- Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

Like a lot of people, the movie was my first exposure to this story. The book is just... more. More insight into the characters in the movie, more players (it follows the children and grandchildren of the main characters), more humor and tragedy. Unlike the movie that focuses almost entirely on two time periods in the 30s and 80s this story bounces back and forth through the intervening years and clears up a lot of vague points.It is a bit discomforting to read passages over and over of such casual racism even in the "enlightened" 80s part, but to pretend the otherwise in the American South setting would feel disingenuous. The unflinching acceptance of a lesbian couple is nice though. It would read as false if one half of the couple wasn't described as being both related to half the town and as almost a force of nature. Overall I'd say it feels like a decent look at small town life in the past.I found myself looking up references to old songs, foods I've never had, plants I wasn't familiar with, and even old railroad routes. Everything I looked up turned out to be real. Even "Railroad Bill" was based on fact. These are things I wouldn't even think to ask about and I loved the fact that I was learning something new every time I chased one of those references down. I have no idea how accurate the book really is, but I never caught the author taking liberties and still managed to be a compelling story.My one complaint is an admittedly stupid one. It's impossible to picture the main characters as anyone other than the actors from the movie. It works fine for everyone but Ninny. All the "big girl" mentions just don't fit, but no matter how much I try I just can't form any other picture of her older self and her younger self is a blank to me. So if you haven't seen the movie, maybe read the book first so you don't get "locked" into certain mental images of everyone.I've read this book a few times now and it never fails to enchant. I can't think of anyone I'd pause to recommend this book as long as you can read it while keeping in mind it was a different time. But if you want a lesson about that you can watch how most 90s comedies treat homosexuality. Fiction doesn't always age well, but the main themes of what it means to be a woman, aging, and the ties that forge a family are as applicable now as when the book was published.

I saw this movie back in the 90's, and after watching it 20 or more times over the years I finally decided to read the book. I always loved how Idgie's spirit revolutionized Evelyn's spirit, but I always thought the movie jumped around a lot. The book really jumps around all over the place and has four viewpoints as opposed to the movie’s two. It starts with The Weems Weekly and you get to hear Dot Weems' storytelling voice, another charming southern personality that wasn't in the movie. Then it goes to Evelyn’s current reality, Ninny’s storytelling, as well as scenes that were Whistle Stop history but not part of the stories that Ninny told Evelyn. With so many different viewpoints and a not entirely chronological timeline it would have been easy to steer the story off course into a mess of a train wreck, but the author kept that from happening by giving information in her flash forwards that made the story make more sense as it was told.For readers and movie watchers alike: be advised that the rest of this review might contain what you’d likely classify as spoilers.For readers of the book, it was interesting to see that Vesta Adcock, whose Whistle Stop history wasn’t mentioned in the movie, turned out to be Ed’s (Evelyn’s husband) aunt. There was a lot more of the history of the Otis’s, including how Sipsey came to be Big George’s mother, Big George’s children and their eventual history, as well as Smokey Robinson’s past and what became of him. Some of which was kind of gruesome and I can see why it was left out of the movie. You also get a glimpse of Ruth's son Buddy and his family in 1986 at the end of the book, which you also won’t get in the movie. Ninny's is much more of a non-stop rambling storyteller n the book, but just like the movie she's a delight to listen to. I just imagined Jessica Tandy's voice while I read.Idgie's brother Buddy is hit by the train while goofing around with his friends and chasing a hat on the railroad tracks, but Buddy and Ruth did not have a crush on each other, in fact they never met. Buddy was in love with a sexually free woman named Eva whose dad ran the Dill Pickle Club, which is where Idgie became a fixture after Buddy died.While no sexual scenes are written into the book, Idgie and Ruth were clearly in romantic love with each other and wind up living together, something that is alluded to but not made clear in the movie. “You love who you love” seems to be a lesson Idgie learned from Buddy and Eva. The movie alludes to their affair with several different scenes but backs off of outright putting it out there.Ruth has already died when Idgie goes on trial for the murder of Frank Bennett, and it’s Smokey Robinson who comes to her rescue and gets Reverend Scroggins and all the gypsy hobos to come to her aid in her murder trial. Frank Bennett was even more of a jerk in the book than in the movie and while the judge isn’t actually fooled by anybody he has reason to be glad Frank got what he had coming to him, dismiss the case and let Idgie go..Ninny Threadgoode in the book is definitely not Idgie Threadgoode, as the movie suggests at the end. Ninny Threadgoode does make it home after Mrs. Otis dies, then you get a glimpse of 1986 Idgie and her brother Julian running a fresh foods stand at the end of the book but due to the circumstances you know Idgie is not Ninny. I read a review somewhere that made a case for the movie having Ninny and Idgie being the same person in the movie. Ninny could have wanted to keep her identity a secret while she told Evelyn about herself as the younger Idgie. In both book and movie, Ninny was “adopted” into the family, leaving her free to have a crush on Buddy and then eventually marry Cleo. Once the story was told and Evelyn was her friend, Ninny felt comfortable letting her in on her wild life as Idgie..If you enjoyed the movie I think you can still make up your own mind which ending makes more sense and feels better to you. I really liked the movie ending much more than the book ending; it just felt warmer and more uplifting to me, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I would not recommend skipping it. As for me, I went ahead and got the extended anniversary edition DVD Fried Green Tomatoes (Extended Anniversary Edition) of the movie that has scenes left out of the movie. I enjoy both

This is a really fine novel written in modern American Southern traditional style. The storyline mixes shifting timelines and plots. The timeline shifts between the early and late parts of the twentieth century, primarily in Alabama. There is a great deal of humor, love, and family, and at the same time pathos.This really fine novel reminded me of various American Female Southern authors. Primarily the writing style reminded me of the short stories of. Eudora Welty, particularly her earlier short stories such as the collection "A Curtain of Green and Other Stories". Additionally this novel really called to mind Harper Lee and "To Kill A Mocking Bird". To some extent the novel also called to mind Flannery O'Connor. As a reader I have become enthralled with Southern Gothic writing. However I also greatly enjoy the Southern non gothic style. I would place this novel in the latter category. Discussions of race relations including racial terminology are seemingly inevitable in such works and are part of this work.This novel formed the basis for a well known movie that I have not seen. As I understand it, Miss Flagg helped with the movie. I am looking forward to now watching the movie.I have to say that this has become one of my favorite novels. I am sorry to say that I had never read any novel by Fannie Flagg. I have already purchased an additional novel, "The All Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion". I seldom read two novels by the same author without a break. I intend to read this novel in the near furture. Thank You...