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A review by obsidian_blue
The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop by Fannie Flagg
3.0
Well this was disappointing. I think Flagg was hoping to capture some of the magic from the first book but it felt very flat here. I think the issue was that we had too many characters to follow in this one (Buddy Jr, Ruthie, Eleanor, etc.) and we didn't get enough time with them. I had hoped we would get a different look at Buddy Jr. as a kid and growing up in Whistle Stop, but he felt like he was making cameo appearances in the end. And I have to say that the ending was 100 percent unrealistic. I think that Flagg wanted to leave readers happy with what may come next, but I kept going, yeah this is so unreal I can't even enjoy the book anymore.
"The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop" looks back at characters we followed in the first book in the series, "Fried Green Tomatoes". Now decades later, Whistle Stop, Alabama, is a dead town. Everyone has moved on and those who remember Whistle Stop, still think of Ruth and Idgie. The sequel still has the former residents getting the annual Christmas letter from Dot Weems (who has moved on with her husband) and the book jumps back and forth between past and present at we find out how much Whistle Stop meant to so many people, and especially to Buddy.
I have to say, I don't know if I liked Buddy. You read the book and you see how his life turned out, but it seemed really weird how we find out he grew apart from those who knew and loved him. I just thought that part didn't ring real true. Plus the book kept jumping around and I never got a sense of him. I think he was supposed to be this book's Ninny, and he really wasn't.
Flagg keeps most of the present day action on Buddy's child, Ruthie. And we still don't get much sense of her except that she let herself give up on what she really wanted for marriage to someone who read as "beige" as hell to me.
I think that's why I am so sad right now. It's really hard to hit lightning in a bottle when you follow up on what should have been a stand alone book, but this one really showed how wonderful the first book was and how this one was not up to snuff at all.
The writing was pretty scattered I thought. I think if we had followed things in a linear fashion it may have worked better. But going from the 1930s, to 1980, to 1990, to 2000 whatever was a lot. You also have to pay close attention so you can see when people you have followed from the first book have died and passed away. I just felt so annoyed by the whole thing after a while.
The flow just didn't work at all. I kept having to go back a few times to see what year I was in again to remember what had or had not happened yet at that point.
And Flagg throws in a few Idgie stories we didn't know about which did nothing for me at all.
The ending as I already said was just farcical as anything. I am sorry, it just took me wholly out of the story and made me sigh.
"The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop" looks back at characters we followed in the first book in the series, "Fried Green Tomatoes". Now decades later, Whistle Stop, Alabama, is a dead town. Everyone has moved on and those who remember Whistle Stop, still think of Ruth and Idgie. The sequel still has the former residents getting the annual Christmas letter from Dot Weems (who has moved on with her husband) and the book jumps back and forth between past and present at we find out how much Whistle Stop meant to so many people, and especially to Buddy.
I have to say, I don't know if I liked Buddy. You read the book and you see how his life turned out, but it seemed really weird how we find out he grew apart from those who knew and loved him. I just thought that part didn't ring real true. Plus the book kept jumping around and I never got a sense of him. I think he was supposed to be this book's Ninny, and he really wasn't.
Flagg keeps most of the present day action on Buddy's child, Ruthie. And we still don't get much sense of her except that she let herself give up on what she really wanted for marriage to someone who read as "beige" as hell to me.
I think that's why I am so sad right now. It's really hard to hit lightning in a bottle when you follow up on what should have been a stand alone book, but this one really showed how wonderful the first book was and how this one was not up to snuff at all.
The writing was pretty scattered I thought. I think if we had followed things in a linear fashion it may have worked better. But going from the 1930s, to 1980, to 1990, to 2000 whatever was a lot. You also have to pay close attention so you can see when people you have followed from the first book have died and passed away. I just felt so annoyed by the whole thing after a while.
The flow just didn't work at all. I kept having to go back a few times to see what year I was in again to remember what had or had not happened yet at that point.
And Flagg throws in a few Idgie stories we didn't know about which did nothing for me at all.
The ending as I already said was just farcical as anything. I am sorry, it just took me wholly out of the story and made me sigh.