David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "fannie-flagg"
The Whole Town's Talking
Supposedly this is Fannie Flagg's last novel, but she does leave some room to change her mind. This may be Fannie's strangest novel. It's sort of a cross between “Spoon River Anthology” and “The Lovely Bones”. In other words it's about dead people who don't sound dead.
THE WHOLE TOWN'S TALKING starts when Lordor Nordstrom emigrates to America in the 1870's; he finds a beautiful little valley in Missouri that would be perfect for a dairy farm. Then he takes out an ad in the paper asking for other farmers to join him, and they do. When he hits his mid thirties, he realizes he needs a wife, so he takes out an ad in the newspaper looking for a mail order bride. Katrina Olsen, a maid in Chicago, is worried she'll be a maid for the rest of her life. She answers the ad. They get married but he doesn't talk to her. He tells her he's dumb; he only has a fifth grade education. She says it doesn't matter; from then on he talks her ears off. They have two kids, Teddy and Ingrid. He builds her a town and plots out a cemetery above the farm.
Eventually people start to die; the first one finds another man already buried there who was scalped by an Indian in the 1850's. He knows this because the man tells him. As more people die, they realize that they like looking at the stars, experiencing the seasons and having their friends and relatives come talk to them. They see airplanes flying overhead. Eventually somebody dies and explains how they work. They hear about other changes and wonder what will come next.
When you read this book, make sure you have a pencil and paper handy; there are so many characters, it's hard to remember who's related to whom. I'm still not sure how Aunt Elner is related to Lordor if she is at all.
Eventually people start disappearing at the cemetery. The first one to go is the old cowboy who was scalped. The readers think this is just a way station; they have to wait until there's an opening in Heaven. Wrong-o. You won't believe it.
There are also several other subplots. Lester Shingle, a peeping Tom, is murdered leaving the bowling alley. He thinks one of the four state champion
women's bowling team hit him in the head with a bowling ball. He bides his time, waiting for them to die.
Lordor's son didn't want the farm, which had grown to a full blown dairy with three barns. He sells it to a neighbor boy at a loss, who loved the place as much as he did. The boy's daughter is born deaf, and that's another subplot. The man she marries is a conman. Lordor made the boy promise he'd never sell the farm out of the family. Hanna Marie lives up to the promise ,until something terrible happens.
Fannie Flagg has always centered her novels on small town life. Some cynics would sneer at the plot line and claim places like this just don't exist. People aren't really this nice, and they don't care about each other as much or help each other out during the rough times. I suppose that's why there are a couple of creeps added to the list of characters with a couple of murders thrown in. But I was raised in a place like Elmwood Springs, Missouri, and I can tell you she's not that far off.
THE WHOLE TOWN'S TALKING starts when Lordor Nordstrom emigrates to America in the 1870's; he finds a beautiful little valley in Missouri that would be perfect for a dairy farm. Then he takes out an ad in the paper asking for other farmers to join him, and they do. When he hits his mid thirties, he realizes he needs a wife, so he takes out an ad in the newspaper looking for a mail order bride. Katrina Olsen, a maid in Chicago, is worried she'll be a maid for the rest of her life. She answers the ad. They get married but he doesn't talk to her. He tells her he's dumb; he only has a fifth grade education. She says it doesn't matter; from then on he talks her ears off. They have two kids, Teddy and Ingrid. He builds her a town and plots out a cemetery above the farm.
Eventually people start to die; the first one finds another man already buried there who was scalped by an Indian in the 1850's. He knows this because the man tells him. As more people die, they realize that they like looking at the stars, experiencing the seasons and having their friends and relatives come talk to them. They see airplanes flying overhead. Eventually somebody dies and explains how they work. They hear about other changes and wonder what will come next.
When you read this book, make sure you have a pencil and paper handy; there are so many characters, it's hard to remember who's related to whom. I'm still not sure how Aunt Elner is related to Lordor if she is at all.
Eventually people start disappearing at the cemetery. The first one to go is the old cowboy who was scalped. The readers think this is just a way station; they have to wait until there's an opening in Heaven. Wrong-o. You won't believe it.
There are also several other subplots. Lester Shingle, a peeping Tom, is murdered leaving the bowling alley. He thinks one of the four state champion
women's bowling team hit him in the head with a bowling ball. He bides his time, waiting for them to die.
Lordor's son didn't want the farm, which had grown to a full blown dairy with three barns. He sells it to a neighbor boy at a loss, who loved the place as much as he did. The boy's daughter is born deaf, and that's another subplot. The man she marries is a conman. Lordor made the boy promise he'd never sell the farm out of the family. Hanna Marie lives up to the promise ,until something terrible happens.
Fannie Flagg has always centered her novels on small town life. Some cynics would sneer at the plot line and claim places like this just don't exist. People aren't really this nice, and they don't care about each other as much or help each other out during the rough times. I suppose that's why there are a couple of creeps added to the list of characters with a couple of murders thrown in. But I was raised in a place like Elmwood Springs, Missouri, and I can tell you she's not that far off.
