#fried green tomatoes great film great food but also both are kind of heavy

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SO’s US Book Tour : Alabama

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café

By Fannie Flagg

When I decided to start reading my way through the United States, it seemed obvious (and perhaps boringly so) that I’d just go through the list alphabetically.  And when I started researching which book I’d like to begin with, there seemed to be a lot of good choices -- specifically, the most famous (possibly) of Alabama fiction - To Kill a Mockingbird - which I, and everyone who's been through a US high school English class has probably read.  A lot of the books I came across felt a bit heavy, and I wanted to start this journey out on a somewhat lighter note.  

The reason I kept coming back to this one was that every blurb seemed to mention that it was about fun and friendship and sometimes murder, and I’ll be honest, that last bit paired with the praise of comedy did pique my interest.  The murder ends up not being so funny, but the book ends up being far more fascinating than I originally thought it would.  I didn’t know much about it when I started -- only that I had heard of the film but being too young for it when it came out -- and no one in my life ever talking about it, I hadn’t sought any information out about it.  

The book splits its time between time periods, which sort of reminds me of Forrest Gump (another Alabama based book), with an old lady sitting on a bench telling her life story, and the story of a small town close enough to Birmingham Alabama to eventually be swallowed up by the urban sprawl; mixed with a bit of that pro-women narrative of something like a League of Their Own.  But unlike Forrest Gump, whose narrative is mostly built on nostalgia for a time long gone, Fried Green Tomatoes still has themes that can resonate today.  

Set in the present day of 1987, Evelyn Couch is a middle-aged woman who doesn’t know what to do with her life.  She’s lived her life entirely by the book, and according to how women should act and be.  But one day she goes to visit her mother-in-law at a home when she meets Mrs. Threadgoode (Ninny) who begins to tell her long tale of the town of Whistle Stop and all of its residents -- most notably the Threadgoode and Peavey families -- those closest to running the cafe.  I really loved Evelyn’s arc in the novel.  She starts out being this really sad sack of a woman who is lost and lonely.  And Ninny provides her with an actual friendship, something she’s lacking completely, and helps her turn her life around.  

It’s fascinating looking back at the late 80s, where Evelyn is slowly starting to come into her own as a woman in her late 40s, but still somewhat confined by the fact that the 80s still had their own slew of issues regarding women.  Evelyn begins to push back on all of it -- and while clearly, now in the 2020s, women are still fighting, but we’ve come a long way since 1987.  

Still, it’s nice to see Evelyn grow as a person and a woman, and the fact that a friendship - and specifically a friendship with another, older woman - is nice to see.  Too often women are portrayed as young and competing, and the fact that this novel seems to celebrate the friendship of women, especially at different ages, and especially between older women, seems like such a thing of value.  Going with the theme of age -- I also like that it portrays women over 40 having interests and hobbies, and explores the idea that women’s lives don’t end if they get married and/or have children.  

The main crux of the story, however, revolves around the Threadgoode family -- most notably Ninny’s sister-in-law Idgie, a young woman who has tomboy-ish characteristics and could give Huck Finn a run for his money.  The thing about Idgie, however, and something that I was not expecting -- at ALL -- was her relationship with Ruth Jamison.  They’re lesbians, Howard.  The relationship is not explicit in any way, but it’s not subtle either.  Idgie and Ruth both declare their love for each other in romantic terms, and end up spending their lives together running the cafe.  I was not at all expecting a story about a couple of lesbians in a book about small town Alabama in the 30s, and yet, here I am, pleasantly surprised to see it as one of the threads.  I do wish there had been more defining mentions of it in the book, but for 1987, I think it’s rather bold to have it at all be the main love story in the novel.  

For what it’s worth, doing some research, I found that Fannie Flagg is a lesbian, so it’s nice that her voice of experience was able to help create such vivid characters.  The fact that Idgie and Ruth have a lesbian relationship is somewhat known by others, but never really commented on.  The book idealizes it a little -- but it can be passed off as a great friendship well enough that it retains believability.  If anything, my one nitpick would be that it falls into the narrative of ‘kill the gays’ with death of Ruth cutting her life short, but since her death isn’t the end (it’s hinted at early on), nor does it prop up anyone else’s emotional story -- but is another part of the ‘spanning a lifetime’ part of this epic tale, I’m letting it slide a bit.  

The book does go in-depth on the whole Threadgoode family, and what life was like during The Great Depression in small town Alabama, and how small town life changes as the years tumble into the 50s, 60s, and even 70s.  People come into your life, and people leave it, and the world around you changes as you begin to romanticize the time of your youth.  

A bit of the book is also dedicated to talking about the Peavey family -- a black family who works for Idgie at the cafe.  I wasn’t sure how the race angle was going to play out, the term ‘colored’ and the n-word are used judiciously -- but used in the context of the time period.  While there were times when I could tell it was definitely a book written by a white woman, the book never shied away from the difficulties black families had (and still have) in the south.  The nice thing is that the black characters were just as complex, just as fleshed out, and just as interesting as any of the white characters.  They weren’t caricatures or stereotypes -- they were people just trying to make it through life the same way white people were, only with a lot more difficulty.  

While the book kind of acts like a slice-of-life character examination -- it does have a major set piece in the murder of Ruth’s husband Frank, and who did it.  The mystery is not anywhere near the focus of the book, but all the threads of the book seem to tie around that one incident.  This is where I really enjoy Flagg’s storytelling.  At first the book bounces around from one piece of narrative to another, but the unfolding of why and how and what of this murder mystery buried within the character study is really a thing of beauty.  

Before I forget, the heart of this book is a celebration of southern (Alabamian) culture -- and one of my favorite aspects of this book is the fact that there are over a dozen recipes for good ole fashioned southern cooking in the back.  Food is another theme throughout the novel, and it just makes me smile that like any good southern household -- they can’t let you leave still feeling hungry.  

I really enjoyed this book -- much more than I thought I would when I picked it up.  There’s a lot packed into the 250-ish page book, and handles the themes it presents rather well.  It’s an easy read, and while light in tone, doesn’t shy away from its heavier subject material.  I would very much recommend it!