A review by trudesreads
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

4.0

For the nostalgia lovers out there... The structure of this being like listening to someone tell their life stories in little bits and pieces, all of it building out this world in your head and feeling almost like you could reach out and touch it was really quite something. It is very readable and light in the small chapters and vignette storytelling, but also lends itself to these almost shocking stings of melancholy — chapters end as abruptly and without song as lives do.

Thought Evelyn having this rebirth by being exposed to the bravery, humour and love of people she had never even met was moving, and it's understandable because the characters (Ruth and Sipsey in particular, imo) are incredibly endearing even though you really don't get to dig into them or spend too much time with them.

I had watched the movie which I remember being quite different but I did like its approach to more Ruth and Idgie focus (even if it avoided explicit romance), but this book is a bit more honest. The matter of fact-ness was quite refreshing.

I think we all live our lives quite scared of time's passing and the fact these big moments in them can ultimately be blink and it's gone. Fried Green Tomatoes doesn't deny the dark humour, sadness, and mourning of memory that naturally occurs as the best moments of our lives pass us by, but it also approaches these things with an appreciation and positive response that didn't make the whole outing a downer