Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

First edition cover
Author	Fannie Flagg
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Fiction
Publisher	Random House
Publication date	August 12, 1987
Media type	Print
Pages	403 pp
ISBN	0-394-56152-X
OCLC	15792039
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 19
LC Class	PS3556.L26 F7 1987

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is a 1987 novel by Fannie Flagg. Flagg's novel weaves together the past and the present through the blossoming friendship between Evelyn Couch, a middle-aged housewife, and Ninny Threadgoode, an elderly woman who lives in a nursing home. Every week Evelyn visits Ninny, who tells her stories about her youth in Whistle Stop, Alabama where her sister-in-law Idgie and Idgie's friend Ruth ran a café. These stories, along with Ninny's friendship, enable Evelyn to begin a new, satisfying life while allowing the people and stories of Ninny's youth to live on. The book was also made into a movie, and explores themes of family, aging, lesbianism, and the dehumanizing effects of racism on both blacks and whites.^[1]

Plot

Throughout the novel the narrator and time period change, and the reader relies on the chapters' headings to establish the date and the source of the chapter. Some of the narration comes in the form of the fictional newsletter called "The Weems Weekly"; other narrations come from the Couches' house in Birmingham, and omniscient narrations reveal still more. The framing story, set in the mid-1980s, depicts Evelyn Couch, who goes weekly with her husband to visit his mother in a nursing home. On one visit, Evelyn befriends Ninny Threadgoode, another resident of the same home, who tells Evelyn stories of her youth in Whistle Stop in the 1920s. Between subsequent visits, Evelyn assumes the protagonists of these stories as rôle-models.

According to her own account, Ninny was an orphan raised by the Threadgoodes, and eventually married one of their sons; but the principal character of most of the story, is the youngest daughter, Idgie (Imogene) Threadgoode: an unrepentant tomboy, encouraged by her brother Buddy. When Buddy is killed by an accident on the railway, Idgie secludes herself, until Ruth Jamison comes to live with the family while she taught at the Vacation Bible School, and Idgie becomes enamored of her. Idgie is again saddened when Ruth leaves to marry her fiancé, Frank Bennett, a violent, abusive man. After the marriage, Frank is often cruel to Ruth; but she remains faithful to him until her mother's death. Subsequently, Idgie receives a message from Ruth, and rescues her, with the help of her friends and surviving brothers. Intimidated by Big George, the family's handyman and café cook, Frank does not resist. With money given by her father, Idgie establishes the Whistle Stop Cafe, with Sipsey (George's adoptive mother) and her daughter-in-law Onzell as cooks, and becomes secondary guardian to Ruth's son, Buddy Jr. (known as 'Stump' for the loss of an arm in a railroad accident). The café quickly became known all over the U.S. during The Great Depression due to the communication between various hobos fed there, of whom the most recurrent is 'Smokey Lonesome' Phillips, who has feelings for Ruth, though he never tells her. Ruth dies due to cancer, leaving Idgie heartbroken yet still visiting her grave decades later as seen by Evelyn at Easter one year. After the railroad yard closes, the cafe (and ultimately the town) ceases operation. Several years later, Idgie and Big George are arrested for the murder of Frank Bennett; but the case is dismissed at the trial when the local minister, repaying Idgie for helping his son, testifies (falsely) that she and Big George were at a three-day revival when Frank Bennett went missing. Bennett's body was never found, but it is revealed toward the end of the novel that he was killed by Sipsey in the attempt to claim Stump, and his remains largely cooked by George into barbecue sandwiches, fed to the detectives in search of Frank himself. Stump grows to manhood, and recounts stories of his guardians to his daughter and granddaughter; and George's sons, Jasper and Artis [sic], achieve careers as their own: Jasper as a Sleeping Car Porter, and Artis as a gambler.

Inspired by these stories, Evelyn gets a job with Mary Kay Cosmetics and, at Mrs. Threadgoode's suggestion, starts to take hormones for menopause, and confronts various long-held fears. She becomes happier than she ever has been. When on vacation for her health, she receives a letter from Mrs. Hartman, Mrs. Threadgoode's neighbor, that Mrs. Threadgoode has died, and left various trinkets for Evelyn. The end of the novel reveals that Idgie and her brother Julian, after the depopulation of Whistle Stop, are operating a roadside food-stand in a location undisclosed.

Themes

Although it is not explicitly labeled as a lesbian relationship, every resident both knows about and accepts Idgie and Ruth's relationship, making lesbianism a theme in the novel. In the film adaptation Ruth had been in love with Buddy Threadgoode, Idgie's brother.^[2]

The novel also uses Evelyn and Mrs. Threadgoode's characters to examine women's aging. Throughout the novel we see Evelyn going through menopause as well as Mrs. Threadgoode's deterioration in old age.^[3] Another important aspect is the history of African American lives from the 1920s to the late 1980s as the novel follows Sipsey's family. The moral justifications of murder and euthanasia are also touched upon.

Food is another literary theme in the novel, to the extent that Flagg included the recipes served by the cafe at the end of the book.^[4]

Development

The "Whistle Stop Cafe" is loosely based on the Irondale Cafe in Irondale, Alabama, a suburb near Flagg's birthplace. It is still in operation and, like the fictional cafe, is known for its fried green tomatoes.^[5]

Reception

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe spent 36 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List.^[6] Harper Lee gave a recommendation for the book, saying, "Airplanes and television have removed the Threadgoodes from the Southern scene. Happily for us, Fannie Flagg has preserved a whole community of them in a richly comic, poignant narrative that records the exuberance of their lives, the sadness of their departure. Idgie Threadgoode is a true original: Huckleberry Finn would have tried to marry her!"^[7]

Film

Flagg's novel was turned into a film adaptation. The film was called Fried Green Tomatoes, and was released in 1991. The film adaptation is a story within a story of Southern female friendship and love.^[8]

The film was nominated for two Academy Awards and received an award from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).^[9][10][11]

See also

• Pete Gray one-armed baseball player

References