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

**Spoilers ahead, but the book is from 50 years ago, so no apologies.** Woohoo, BOOK REVIEW!

First off, I want to open with the fact that this book is drowning in racism that is both relevant and not relevant to the historical context of part of the story and its location. There's a number of chapters that could be removed entirely and honestly seem to exist solely because Flagg wanted to say them herself (including WAYY too much comfort using the N word). It was written and published in the 1980's focused on small-town Alabama and the story bounces between there and several other time periods, mainly the 1930's. So for that reason alone, I don't recommend it.

Secondly, while there are some beautiful sections with an explicit sapphic love story - those characters don't experience a happy ending and Fannie Flagg fell prey to the #buryyourgays trope despite being a lesbian herself. Idgie isn't there when Ruth dies and her death is treated with no emotion at all really. There's no mourning, no sharing of Idgie's partner of almost 2 decades (and love of her life), and that alone pissed me off enough to stop reading for 24 hours. After Ruth dies, their story is absent from the book for almost all of the final hundred pages and the final graveside mention just leaves so much to be desired.

At the end of the day, there are some beautiful scenes and I'm thankful to have read a book from that period which has a queer love story so well accepted and respected by all the other characters in the book. However, the racism is inescapable and the lack of a good ending for our queer characters leaves me disappointed in the novel overall.

⭐⭐⭐/5 ⭐

Content Warnings

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Content Warnings

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.

Content Warnings

marenjk's review

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dark reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

Content Warnings

mfieldshalva's review

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

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