Friday Favorites

I found this fantastic graphic at At Home With Books. Each week she uses it when she reviews one of her favorite books from the past, which I think is a terrific idea. If all goes well, my goal is to do this every Friday.

My pick this week is "Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe" by Fannie Flagg.
Flagg tells the story of two women who form an unlikely friendship; one is an elderly woman, Mrs. Threadgoode, living in a nursing home, the other is a middle-aged woman, Evelyn, who is in the throes of a midlife identity crisis. Mrs. Threadgoode begins telling Evelyn the tale of two other women--tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth. In the 1930's Idgie and Ruth ran the Whistle Stop Cafe in a small Southern town. The book takes the reader back and forth in time.

The characters are, figuratively speaking, black or white; there is no gray as far as character is concerned. But there is enough "bad" in this book to keep the book from getting too sugary. And the book does deal with some big subjects including racism, homosexuality, and spousal abuse. Only a hard-hearted person would not find themselves cheering for Idgie, Ruth, Big George, Ninny, and Evelyn.