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    Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
    Unavailable
    Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
    Unavailable
    Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
    Audiobook11 hours

    Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

    Written by Fannie Flagg

    Narrated by Lorna Raver Raver

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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...

    "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!"
    --Harper Lee, Author of To Kill a Mockingbird

    "A real novel and a good one... [from] the busy brain of a born storyteller."
    --The New York Times

    "It's very good, in fact, just wonderful."
    --Los Angeles Times

    "Funny and macabre."
    --The Washington Post

    "Courageous and wise."
    --Houston Chronicle


    From the Trade Paperback edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 19, 2010
    ISBN9780307750532
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

    4/5

    2,480 ratings91 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Kept me turning pages for an entire transatlantic flight, so that's a huge win right there: funny yet rich prose, warm characters, a mystery whose resolution I didn't remember even though I've seen the movie. So intrigued by what the book has to say about feminism and race in its past (1920s-1930s, mostly) and present (1980s). Unsurprisingly, the feminism was on point (especially the bit about feeling stuck between 1st and 2nd wave feminism) and the anti-racism...could have been worse, but is pretty outdated with a "can't we all just get along?" state of mind.

      The way the text treats Idgie and Ruth's relationship vs. how the marketing materials (back blurb, discussion questions) do is fascinating. The text never mentions sex between them, but it's pretty clear they're a romantic couple with Idgie in the "male" role: Momma calls Idgie's first feelings a "crush," Poppa tells Idgie she needs to step it up now that she's "responsible for Ruth and a child," the town newsletter always refers to "the son of Idgie and Ruth." The publisher materials are coy about their "friendship." I don't remember how the movie portrayed it, but I want to re-watch and see?
    • 4/5
      It took me a bit to get into this book. It was hard for me to relate to the characters with the jumping back and forth between time periods. However, once I got used to the flow and recognized all of the different players in the book (who they were and when and how they connected to the story), I began to enjoy each person. I didn't like every event or connection that happened in the book but that happens in life as well. I do not feel that some of what happened would have been accepted so openly during the time it was presented or even when it was written, but the overall thoughts of friendship, family and compassion work well for any time.
    • 4/5
      Told in alternating narratives;by an elderly woman in a nursing home named Mrs. Threadgoode and Evelyn, a middle aged woman scared and resentful of everything. The two become accidental friends while Evelyn waits for her husband to finish up visiting his mother every Sunday. Mrs. Threadgoode is desperate to talk to anyone and Evelyn is a captive audience so it works out alright. She spins a wonderful tale about growing up in Whistle Stop, Alabama and paints it so vividly, that Evelyn begins to look forward to their weekly visits. She bceomes invested in Mrs. Threadgoodes past and more interested in her own future. Mrs. Threadgoode's stories are so outrageous that it's impossible to not get sucked into it, especially when she starts talking Ruth and Idgie, two lesbians (although they are never called that) in the deep south that are the heart and soul of the town. For a town in Alabama they were surprisingly open-minded (about some things). The deeper into the story you get, the more surprises unfold and both narratives will be forever changed.
    • 5/5
      Abridged audiobook narrated by the authorUnabridged audio performed by Lorna Raver. When Evelyn accompanies her husband to the nursing home to visit an ailing relative, she meets Mrs Threadgood. As their friendship progresses, Ninny tells Evelyn about Ruth and Idgie and the Whistle Stop Café, and the time Idgie was tried for murdering a man.This is actually the third time I’ve read this book and I love just as much now as I did the first time. Flagg does a marvelous job of developing these characters, and the reader feels the love between them. I was hooked from the beginning and engaged throughout. And I was in tears at the end (which is VERY different from the movie). I thought that this time out I’d enjoy Fannie Flagg reading the audio version. She’s marvelous; a trained actress, she can easily interpret the many characters. However, I realized after I’d gotten the book from the library that Flagg’s audio work is an abridged version. So, I managed to get the unabridged version as well … narrated by Lorna Raver. Raver does a fine job, but she’s not Fannie Flagg. Who could be?!
    • 5/5
      I love the movie and think I loved the book even more! I can't wait to read more of Ms. flagg's books!
    • 4/5
      I loved this book! I saw the film years ago, & the only thing I remembered from it was the car park scene. I'm glad I'd forgotten it, as it meant I read the book with a fresh pair of eyes.

