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Nov 30, 2007

Natalie rated it:

Good characters, some good stories... but often poorly organized, meandering, and not cohesive -- often I was left wondering what the point was, and once the book was done, I still had no answer. The prose was sometimes great, but more often amateur. This was really a mixed bag.

The best I can come up with for the "point" of the novel was to show how times changed from the 20s to the mid-80s through the stories of multiple characters who are connected in various ways. Tie More...

7 comments like (9 people liked it)

Nov 15, 2007

Katie rated it:

I really love this movie, but as usual, the book is much better and vastly different. In 1985, two women, Ninny and Evelyn, meet and develop a strong friendship. They share treats and conversation while Ninny spins the story of Whistle Stop and its inhabitants, weaving relationships through generations in an enchanting tale of the Old South. The journey is equally important for both women, allowing Ninny to remember and embrace her past while helping Evelyn to accept her past and look forward to More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 11, 2008

Lisa rated it:

I feel bad saying it, but I think this is a case where I liked the movie better than I liked the book! The movie had its heartbreaking moments, but one was still left with quite a bit of humor and a general feeling of the significance of living life to the fullest. The book featured many more characters (and tragedies!) than the movie chose to portray, and the sadness of some of the stories dragged down the more humorous parts of the book. I guess I had expected the movie when I opened the pages More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Oct 01, 2007

Lauren rated it:

I really love this movie, so I decided to check out the book (which I often do...movie, then book). I found that the book had a lot more going on than the movie, including a plethora of new characters, which I often found confusing. However, the addition of characters allowed for a look at race relations throughout much of the 20th century, which was very interesting. Overall, though, I liked the way the movie flushed out the main characters and their storyline better than the book, and felt tha More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jul 29, 2011

Nick rated it:

Evelyn Couch, an empty-nester woman who is unable to find meaning in her life, finds personal strength and a new zest for living through the stories and friendship of Mrs. Threadgoode, a nursing home resident.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is essentially about the relationships of two sets of women—Evelyn and Mrs. Threadgoode in the present (1980s) and Idgie and Ruth in the past. At the start of the novel, Evelyn has no purpose and finds her life unbearable. Her k More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 02, 2008

whichwaydidshego? rated it:

This is a book that reminds us of what was once truly great about society, while still facing the worst in it head on. It mayn't again be found in the community, but it certainly can be found within us, if we choose it. And in small ways, then, glimpses will be found in our circle and possibly beyond.

It tells us that equality - of race, of sex, of age - is a disposition that comes from deep within, but is also a decision and a lifestyle. Remember, we, none of us, are merely what w More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 25, 2009

Alisa added it

I've always found the movie totally charming, and the book is even more so. Here we get a lot more of the back story of the Threadgoode family, and Idgie's relationship with Ruth. The story moves back and forth in time, and it is interspersed with amusing clips from the Whistle Stop newspaper.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 16, 2011

Thalia rated it:

I really don't know why this treasure sat on my tbr pile for four years. I bought it after I read „Standing in the Rainbow“ which I absolutely adored, and then I put off reading it.[return]Usually I don't like reading family sagas too much, but every once in a while one comes along that grabs you, makes you laugh and cry and doesn't let you go until you've turned the last page. And beyond. This is one of those books. I fell in love with the story and the people in it after about ten pages.[retur More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 08, 2011

John added it

Having experienced the depression firsthand, my mother was rife with witticisms and anecdotes of being a teenager in her small Ohio town during the early ‘30s. Being a baby-boomer raised in a more affluent era, I never really connected with her many parables. This book focuses mostly on the residents of Whistle Stop, Alabama, and documents the joys, sorrows, prides, prejudices, sins and virtues of the of the little railroad-supported community. After devouring this enthralling book, my mom’s More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 19, 2009

Danny rated it:

Always interesting to read the book after seeing the movie. Especially since I love the movie so much.

I like the book too, though. It's kind of radical in a lot of ways, which is depressing because it was written in the 1980s. Depressing because it's radical in mostly feminist ways and that really shouldn't be radical anymore.

