I Still Dream About You

 

By Fannie Flagg

Margaret Fortenberry is a beautiful woman. She was so pretty that she had a real chance to be crowned Miss America. But unfortunately, she was Miss Alabama at the time of the civil rights struggle and the state of Alabama did not welcome the reforms. And so the judges of the Miss America pageant decided picking Miss Alabama would be too controversial. And so Maggie missed her chance at big time success. Truth is, beyond being staggeringly good looking, she really didn't have much to offer the world. She wasn't particularly talented or smart and, even though beautiful, she was too short to make in the world of high fashion modelling. And so, she ended back in her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, selling real estate. She never married and she never had children, she lives alone without even a pet to keep her company. And now in her early sixties, she is seriously planning to kill herself.

But daily life keeps getting in the way of Maggie executing her plan. She keeps having to put it off to handle the problems that just refuse to stop popping up and getting in her way. Until finally, things calm down enough for her to put the plan in motion. Her clothing has been donated, credit cards paid off, utilities cancelled, bank account closed, key hidden under the doormat and a goodbye letter left on the table in her apartment. Nothing and no one to stop her. 

Maggie's sorrow and disappointment with the mistakes of the past and with the loneliness of her declining years are understandable. I suppose most people in their later years look back and regret wrong decisions, I know I do. For one, I wish that I'd finished college. Maggie has her regrets too, mainly that she turned the hometown boy down when he proposed to her, instead heading off to New York to make it in the big city. Part of her depression is rooted the death of the woman she worked for at the real estate office who died very suddenly and unexpectedly. This woman, Hazel, was successful, driven, and, at the same time, kind and considerate of her fellow humans and of the people who worked for her. Her death left a painful void in Maggie's life and without her leadership, the company is struggling. 

So, although I did understand Maggie's suicidal depression, [SPOILER] I have read several Fannie Flagg novels over the years and I really doubted she would end up dead. She was the perfect heroine of a Fannie Flagg story, beautiful, kind, good natured. There was no way Fannie was going to let her kill herself. I did find it a bit amusing how fate keeps Maggie from going through with her plan. 

It was a good story even if Maggie seems a bit clueless throughout the novel. She's a sweet lady and she certainly got her happy ending. In spades!

Kirkus Reviews has a review of this novel. 

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl

 

By Fannie Flagg

Dena Nordstrom is a successful news woman in New York City. She makes $400,000 a year, is beautiful and smart and doing exactly what she wants. Her life is perfect. Except for her excessive alcohol consumption and that nasty stomach ulcer.

Dena blames the ulcer on overwork and stress and when it lands her in the hospital, her doctor orders her to take time off and rest. Her relatives take her home to Missouri to her home town of Elmwood Springs. 

Norma Warren is Dena's cousin. Along with 90 something year old Aunt Elner, they are Dena's only blood relatives. So Dena comes to stay, briefly, with these people who she doesn't remember since she was only four when she last saw them. But they remember her and love her and are so happy to have her stay with them while she convalesces. 

Dena is eager to get back to New York and her job. She starts seeing a psychiatrist on the recommendation of her doctor. He feels some kind of emotional problem is affecting her health and contributing to the ulcer. Her life is still busy and stressful and pressures at work once again send her into a downward spiral and another trip to the hospital. This setback causes Dena finally start looking at her life and delving into the mystery at the root of her problems.

