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A folksy, funny and endearing story of life in a small town in Alabama in the Depression and in the 1980s. However, the novel's laughter and tears are interrupted by a strange murder and a still stranger trial.
--Chattanooga Times
"This whole literary enterprise shines with honesty, gallantry, and love of perfect details that might otherwise be forgotten."
--Los Angeles Times
"A sparkling gem."
--Birmingham News
"Watch out for Fannie Flagg. When I walked into the Whistle Stop Cafe she fractured my funny bone, drained my tear ducts, and stole my heart."
--Florence King, Author of Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady
"Admirers of the wise child in Flagg's first novel, Coming Attractions,
will find her grown-up successor, Idgie, equally appealing. The book's best character, perhaps, is the town of Whistle Stop itself--too bad trains don't stop there anymore."
--Publisher's Weekly
Her latest novel is titled Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! She lives in California and Alabama.
Attending the Santa Barbara Writer's Conference in 1978 to see her idol, Eudora Welty, Flagg won first prize in the writing contest for a short story told from the perspective of a 11-year-old girl, spelling mistakes and all -- a literary device that she figured was ingenious because it disguised her own pitiful spelling, later determined to be an outgrowth of dyslexia. But when a Harper & Row editor approached her about expanding the story into a full-length novel, she realized the jig was up.
"I just burst into tears and said, 'I can't write a novel,'" she told The New York Times in 1994. "'I can't spell. I can't diagram a sentence.' He took my hand and said the most wonderful thing I've ever heard. He said, 'Oh, honey, what do you think editors are for?'"
And so Fannie Flagg -- television personality, Broadway star, film actress and six-time Miss Alabama contestant -- became a novelist, delving into the Southern-fried, small-town fiction of the sort populated by colorful characters with homespun, no-nonsense observations. Characters that are known to say things like, "That catfish was so big the photograph alone weighed 40 pounds."
Her first novel, an expanded take on that prize-winning short story, was Coming Attractions: A Wonderful Novel, the story of a spunky yet hapless girl growing up in the South, helping her alcoholic father run the local bijou. But it was with her second novel where it all came together. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café -- a novel, for all its light humor, that infuses its story with serious threads on racism, feminism, spousal abuse and hints at Sapphic love -- follows two pairs of women: a couple running a hometown café in the Depression-era South and an elderly nursing home resident in the late 1980s who strikes up an impromptu friendship with a middle-aged housewife unhappy with her life.
The result was not only a smash novel, but a hit movie as well, one that garnered Flagg an Academy Award nomination for adapting the screenplay. She won praise from the likes of Erma Bombeck, Harper Lee and idol Eudora Welty, and the Los Angeles Times critic compared it to The Last Picture Show. The The New York Times called it, simply, "a real novel and a good one."
Before her career as a novelist, Flagg was known principally for her on-screen television and film work. She was second banana to Allen Funt on the long-running Candid Camera, perhaps the trailblazer for the current crop of so-called reality television. (Her favorite segment, she told Entertainment Weekly in 1992, was driving a car through the wall of a drive-thru bank.) She appeared as the school nurse in the 1978 film version of Grease, and on Broadway in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. And she was a staple of the Match Game television game shows in the '70s.
As a writer, though, this Birmingham, Alabama native found her voice as a chronicler of Southern Americana and life in its self-contained hamlets. "Fannie Flagg is the most shamelessly sentimental writer in America," The Christian Science Monitor wrote in a 1998 review of her third novel. "She's also the most entertaining. You'd have to be a stone to read Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! without laughing and crying. The cliches in this novel are deep-fat fried: not particularly nutritious, but entirely delicious."
The New York Times, also reviewing Baby Girl, took note of the spinning-yarns-on-the-front-porch quality to her work: "Even when she prattles -- and she prattles a great deal during this book -- you are always aware that a star is at work. She has that gift that certain people from the theater have, of never boring the audience. She keeps it simple, she keeps it bright, she keeps it moving right along -- and, most of all, she keeps it beloved."
But, lest she be pegged as simply a champion of the good ol’ days, it's worth noting that her writing can be something of a clarion call for social change. In Fried Green Tomatoes, Flagg comments not only on the racial divisions of the South but also on the minimization of women in both the 1930s and contemporary life. Just as Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison commit to a life together -- without menfolk -- in the Depression-era days of Whistle Stop, Alabama, middle-aged Evelyn Couch in modern-day Birmingham discovers the joys of working outside the home and defining her life outside meeting the every whim of her husband.
On top of her writing, Flagg has also stumped for the Equal Rights Amendment.
"I think it's time that women have to stand up and say we do not want to be seen in a demeaning manner," Flagg told a Premiere magazine reporter in an interview about the film adaptation of Fried Green Tomatoes.