The storyline was largely the same as the movie with tweaks here and there, mostly to do with timeline, or what Ninny Threadgoode, the storyteller, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 07, 2012

Сhristie rated it:

Те, що треба для зимових холодних вечорів. Закриваєш повіки, і ось ти вже в старому домі сімейства Тредгудів, заповненому ароматами ще теплого печеня, яке Сіпсі нарізає на великому столі.. або в кафе "Полуостанок", де Іджі виносить із кухні запашну кукурудзу під білим соусом, знамениті смажені зелені помідори і клаптик лимонного пирога. Нехай я буду банальною, але ця книга пройняла мене всіма відблисками доброти і віданності її героїв. Однозначно, Руфь пощастило з такою подругою, як Ід More...

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Oct 17, 2011

Ibis3 rated it:

I couldn''t help but compare this book to the movie, which I really loved. The book contained many of the same elements but the emphasis was quite different. I really enjoyed how the story was told in short narrative chapters interspersed with the newspaper gossip column and the chapters about Evelyn. I really enjoy books that jump around in time as long as all the threads come together and Flagg managed to do that quite well (though there was what I believe to be an error in the timing in Evely More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 19, 2011

Emily rated it:

OK, I admit it, I have a fixation on trains right now, which indirectly led to me choosing this book about the goings-on in a small town in Alabama called Whistle Stop, located alongside the Southern Railway tracks. The train theme is predominant from Big George Pullman Peavey being named after the man who invented the Pullman car, to the gospel songs sung such as ‘In the Baggage Car Ahead’ and ‘I’m Goin’ Home on the Morning Train.’ There is even a ‘Robin Hood’ like character named Railroad Bill More...

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Jul 17, 2011

Frankie rated it:

Fittingly enough, I picked this book up at a cafe. Like the one in the book, the cafe is old-fashioned and a little disheveled, serving up unmatched tables and delicious apple pie in a sunny corner building that once was a hardware store. One wall is covered with bookcases. You are welcome to borrow or donate a book. So, when I saw Fried Green Tomatoes on the shelf, I took it home. I've wanted to read Fried Green Tomatoes since the movie came out in 1991. I loved this quiet little film, which al More...

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Jun 15, 2011

Pearls rated it:

I'm writing this for those who have read the book and are just comparing notes, so I don't want to recap the story, as has been done so many times. I just wanted to make a couple of observations.

I had, like so many others, seen the movie and enjoyed it somewhat, though the "OMG, the person telling the story IS the person in the story" part, I thought was just so Hollywood. Therefore, so predictable and fake. When I saw the book at a yard sale, I almost didn't pick it up, bu More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 10, 2011

Sonia rated it:

E chi se l'aspettava?
All'inizio mi sentivo un po' come Evelyn: infastidita dalle chiacchiere di quella vecchia nella casa di riposo... avrei voluto stare per i fatti miei, avrei voluto che si stesse zitta.
E poi... e poi, ad un certo punto, avrei voluto ch enon la smettesse più di parlare!
Mi sembrava di trovarmi un bel giorno in Whistle Stop e non capirci nulla: chi stava con chi o di chi era figlio o con chi lavorava o quando... aiuto!!! eppure era una città piccina!
Ma c'è voluto poco ad ambien More...

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Jan 26, 2011

Melissa rated it:

This was such a fun book! While it did have its moments of seriousness and development between characters, there was a lot of joy and jokes in this book as well. Flagg certainly has written a classic in my opinion.

There are two main story lines in this book, with little snippets of newspaper articles thrown in. The narrator storyline would probably be between Evelyn and Mrs. Threadgoode in the time line of the 80's. Evelyn visits with her husband every Sunday to see his mother in the n More...

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Oct 23, 2010

Asha rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Sep 23, 2010

Martina rated it:

The movie and the book are vastly different from one another. The movie itself took the major events, subtracted a lot of character detail, and then added some of its own stuff.

I will say that the book doesn't read like a typical book, from start to finish in chronological order. It jumps around in time and point of view. So if you are not the type of person who enjoys such narration, you will not enjoy this book.

