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Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg is a book I arrived at knowing little about, written by an author I know nothing about. So, it was a major surprise when I was blown out of the water by this experience.

The story involves a little railroad town in Alabama called Whistle Stop and centres around a Cafe of the same name operated by partners Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison. There’s a whole crew of characters we get to know, in fact, initially I found it difficult to keep track of who was who, but after a while I really got to know these people. They came alive for me, each one of them, the good, bad and the ugly.

The author jumps from the 1920s to the 1980s and back again and everywhere in between, the chapters are usually named after places such as the The Rose Terrace Nursing Home or after local bulletins like The Weems Weekly (Whistle Stop Alabama’s Weekly Bulletin),. The reader is taken backwards and forwards, from character to character and drama to drama �� and one experiences every bump, laugh and tear �� it is GOLD!!

My favourite character was Evelyn, this forlorn woman really grew on me. She is connected to the story by visiting her Mother-in-Law at the Rose Terrace Nursing Home and there she meets one of the old Threadgoode ladies. A wonderful relationship develops �� but for me, it’s Evelyn’s journey that sparked my interest. Her relationship with old Ninny Threadgoode quickly blossomed into a wonderful thing:

When she woke this morning, Evelyn realised that she was actually looking forward to going to the nursing home. Sitting there all these weeks listening to stories about the café and Whistle Stop had become more of a reality than her own life��..

Ninny could talk underwater with a mouth full of marbles, this �� as we all know �� can be a little wearing, but it seemed to me this is exactly what Evelyn needed. It was a joy to see their friendship grow. The last section of this book was one of the most moving things I have read in recent times. I read it slowly.

Crazy, wayward, boozy Idgie was another fascinating character �� her love for Ruth was absolute. Her path was no easier than Evelyn’s. But she was equally lovable. I would have liked to have sat down and had a pint of best bitter with Idgie, it’d be a riot:

The Dill Pickle Club……was really just a bunch of Idgie’s ragtag friends that would get together. About all they did was drink whiskey and make up lies (we call it Bullshit in Australia). They’d look you right in the eye and tell you a lie when the truth would have served them better

But Idgie had a MASSIVE heart �� always looking out for the downtrodden. So kind-hearted, but a handful to be sure.

You could say this is a character piece but it’s much more than that �� it also catapults us right back to a time and place most of us have never experienced. We are taken from the time Whistle Top was a buzzing little railroad town in the ��20s to the sad days, decades after the railroads closed and the Town turned into a shadow of its former self.

It was also fascinating to learn more about ‘the other�� Birmingham. Birmingham is my hometown in the UK, we are called “Brummies��. The US version call themselves “Birminghamians��!! You know our Brummie accent in the UK is often voted the UK’s worst accent. I wonder if the Birminghamian accent suffers the same sad fate?

I’ve come away from this book with lots of questions - such as “what is Birmingham and Alabama like?�� or “What do Fried Green Tomatoes taste like?�� (BTW at the back of the book there are recipes), a great book sparks your interest in things I reckon. I’ve also collected a wonderful bunch of characters I will remember for a long time. Evelyn and Idgie in particular.

One word of caution though, this story isn’t all ‘Beer and Skittles��, there are certainly elements of racism, violence and domestic violence that come through �� making this story all the more realistic.

5 Fried Green Tomatoes for me, with a side of Fried Okra and Lima Beans!

5 Stars