Reviews with content warning for Cancer - Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

but reeks of white savior tropes and is overall extremely racist--even the "good" characters seem to think of black people as lesser than in some way and never address their own racism. The older white characters actually think black people are meaner in the present... because they are mad... about racism. The charm of this book has definitely aged like milk unfortunately.

Also, the main character finds her self worth by

joining an mlm instead of learning to love her body and unlearn her fatphobia?

Come on.

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chloenfp's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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rchristine11's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This was a great book. I knew very little about it going into it, and was pleasantly surprised at the sapphic relationship. This book is an adult novel and no character is without fault or flaw. The book is reflective and nuanced. It is told nonlinearly and touches on themes of sexism, aging, racism, abelism, colorism, domestic violence, euthanasia, non traditional family units, coming of age, and poverty. The book uses slurs continuously throughout. It’s not for everyone, and could easily offend. I usually stay in the fantasy/sci-fi/horror genres, but I ventured out for this one and I’m glad I did. I absolutely love a nonlinear story with multiple narrators. Sometimes it was an omniscient narrator, other times we are listening to ninny reminisce, or reading the weekly bulletin and the book jumps between decades, cities, and characters quickly. I really enjoy that narration style in a book. It takes a great writer to pull all that together to create a coherent story.
I’ve read a lot of critiques of the novel since finishing it and I think many of them miss the point of reading an adult novel (as opposed to children or YA lit). They mention the problematic nature of Idgie and Stumps relationship or the character Grady being likable while also being a KKK member. People point to colorism and racism and abelism displayed by the main characters. I feel like each criticism is saying “the narrative portrayed something bad and, because it wasn’t called out as such in the narrative, the book itself is promoting harmful ideas.” To which my response would be that this is a book for adults. As adults, we don’t need to be told when something is bad. This type of narrative style allows readers to engage critically with the issues presented and form their own nuanced opinions.
This is not an easy read. It’s challenging, slow, and reflective. But it is a good book regardless and is full of hope.

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lily1304's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

3.25

Fried Green Tomatoes reminded me of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, in that the pace of the plot is slow, if there even is a plot. The emphasis is on the charming characters across generations, and a kind of nostalgia for the early 20th century. It's a cute little story, worth reading but not very exciting or memorable.

It's flagged as "LGBTQ+" because it prominently features a committed relationship between two women, and no one in the novel is ever weird about it. Racism and sexism are strong themes, but there is apparently zero homophobia in Whistle Stop, Alabama. It's honestly kind of refreshing, but also confusing. Everyone treats this couple like they're married, but they're described in really vague terms, almost like a "Boston marriage" romantic friendship. It's like the opposite of The Price of Salt.

The way racism is depicted is particularly interesting - the novel features the Ku Klux Klan and an old white lady with a mild discomfort around black men and everything in between. It's difficult to tell which mildly racist opinions are the author's and which are just the characters'. The N-word and the word "colored" are used with abandon. The novel also makes a big deal out of colorism among the black characters.

One of the characters, Evelyn, an older lady in 1986, goes on a whole journey about how sexism has affected her life - and her story concludes triumphantly with her at weight-loss camp, and losing a significant amount of weight is one of her victories. Unironically. Evelyn's relationship with Ninny makes it seem like the story is about to take a strong body-positive stance, but it's a total bait and switch.

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rieviolet's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

While it was an easy and quick read, I cannot really put aside all the negative aspects I found in the book.

Got tired really quickly of all the uses of the n-word and the general "white savioury" vibe (I get that society at the time was racist and you cannot erase that but the author didn't realy need to go so hard on this trope), and I couldn't really stand the racism that still permeated the more recent story line. Also, like some other reviews mentioned, I find really unbelivable that in such a society (Alabama in the 30s) people would be so very much racist but at the same time be so cool about queer characters and not once say anything about the main relationship; I really cannot buy it. Not really a fan also of black characters being depicted in quite a stereotypical and one-dimensional way.

Moreover, I found the character of Evelyn to be all over the place and I also really really did not enjoy the fatphobia in her storyline, thank you but no.

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