Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
First edition cover
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| Author | Fannie Flagg |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publisher | Random House |
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Publication date
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August 12, 1987 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 403 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 15792039 |
| 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.
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 role models.
According to Ninny, she was an orphan raised by the Threadgoodes, and eventually married one of their sons; but the principal character throughout her story is the youngest daughter, Idgie (Imogene) Threadgoode: an unrepentant tomboy, became reclusive after her brother, Buddy was killed on the railway. Ruth Jamison comes to live with the family while teaching at the Vacation Bible School. Idgie gradually becomes enamored of her and is saddened when Ruth leaves Whistle Stop to marry Frank Bennett. Frank turns out to be a violent, abusive man who often beats Ruth. She remains faithful to Frank until her mother's death. Subsequently, Ruth sends Idgie a message, and Idgie, along with several others, rescue her. Intimidated by Big George, the family's handyman and café cook, Frank does not resist. With money from her 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' after losing an arm in an accident). The café quickly became known to hobos all over the U.S. during The Great Depression who can find are fed there. The most recurrent is 'Smokey Lonesome' Phillips, who secretly loves Ruth. When Ruth dies of cancer, Idgie is heartbroken. After the railroad yard closes, the cafe (and ultimately the town) ceases operation. Several years later, Idgie and Big George are arrested for Frank Bennett's murder; but the case is dismissed 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 later revealed that Sipsey killed him when he attempted to claim his and Ruth's son. His remains were barbecued by George and fed to the detectives investigating Frank's disappearance. Stump recounts the stories of his guardians to his daughter and granddaughter; Big George's sons, Jasper and Artis [sic], have their own careers: Jasper as a Sleeping Car Porter, and Artis as a gambler.
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