I like Fannie Flagg. She's fun. I enjoyed her book Redbird Christmas, although I think that this book has much more to offer. Flagg is also the author of Fried Green Tomatoes and the Whistlestop Cafe (if I've got the title right), which, like this novel, affirms women's strength and relationships.
I really enjoyed The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion. The things I liked about it were the fact that some complex issues were presented intelligently, although it was overall an optimistic, upbeat, life-affirming novel. I also think that most readers will find it a light read, and one that is not too challenging.
It was also very much a book about women. The protagonist, Sookie, has to find herself after her identity is shattered, as she sees it, when she learns that she is adopted. It's also a book about women's achievement, which is shown as being very important. (It is important, but I secretly wish that someone would say that making the meals and doing the laundry is very important, too.)
When the novel opens, Sookie has just married off her last daughter. She's mentally breathing a sign of relief as she considers what she'll be able to do with her free time - including reading! Her time isn't entirely her own, however, as she spends a good bit of time looking after her octogenarian mother. Her mother is a bit of a handful. That's putting it tactfully. Her mother is demanding, interfering, embarrassing, and arguably a bit batty.
In the wake of a lawsuit against her mother for something like libel, Sookie has taken over paying her bills and handling her correspondence. That leads to the event that drives the plot. ( I feel guilty about telling you too much.
In the second paragraph above, I said that I wished that someone would say that making the meals and doing the laundry is important, too. I think that's part of what is so lovely about this novel. I didn't realized until I'd thought about it some more, but Flagg is saying that making the meals and doing the laundry is important, and that all women's work is important and should not be devalued because it includes laundry!
I really enjoyed The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion. The things I liked about it were the fact that some complex issues were presented intelligently, although it was overall an optimistic, upbeat, life-affirming novel. I also think that most readers will find it a light read, and one that is not too challenging.
It was also very much a book about women. The protagonist, Sookie, has to find herself after her identity is shattered, as she sees it, when she learns that she is adopted. It's also a book about women's achievement, which is shown as being very important. (It is important, but I secretly wish that someone would say that making the meals and doing the laundry is very important, too.)
When the novel opens, Sookie has just married off her last daughter. She's mentally breathing a sign of relief as she considers what she'll be able to do with her free time - including reading! Her time isn't entirely her own, however, as she spends a good bit of time looking after her octogenarian mother. Her mother is a bit of a handful. That's putting it tactfully. Her mother is demanding, interfering, embarrassing, and arguably a bit batty.
In the wake of a lawsuit against her mother for something like libel, Sookie has taken over paying her bills and handling her correspondence. That leads to the event that drives the plot. ( I feel guilty about telling you too much.
In the second paragraph above, I said that I wished that someone would say that making the meals and doing the laundry is important, too. I think that's part of what is so lovely about this novel. I didn't realized until I'd thought about it some more, but Flagg is saying that making the meals and doing the laundry is important, and that all women's work is important and should not be devalued because it includes laundry!
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