She landed the Candid Camera gig while a writer at a New York comedy club. When one of the performers couldn't go on, Flagg acted as understudy, and the show's host, Allen Funt, was in the audience.
Flagg went undiagnosed for years as a dyslexic until a viewer casually mentioned it to her in a fan letter.
1. This novel has a very complex structure alternating between the past and the present and the point of view of a whole host of different characters. Did this narrative format work for you? Were there particular narrators you found more compelling than others and why?
2. ?Idgie and Ruth's friendship is truly a case of opposites attract. Why is the scene where Idgie reveals her bee charming skills to Ruth so pivotal to the story of their relationship and in understanding what drew them together despite their differences?
3. Jasper Peavey's grandson is embarrassed by his grandfather's behavior toward white people. Discuss generational conflict and how life changed or did not change across the generations in both the Peavey and Threadgoode families.
4. This novel has a great deal to say about race relations in the South. How did the black and white communities interact in this story both within and beyond the borders of Whistle Stop? Were Idgie and Ruth's egalitarian views on race typical?
5. ?What is Artis Peavey's secret? Do you think the events he witnessed as a child had an impact upon his later life? How does race have an impact upon the lives of all the Peavey children—Jasper, Artis, Willie Boy, Naughty Bird? What options were available to them and what choices did they make and why? What do you think of the revenge that Artis takes on the man who murdered his brother?
6. Do you think the color of Jasper and Artis' skin—Jasper being very light-skinned and Artis being very dark-skinned—made a difference in their approach to life? What does the light-skinned Clarissa's encounter with her dark-skinned Uncle Artis say about life as ablack Southerner?
7. How do you feel about a character like Grady Kilgore, Whistle Stop sheriff, member of the Ku Klux Klan, and friend to Idgie and Ruth at the same time?
8. ?Eva Bates is a woman you might call sexually liberated before her time. What role does she play in Idgie's life? In Stump's? What are Ruth's feelings toward Eva?
9. We never learn where Ninny came from or how she came to be adopted by the Threadgoodes, only that they took her in and treated her like a member of the family. This is only one example in a novel full of non-traditional families. What are some other examples of familial bonds that do not look like a traditional nuclear family? How does this author challenge and expand our understanding of the meaning and structure of family?
10. ?What drives Idgie to masquerade as Railroad Bill? What role did the economic devastation of the Great Depression play in the lives of Idgie, Ruth, Smokey, and everyone in Whistle Stop?
11. ?Why did Ruth leave Idgie and marry Frank? What made her finally leave him?
12. ?Did the identity of Frank Bennett's killer surprise you? What drove her to do what she did? Why was Idgie prepared to take the blame?
13. What do Dot Weems' weekly dispatches tell us about the nature of life in a small town? Were you sorry to see Whistle Stop fade away? Why has this been the fate of so many small towns in America?
14. How does Idgie help Stump overcome having lost his arm?
15. ?How did Evelyn's relationship with Ninny Threadgoode change her life? What did she learn from Mrs. Threadgoode? And how did Evelyn help her friend?
16. What did Ninny Threadgoode's stories offer Evelyn? Why do you think Evelyn is so drawn to this woman and her stories?
17. Ninny tells Evelyn that her memories are all she has left. Discuss the importance of memory and storytelling in this novel.
18. Why and how was Evelyn able to finally overcome her revenge fantasies, send Towanda packing and make important changes in her life? What steps did she take that ensured these changes would be for good and not a temporary thing?
19. How does this story explore the process of aging? How do we die with dignity when all those we loved and who loved us are gone? How does Ninny manage?
20. Does the Whistle Stop Cafe sound like a restaurant you would like to frequent?
21. Is domestic violence viewed differently today than it was in Ruth's time? Do you see any changes in Ruth's character after she leaves her abusive marriage?
22. Which character would you be most interested in meeting and why?
23. For those of you who have seen the movie, how do the movie and the book compare? What is missing from the movie and why do you think this is so? Do you think the choices made in terms of how to streamline this complex novel for film were the best ones?
24. The importance of food in the fabric of everyday life is a central theme in this book. For example, Evelyn and Mrs. Threadgoode bond over the treats Evelyn brings. What does Evelyn's battle with her weight say about contemporary society and women's relationships with food and their weight? Are these struggles evident in the lives if Ninny, Idgie, or Ruth?
25. In the final chapter, we learn what has happened to Idgie. Why do you think she and Julian left Whistle Stop to take to the road? Why don't their friends or family appear to know where they are? Does this seem like an appropriate ending for Idgie?
26. ?Will anyone or has anyone tried any of Sipsey's recipes?
1. This novel has a very complex structure alternating between the past and the present and the point of view of a whole host of different characters. Did this narrative format work for you? Were there particular narrators you found more compelling than others and why?