I liked this story. It was a bit different than what I was expecting. Although the folksy relatives and the small town where they live do play a part in the story, most of it centers on Dena's life in New York City. I was expecting the story location to be mostly Elmwood Springs and mostly Dena's relatives there. I did enjoy the mystery of Dena's mom at lot, it was quite a surprise when the truth was finally uncovered.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

By Fannie Flagg

Set in the 1920s to 1950s, this is the story of Whistle Stop, a very small town in Alabama. Told through a series of flash backs and folksy newsletter articles, the story focuses mainly on Idgie and Ruth, the two women who run the Whistle Stop Cafe.
The story has a brief introduction, a newsletter article announcing the opening of the Whistle Stop Cafe, June 1929. It then moves to 1985, with Evelyn Couch, a depressed and overweight housewife, visiting the nursing home where her mother-in-law is living. Not being a fan of the mother-in-law, Evelyn escapes to another part of the building where she encounters Ninny Threadgood, another resident of the home. Ninny loves to chatter and soon engulfs Evelyn in stories about Whistle Stop and its denizens. At first, Evelyn is rather taken aback by this gabby old lady, but as the weeks pass, she become more involved in the stories and begins to reexamine her life in an effort to understand her own deep unhappiness.
The Whistle Stop stories about Idgie and Ruth tell of a different era, a simpler era but a crueler era.  A time where white racists used terror tactics to keep the blacks "in their place." But at the same time, a real community of caring and connections existed between the two races, if rather covertly.  Some things about life in those days are charming and others horrifying, but overall, this is a charming and nostalgic look at life in a funny little town in Alabama.

I did enjoy reading this book again, just for the sake of nostalgia if nothing more. While the story of Idgie and Ruth didn't really grab me, what I enjoyed the most was Ninny Threadgood and her tales of her friends and family from the old days. I also liked Evelyn too, although I thought she caved into the modern obsession with being thin. I would have liked her better if she had accepted that she was chubby and got on with her life instead of running off to the fat farm.

The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion

By Fannie Flag

Sookie, 59, has just married off the last of her daughters and is looking forward to relaxing and maybe travelling with her husband, Earle. Her life has run pretty smoothly, with no major problems except for her mother. Lenore, the mother, considers herself Southern aristocracy and wants her only daughter, Sookie, to carry on the family traditions.
Next to her flamboyant mother, Sookie has always felt dowdy and subdued. She has also always felt like she was a disappointment to her mother, who constantly tried to mold Sookie in her own image. But Sookie's failure to please her mother made sense once Sookie found out that she was adopted and no blood kin of Lenore's at all. In fact, Sookie wasn't even a Southerner, her birth mother was a woman of Polish descent from Wisconsin and a Catholic to boot!
So Sookie sets out to find out more about the woman whose name appears on Sookie's birth certificate, Fritzie Jurdabralinski, and who, it turns out, is alive and living in California.

I quite enjoyed this story. Fritzie was one of a group of women who took on jobs originally performed by men during World War II. She and her sisters ran their family gas station when their brother joined the military and when they had to close the gas station, the sisters, all of whom were pilots, became WASPs: Women Airforce Service Pilots. These women flew planes from the air plane factories to the military bases, freeing up male pilots for combat duty. It was hard and even dangerous work, with long hours and grueling schedules.
So not only is this just a good and entertaining read, it also tells the not-so-well-known story of the WASPs, the women pilots who showed that women can fly airplanes too.

For another review, see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-all-girl-filling-stations-last-reunion-by-fannie-flagg/2013/11/18/5b32ac96-4af0-11e3-be6b-d3d28122e6d4_story.html

Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man

By Fannie Flagg

Daisy Fay is eleven years old in 1952 when her parents moved them to Shell Beach, Mississippi, a small resort community where her parents will be running a little malt shop. Too bad the philandering, alcoholic father is incapable of running a business profitably. Being in a resort community, the malt shop is only open during the summer months but after the first summer running the shop, the father not only didn't make a profit, but is in debt. So he sets fire to the malt shop only to find out too late that the insurance is inadequate. The mother finally gets fed up and walks out and Daisy Fay elects to stay with her father. But despite all the family drama and disaster, she still stays optimistic, energetic and a lot of fun to read about.

Probably not the best thing of Flagg's that I have read. I kept waiting for the "miracle man" of the story to appear and it wasn't until the end that I guessed that the drunken father is the miracle man. To me, though, it was a miracle that Daisy Fay managed to survive her father's inept care. But even though I found both parents unsympathetic, it was still an enjoyable and entertaining read.

