Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

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Manufacturer: Fannie Flag
Brand: Fiction
Brew: Paperback/Audiobook
Steeping Time: 416 pages/11 hours 27 minutes
Tea Service: Book Club/Personal Choice
Strength:

Synopsis: Folksy and fresh, endearing and affecting, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is a now-classic novel about two women: Evelyn, who’s in the sad slump of middle age, and gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode, who’s telling her life story. Her tale includes two more women – the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth – who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Alabama, offering good coffee, southern barbecue, and all kinds of love and laughter – even an occasional murder. And as the past unfolds, the present will never be quite the same again.

From the very start of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, I’m connected.

It’s my hometown on a page. It’s the old-timers I knew growing up speaking to me, right off the paper (or, in this case, right out of my speakers). I grew up in the tiny town of Red Rock, TX. In its heyday, it was a booming town. Six cotton gins, a coal factory, a few saloons and bars, a doctor’s office, deli, garage, inn, dance hall, movie theater, skating rink, and, rumor has it, the first lighted baseball field in Texas. Now, pretty much all that’s left is the general store that my family owns. My grandparents bought it when I was 8 and here I am, still working there part-time.

I spent my childhood listening to stories from the older folks about what the town was like when they were growing up, about the times when the train still stopped there and the town was massive. You could ride to Smithville, TX, for a dime. I had my own personal Mrs. Threadgoode, but not just one. I had a good twenty of them. It’s hard listening to this book again right now because five days ago, we lost one of them.

His name was Tom Muehr, and he told me all kinds of stories. One of my favorites is how he used to flag down the train with a white handkerchief and it would stop to pick him up, miles away from any train station. Now, out of all of those lovely people, I have one Mrs. Threadgoode left. He is Tom’s older brother, Roger. Both of these men are like extra grandfathers to me. I love them. God, I love them. So, yes. The minute Mrs. Threadgoode takes us back to Whistle Stop, I’m with her. But I’m also eight years old again, sitting in the window of Red Rock General Store, listening to stories about my own personal Whistle Stop from my own, much-loved Mrs. Threadgoodes.

The nostalgia this book brings to my heart is unfathomable.

It’s so instant and intense. There aren’t enough words on the planet to accurately describe it. This book speaks my language in that way. I’ve always said that in my version of Heaven, God will walk me up to a little, old-fashioned machine, and I’ll know exactly what it is. I can enter any time, any year, any place, and instantly be there, walking among the people and seeing what life was like then. I can’t interact with it, it’s more like walking through a movie, but I can be in it, see it, touch it, live it. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe does that for me. It paints such a vivid picture in my mind and I can’t get enough of it.

I love that there is a dual timeline. In the present day, we meet Evelyn, a woman visiting her mother-in-law in a nursing home. To avoids another awkward hour, she leaves her husband to it and wanders off. In trying to find a quiet corner, she finds Mrs. Threadgoode instead. Through their friendship, the story begins. Mrs. Threadgoode spins her stories of Whistle Stop to Evelyn with vibrant emotion, whether Evelyn wants to hear it or not. You can practically feel Mrs. Threadgoode reliving it. And then, you get to relive it with her. You step back in time to a Whistle Stop of the past and get to experience it first hand. There it is, my time machine.

Every character in the book is so well-rounded and so very real. It feels like Fannie Flagg simply wrote about the people of her own past or childhood. They are so unique and vivid that I have to remind myself that it’s fiction. But that breaks my heart a little, so I don’t remind myself of it too often.

Even though the pace is quick and engaging, I’m right there alongside Evelyn, begging Mrs. Threadgoode to tell me more.

Take me back again to a different time, where a good family loved one another and the community around them. Where they gave all they could and did the right thing, damn the consequences.

Was that time in history perfect? No. The KKK is present, words are used to describe Black men and women that aren’t acceptable anymore, racism is flaunted for all to see. Aspects of that history are bad, but that doesn’t make this a bad story. It shows that there are people of every background that are good and will do everything they can to protect and take care of those they love, no matter the color of their skin, who they fall in love with, or how much money they have.

This book is such a lesson in how to love one another.

It’s a beautiful reminder to be kind. I carry in my heart pieces of Idgie, Ruth, Mama and Papa Threadgoode, Mrs. Ninny Threadgoode, Dot, Smokey Lonesome, Big George, Sipsey, Stump, Grady, and so many others, and I hope that they can guide me to be a better person.

Not only do we see how the people of old Whistle Stop grow and change, we get to witness the effect that the stories have on Evelyn in the present day. I love her character arc and rooted for her all the way. And, oh Evelyn, your thought process on balls is just, mwah –chef’s kiss-, perfecto. To think, all of us women over here juggling imaginary balls. We’d have so much more free time if we didn’t have to worry about that!

Evelyn taught me a lot. One line from the book sticks with me. “She began living with one foot in the grave.” This refers to Evelyn, who is terrified of getting cancer and dying. But through Mrs. Threadgoode and the memories of Whistle Stop, she learns to take that foot right out of the grave and get to living. This book teaches me the same thing. It makes me want to live life so fully that it hurts. My advice? Read Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. And then get busy living.

Have you read Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe? Leave a comment and let me know what you thought about it! Want to read it for yourself? Click here to get a copy of your own.
Cheers,
Lydia