2. Idgie and Ruth's friendship is truly a case of opposites attract. Why is the scene where Idgie reveals her bee charming skills to Ruth so pivotal to the story of their relationship and in understanding what drew them together despite their differences?
3. Jasper Peavey's grandson is embarrassed by his grandfather's behavior toward white people. Discuss generational conflict and how life changed or did not change across the generations in both the Peavey and Threadgoode families.
4. This novel has a great deal to say about race relations in the South. How did the black and white communities interact in this story both within and beyond the borders of Whistle Stop? Were Idgie and Ruth's egalitarian views on race typical?
5. What is Artis Peavey's secret? Do you think the events he witnessed as a child had an impact upon his later life? How does race have an impact upon the lives of all the Peavey children—Jasper, Artis, Willie Boy, Naughty Bird? What options were available to them and what choices did they make and why? What do you think of the revenge that Artis takes on the man who murdered his brother?
6. Do you think the color of Jasper and Artis' skin—Jasper being very light-skinned and Artis being very dark-skinned—made a difference in their approach to life? What does the light-skinned Clarissa's encounter with her dark-skinned Uncle Artis say about life as a black Southerner?
7. How do you feel about a character like Grady Kilgore, Whistle Stop sheriff, member of the Ku Klux Klan, and friend to Idgie and Ruth at the same time?
8. Eva Bates is a woman you might call sexually liberated before her time. What role does she play in Idgie's life? In Stump's? What are Ruth's feelings toward Eva?
9. We never learn where Ninny came from or how she came to be adopted by the Threadgoodes, only that they took her in and treated her like a member of the family. This is only one example in a novel full of non-traditional families. What are some other examples of familial bonds that do not look like a traditional nuclear family? How does this author challenge and expand our understanding of the meaning and structure of family?
10. What drives Idgie to masquerade as Railroad Bill? What role did the economic devastation of the Great Depression play in the lives of Idgie, Ruth, Smokey, and everyone in Whistle Stop?
11. Why did Ruth leave Idgie and marry Frank? What made her finally leave him?
12. Did the identity of Frank Bennett's killer surprise you? What drove her to do what she did? Why was Idgie prepared to take the blame?
13. What do Dot Weems' weekly dispatches tell us about the nature of life in a small town? Were you sorry to see Whistle Stop fade away? Why has this been the fate of so many small towns in America?
14. How does Idgie help Stump overcome having lost his arm?
15. How did Evelyn's relationship with Ninny Threadgoode change her life? What did she learn from Mrs. Threadgoode? And how did Evelyn help her friend?
16. What did Ninny Threadgoode's stories offer Evelyn? Why do you think Evelyn is so drawn to this woman and her stories?
17. Ninny tells Evelyn that her memories are all she has left. Discuss the importance of memory and storytelling in this novel.
18. Why and how was Evelyn able to finally overcome her revenge fantasies, send Towanda packing and make important changes in her life? What steps did she take that ensured these changes would be for good and not a temporary thing?
19. How does this story explore the process of aging? How do we die with dignity when all those we loved and who loved us are gone? How does Ninny manage?
20. Does the Whistle Stop Cafe sound like a restaurant you would like to frequent?
21. Is domestic violence viewed differently today than it was in Ruth's time? Do you see any changes in Ruth's character after she leaves her abusive marriage?
22. Which character would you be most interested in meeting and why?
23. For those of you who have seen the movie, how do the movie and the book compare? What is missing from the movie and why do you think this is so? Do you think the choices made in terms of how to streamline this complex novel for film were the best ones?
24. The importance of food in the fabric of everyday life is a central theme in this book. For example, Evelyn and Mrs. Threadgoode bond over the treats Evelyn brings. What does Evelyn's battle with her weight say about contemporary society and women's relationships with food and their weight? Are these struggles evident in the lives if Ninny, Idgie, or Ruth?
25. In the final chapter, we learn what has happened to Idgie. Why do you think she and Julian left Whistle Stop to take to the road? Why don't their friends or family appear to know where they are? Does this seem like an appropriate ending for Idgie?
26. Will anyone or has anyone tried any of Sipsey's recipes?
Anonymous
Posted October 27, 2008
I Also Recommend:
I'm a fanatic of Fried Green Tomatoes. So, of course, I had to have the audio book, read by the author herself, Fannie Flagg. And she does not disappoint. Her southern drawl is cute and she knows how to act the lines (she was involved in the theater before jumping into writing).<BR/>Although...for all those who know the movie and the book like the palm of their hand, a word of caution: you'll miss the actresses's voices (in the case of the movie) and many of the delicious details of the book that were left behind in this abridged version (like the catfish joke Idgie and Stump played on unsuspecting visitors and when Idgie first met Ruth and when Ruth went away). I think it's because reading verbatim from the book would've made it too long, but I still resent that they left so much out.<BR/>This audio book is really for the hardcore fans. Anyone else will tire of it. But Fannie Flagg is delightful and it gives this CD that extra something when you know the woman who cooked this story up is telling you the story from her own lips.<BR/>Buy this if you fell in love with Ruth and Idgie and Ninny and Evelyn. It'll add to the collection you probably already have revolving around Fried Green Tomatoes. I love the sotries that stick with you the rest of your life. My recommendations are exactly that.
