weekly basis just forced to visit her mother in law at the retirement home the older woman now lives. She ends up sitting next to an elderly woman named Ninny Threadgood who proceeds to tell her stories about her family and friends that lived in Whistle Stop, Alabama. 

At first Evelyn feels annoyed this woman has latched onto her, but she soon starts to live for the weekly stories of Idgie, Buddy, Ruth, Stump, Big George, Sipsey, Dottie Weems, and others.  

I think that Evelyn and even Ninny were developed a lot. Others in the story I wish we could follow up with more. We just got quick vignettes with them. For example, Big George's kids popped in and out of the story, I would even say so did Ruth and Idgie. I would honestly say the character after Evelyn and Ninny I felt was developed very well was Dottie Weems. We are only introduced to her by way of weekly bulletins about Whistle Stop, but her humor and love for the town was great. 

I will say that the main reason why I just couldn't give this book higher than four stars was the fact that I thought that Flagg kind of took the easy way out not really describing the relationship between Idgie and Ruth. I'm assuming that they were both lesbians or at least that's how the book portrayed them. And that fact that everybody in the small town of Alabama in the 1930s was fine with Idgie and Ruth living together and Ruth's son Stump being called her son I thought was a bit of a reach. I can't see people being okay, but the fact that just called Idgie "wild" which I'm assuming was code for being gay was also weird to me. That's the only part of the book that felt kind of false to me. But then I also feel sad because I don't think the movie really showed her as being gay just as liking to wear men's clothes. So like I said I'm just kind of of two minds of how those two characters were shown. I just wish we had gotten more scenes between them.  

Flagg does also touch upon the racism of the south in 1930s and the late 1980s.  I did think she slowly shows that for some people even for some of the so called good characters they still had prejudices towards African Americans. For example, Evelyn realizing that she was just raised to be just scared of black men and when she finally went to the church and got to hang out with more African Americans felt at home I did not find uplifting, but sad. I do think the way that the book just portrayed African Americans in a couple of places did make me cringe. 

The writing was really good. Flagg can tell a story. The flow got off in the middle. The book just jumps from subject to subject before finally hitting it's stride again.

Whistle Stop as I said above reminded me a lot of my hometown and a lot of dying towns in the US. 

The ending as I said was bittersweet though I was a bit confused by it. We get to see what happened to one character and I'm surprised they were at another location far from Alabama.

Electronic pages 522

Multiplier 

$15.00

New balance: $163