Paperback, 417 pages
English language
Published Jan. 27, 1997 by Random House.
Folksy and fresh, endearing and affecting, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is the now-classic novel of two women in the 1980s; of gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode telling her life story to Evelyn, who is in the sad slump of middle age. The tale she tells is also of two women--of the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth--who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Alabama, a Southern kind of Cafe Wobegon offering good barbecue and good coffee and all kinds of love and laughter, even an occasional murder. And as the past unfolds, the present--for Evelyn and for us--will never be quite the same again...
--back cover
I read this after seeing the movie and this is one of the very rare cases where I still enjoyed the movie more. Still this was a nice read and I really enjoyed that and the recipes.
So, I still teared up a little. but mostly I wished there had been more about Idgie and Ruth. I found the non-linear storytelling to be a bit distracting, and Evelyn wasn't interesting until the last 50 pages or so. But Idgie and Ruth and all their loved ones were fascinating. Also, the lack of treatment Ruth's death received was just rude. She and Idgie both deserved more than that. the ending didn't offer much closure, and posed more questions. This is one instance where the movie might be more satisfying.
The ending was a bit anticlimactic.