11 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
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Posted August 31, 2009
I Also Recommend:
Evelyn Couch is having a midlife crisis. She was brought up to be a "good girl" and do everything she was "supposed" to do, which was to marry a good man and become a wife and mother. She did, but now that her children are grown and out of the house, Evelyn is feeling that life has passed her by. She is realizing that the current world is so very different from the one she grew up in and she does not know how to cope. On top of that, she realizes that her relationship with her husband is drifting farther and farther apart. Many days, she sits at home alone, overeating and wishing for the courage to end her life.
Things begin to change when she meets Cleo Threadgood, a resident at a local Alabama nursing home. Cleo regales Evelyn with stories of her family and friends, growing up in a small town named Whistle Stop, Alabama. Through these stories and numerous visits with Cleo, Evelyn begins to reevaluate her life and discover for the first time, the kind of woman that she wants to become.
This is my favorite book. I suppose it resonated so well with me because I read it for the first time when I was in college, trying to figure out who I was, much like Ruth. There are strong themes of hope, resilience, perseverance, and change, in this story. I never get tired of reading this book because the author writes with such passion and poignancy that it draws me in every time. As stated earlier, these characters feel like friends who I want to visit over and over.
7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.books-rock1
Posted June 21, 2012
This is my favortie book! My favorite book is Fried Green Tomatoes, and The Outsiders! I LOVE THIS BOOK! Best book I've EVER READ IN MY LIFE. I LOVE THE MOVIE TOO. Please read this book. It is soo good and SOO worth the money.(: I wish I could give it 100000000 stars!
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 14, 2011
The big surprise (to me) was how accurately the movie follows the book. Obviously there is much more detail, but unlike many book-based movies, this one is astonishingly true to the book.
The movie did not cover the Whistle Stop weekly news bites, and the ending is a little different than the movie (I can see why they did what they did though). Deep south recipes are included (yes, fried green tomatoes too).
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted April 17, 2008
This book, along with the books 'Certain Girls' and 'Barring Some Unforeseen Accident' are some of my favorites. FGT as it is loving known to most of us, is posibly the best Southern book written (modern book). And it's one of the few that was made into a fantastic movie. The story of friendship, southern culture, and love will warm your heart and make you laugh
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted April 10, 2008
I would recommend this book to any one of any age. The book is well written with mystery, humor, culture and intrigue. I just love the characters. Ruth and Idgie are just so cute and endearing. The author is masterful at pulling you into this little town of heart.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 5, 2007
Jackson McCrae's southern book 'Bark of the Dogwood' set me off on a journey to read more about this wonderful story-telling-prone area. Thus I found Mrs. Flagg's 'Fried Green Tomatoes.' A superb book, this is a perfect story with tugs at the heartstrings and drama.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 11, 2012
I read about 3 books a week and this is still my all-time fave by far.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted April 4, 2008
For me, this was the story of the south the way it used to be, long before the stip malls took over and everyone got so materialistic. Fannie Flagg has obviously lived this tale in one form or another, or at least known people like this. I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone of any age level.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted April 15, 2013
Loved it. Did not want it to end.
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Posted March 29, 2013
After seeing the movie several times the book finishes the story. Great reading............Could not put it down.......and as they said......the secret is in the sauce!
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Posted March 25, 2013
I would recommend anyone who enjoys a good novel to read this book. I found it to be very entertaining.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I loved this book. I will recommend it for book clubs discussions.
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Posted January 3, 2013
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Jen15826
Posted November 26, 2012
One of my all time favorites. A must read!
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Posted November 10, 2012
I love the movie so I decided to get the book from the library and I fell in love with it! I found myself rooting for the characters and it's the first time I've actually been sad to finish a book because I loved it so much. Definitely one of my favorite books and now that I have it on my Nook, I can take it anywhere. :)
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Posted August 19, 2012
Love Fannie Flagg!
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Posted August 9, 2012
I love the book so much and is mske you laugh and sad also a great movie and the soundtrack was great and love the songs on the soundtrack on cd
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Posted June 8, 2012
I saw the movie years ago - loved the book even more! Great character development and an interesting flow to the story line.
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Posted March 18, 2012
Did not enjoy this book as much as other books by Fannie Flagg
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Overview
What is it? It’s first the story of two women...