A Redbird Christmas

By Fannie Flagg

Oswald Campbell isn't doing well at all. Suffering from a bad liver from years of drinking too much and bad lungs from years of smoking, Oswald has been told by his doctor that it is time to get his affairs in order. His doctor also advises Oswald to move away from Chicago to some place warmer to prolong what little he has left of his life. The doctor recommends a quiet, Southern backwater in Alabama, Lost River.
So Oswald moves to Lost River and discovers that maybe his life isn't quite over yet. Because Lost River, a very tiny community, welcomes him with open arms, with good food, good companions, peace and quiet and with a beautiful, warm environment.
Perched on the banks of Lost River, Oswald discovers the community is a mecca for migrating birds and he takes up an old interest that he never took the time to develop before, painting. He spends many hours quietly perched on the banks of the river, painting pictures mainly of birds. He gets so good at it he even manages to sell some of his works, generating a nice little extra income for himself.
But this story isn't just about how Oswald finds a new life for himself. It is also about a little crippled girl whose best friend in the world is a Jack, a cardinal, a little red bird that lives at the local grocery store.
Jack was irreparably injured as a young bird but was rescued by the owner of the grocery and he became a kind of mascot for the store, allowed to roam freely throughout the building. The little girl, Patsy, poor, unhealthy and neglected, became fascinated by the little bird and spent most of her time at the store and the two became great friends. That little redbird becomes the light of Patsy's blighted life.
But Lost River is a healing place, as Oswald can attest. And little Patsy may have a chance at a better life in the welcoming arms of the folks at Lost River.

I love this story. This is the second time I have read this book and I enjoyed it just as much this time as the first time. Lost River sounds like heaven on earth and the people of it are the kind of people anyone would wish to know. Yes, it is a total, escapist fantasy and such a place and such people don't really exist anywhere. But it so nice to take a break from the daily grind and go to a world where the folks are warm and welcoming, the climate is balmy and welcoming and where can miracles happen.

Can't Wait to Get to Heaven

By Fannie Flagg

Welcome back to Elmwood Springs, Missouri! Yes, Fannie Flagg takes us on another nostalgic trip to Elmwood Springs, the home town I wish I came from. This story centers around Aunt Elner Shimfissle and her niece Norma. It really is a sweet farewell to wonderful, loony Aunt Elner. Aunt Elner is such an innocent, good creature you can't help but love her. She's a true saint, though she would probably deny it, remembering that time she fed ex-lax candy to the bratty kid who threw rocks at her cat! We lose Aunt Elner, but true to character, Elner manages to die twice. In between deaths she takes an elevator ride to heaven where she meets God. Or should I say Gods? Because God is Neighbor Dorothy and her husband, from Elmwood Springs' old timey radio show of the 1940s and 50s. The hubby did all the technical stuff of creation and Dorothy supplied the beauty. Aunt Elner's heaven features candy striped zebras and polka dot squirrels, among other wonders.

If you liked the other novels featuring the folks of Elmwood Springs, then you'll probably enjoy this one too.

Review from The Guardian:   https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/dec/17/fiction.features.

Standing in the Rainbow

By Fannie Flagg

Welcome to the world of Elmwood Springs, Missouri and to the "Neighbor Dorothy" radio show. This story is set in a small town in the 1940s. It follows the lives of its denizens, especially Dorothy Smith, who runs a daily radio show out of her living room, and her family. It is a warm, wonderful, and cozy trip to a time that looks better in retrospect than it probably did in real life. Still, despite its good old days quality, it was lots of fun reading about the mostly goodhearted folks who traipse through the novel.

This story is a look at life in a small town in the old days. I loved this book and I have read it repeatedly.

See also The New York Times review:  http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/11/books/neighbor-dot-and-aunt-elner.html.