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

Unorganized Thoughts Below:

Read this Summer of 2022 when I was feeling dour. Cheered me up a bit.

Light-hearted reading. Easy to read, easy to love characters.

Interesting narrative structure (past and present, narrative embedded within narrative).

Product of its era, not just in the sense of it being set in 1920s and 1990s South (approximation) — do mind the TW’s if you’re wary — but if you can get past that, it’s a lovely story about community.

It’s also got elements of “found family,” which, while I won’t give details, was easily my favorite segment within the book (of course it’s the relationship

between Idgie and Ruth

, but also the way the people of the Whistle Stop Cafe work as a family).

Content Warnings

beccalove's review against another edition

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dark lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

3.0

**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 ⭐

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artstitute's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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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jadaraines's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.5

I really loved the message of this book - there were some Black stereotypes, and I couldn’t really tell what stance the author took on racism, which kinda bothered me, as well as the stereotyping, all of the black characters being written with a jive accent, and casual use of slurs by protagonist white characters despite being written in the 80s, which kinda made me side-eye, but otherwise, I really thought it was a beautiful story with a great message that a lot of readers can relate to.

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ymziegler's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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? Yes

4.25

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