I thought the book was excellent. The amount of detai More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 12, 2010

Paula rated it:

‘Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe’ begins with the ‘Weems Weekly’, the local newsletter written by Dot Weems, which is very funny, Dot’s insights are hilarious and appear throughout the book with the timeline of events in Whistle Stop.

The story begins with Evelyn Couch, a depressed and lonely housewife, held back most of her life because of her own fears and trying to find out who she is, she meets Virginia ‘Ninny’ Threadgoode in the Rose Terrace nursing home whilst vis More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2009

D.m. rated it:

This is less a review of this famous novel by Fanny Flagg, and more a tribute. One day I was at the library and there was a bookstall. I picked up this copy of ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ for fifty cents and was glad I did.

I had seen the movie twice, but that was some time ago. It’s one of those films that one could watch over and over again and still be entertained and charmed by—and who could forget the shocking revelation of the fate of Ruth’s cruel husband, Frank Bennett—how well the More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Aug 04, 2010

Lori rated it:

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Jun 06, 2009

Tahleen rated it:

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is both funny and heartbreakingly brutal; I found myself laughing and crying (hard). It starts off with middle-aged housewife Evelyn Couch meeting an old woman named Ninny Threadgoode in the nursing home where her mother-in-law is living, and Mrs. Threadgoode begins a series of stories about the Threadgoode family--she herself was a part of the family from when she was little, when they took her in after her parents died. At the center of the stories More...

7 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 30, 2010

Becki rated it:

My Summary: A very character-driven book, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe follows the story of the people who live in Whistle Stop Alabama from the late 1920s all the way through to Birmingham in the 1980s. The story is told in second and third person, going back and forth between conservations between Evelyn Couch and Ninny Threadgood.

Themes: Racism and race relations before the civil rights movement and after; vague GLBT themes; small town life

My Thoughts More...

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Aug 18, 2011

Shelley rated it:

I loved this book and the characters. It is definately one of my all time favorites. I saw the movie back in 1991 and remember loving it, but I haven't seen it since, so I have no recollection how different it is to the book. I lived in Alabama for 8 years from 2000 - 2008 and actually lived around 45 minutes from Whistle Stop Cafe (yes it is still there even though the story says it shut down) and unfortunately only got there once (how I regret that now). I wasn't impressed with their food More...

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May 28, 2011

Kimberly rated it:

Spoiler Alert! For years I've had this book on my list to read, and somehow never got around to it until now. This was my first Fannie Flagg book, and I found it to be very charming and ambitious with several story lines interwoven over several different generations during several time periods spanning from the 1920's -1980's.

I have seen the movie multiple times & enjoyed it, but the book is so much more complex, and the characters so well-developed, that I feel like I know them, especially Idgi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 12, 2011

Luana rated it:

Aprite una nuova finestra, connettetevi su 'Google maps' e digitate 'Birmingham, Alabama', cliccate 'indicazioni stradali' e, nella stringa bianca, inserite 'Whistle Stop, Alabama'. Scoprirete così che, a quattro ore di viaggio e una manciata di minuti, si trovano la più grande città dell'Alabama, Birmingham, e una città (o forse paese?) che non ha nemmeno ottenuto indicazioni su Wikipedia.
Adesso che siete orientati sulla cartina geografica, immaginate di tornare indietro negli anni '30 e d More...

7 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 21, 2009

Jamie rated it:

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0 comments like

Jan 23, 2012

Rachel rated it:

I really loved the book. I really did. So much that I gave it 5 stars which I only give to books that I continue to think about after I'm done reading.

However, there was one thing that nagged me the whole time I was reading...am I really supposed to believe that in the early 1900's in a southern Baptist town in Alabama that NO ONE questioned the lesbian relationship of Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth? Even the family just sits around and laughs about how Idgie has fallen in love with R More...

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Apr 29, 2011

M and G rated it:

This was a strange book jumping from 1929 to 1985 for a number of chapters before progressing to 1930 &1931 & 1986. Then the 30s advance alternately with Jnuary 1986 until odd chapters in 1917 & 1924 & various other dates creep in and some of the past characters feature in epidodes almost up to the 1988 present at the end of the book.
My husband had read this book first and said he found it easy to follow the separate time-frames because he noticed the chapter headings denoting the nursing More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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