      At first I had to keep flicking around to remember where different characters & years fitted into the bigger picture, but it soon flowed a lot easier. I loved that big issues were tackled in a book that had a light heart. The characters were vivid, there was comedy & mystery...I couldn't say a bad thing about it!
    • 4/5
      A delightful book. I enjoyed the whole cast of characters, small-town setting, and overall meandering, back-and-forth of the storytelling.
    • 5/5
      Excellent.
    • 3/5
      Just an enjoyable read.
    • 4/5
      Fabulous characters. An interesting way of interspersing accounts from the past with the here and now.
    • 5/5
      I love this movie so I was excited to read the book. The book, of course, is better than the movie. I am glad that I saw the movie first, though, because it prepared me for the shifts in time the book used. The book skipped around more in time, but I understood the purpose so it didn't confuse me as much as it could have. The book was better because the characters had so much more to them in the book. They were very multi-dimensional and the book did not limit itself to the social constraints of the time in the way the movie did. Definitely an enchanting read.
    • 5/5
      Really entertaining. I'm looking forward to reading some others of hers. I've already purchased her new one!!
    • 5/5
      This what we call an "honest novel"! It has all elements of life itself: love, friendships, fights, loss, dead, new beginnigs and a good sense of humor The movie is great as well
    • 5/5
      I only wanted to read this book because it's based on my family. I thought the movie was pretty hokey but I figured I should give the book a chance since I'm a direct descendant of one of these fictional characters. The whistle stop cafe is based on the Irondale cafe, and Ruth is based on my great great grandmother Maggie, and Iggy is her best friend Bess. I thought I'd get back to my roots a bit.
      This book has shocked me. After reading this short book, I feel like I can never look at women in my life the same way. Especially my mother. It's important to remember that you're not the only one that can feel lonely and insecure. This book reminded me to be conscious of and take special care of all the important people in my life. I'm so glad I took the time to read this. I recommend it to everyone.
    • 5/5
      good book. a bit confusing at first, before you really get to know the characters. a few ibteresting twists, and a lil cry at the end. off to watch the movie and compare!
    • 5/5
      It's such a beautiful story, in which I felt I got to know all the wonderful people and became friends with them. For a fifty-something woman like me, it's simply inspiring!
    • 5/5
      I liked it.

      It’s funny, smart and full of strong women.

      Good.
    • 5/5
      this is a movie and is a very good book and a very good movie
    • 4/5
      I realized that I had never read Fried Green Tomatoes and had only seen the movie. With the sequel coming out I decided to go back and read it and am glad I did. I always thought the movie was a little depressing and always thought Fannie Flagg's other books were feel good type of books. Fried Green Tomatoes is more uplifting than the movie would have you think. (although I'm going to go back and watch the movie now).
    • 5/5
      I was looking for (more) interesting booklists online when I saw the title of this book. I got a similar vibe from Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, albeit they have different plots.
      This book is full of surprises; it made me weep and laugh. Worth recommending if you're looking for LGBTQ rep and with POC characters.
      For a book written in its time, this one may seem controversial. I once read that Idge is someone Huckleberry Finn would want to marry (I forgot who said that).
    • 3/5
      This was a fun book!
    • 5/5
      Haven't read this book in a long time, but haveing just finished "The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop" the latest in the Whistle Stop series I really felt a need to start over reading the series, so back to the beginning. And the book was even more wonderful than I remember, the stories in it( it is a novel that reads like connected short stories) are captivating with a flaver of the times as they were. Yep, I will reread them all and enjoy them even more than the first time.
    • 4/5
      I watched the movie like 5 years ago but never read the book so I thought I would give it a try. I really enjoyed it, although I found the format somewhat confusing. Once you get used to it though its pretty easy to understand.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book so much. Read it over a decade ago and it's still one of my favorites. Indoctrinated me into the amazing literary world of women's fiction.
    • 5/5
      I've read this book so many times and each time I get something new out of it. For example, the first few times I read it I had no idea what the Eastern Star meetings were and now I do (the female equivalent of the free masons). It's just a book with so many levels that are all connected in such an awesomely intricate way. First rate.At its most basic it's two stories. There's the story set in the books' present, 1986. It involves Evelyn, a middle aged housewife who doesn't know what to do with her life or even who she is as a person (apart from her life as a wife and mother), and Virginia 'Ninny' Threadgood, an old lady in the same nursing home as Evelyn's mother-in-law. Evelyn and Ninny talk every week while Evelyn's husband visits his mother. Ninny tells the story of Ruth and Idgie Threadgood to Evelyn while they're waiting together. Idgie and Ruth are two women who ran the Whistlestop Cafe together as well as living together and raising a son together.We learn about Ruth, Idgie and their lives through Ninny's stories, but we also get chapters that take place in our story but not Ninny's, and cool little 'articles' from the various small towns' newspapers.The Evelyn and Ninny story arc is fun, but, I love the Idgie, Ruth story the best. On the one hand it's never said that either of them were Lesbians (by anyone in the past or in 1986), but on the other hand Flagg makes it perfectly clear that Buddy Junior has two mommies and that they're not just 'really good friends', but that they romantically love each other. It's mostly because of these facts that every time that I wind up watching the movie, I have to read the book soon after, to wash the waffling of the movie out of my mind.It's an amazing novel, one that I'll never be able to read too many times. And if you've only ever seen the movie, this book is so, so, so much better (although the movie isn't bad, just, waffle-y).
    • 4/5
      This is an unusual book, so I found it difficult to rate by comparison with other books. There are lots of short chapters which jump around in time, and sometimes I was frustrated that we weren't getting to know the characters enough. Nonetheless, it was fairly satisfying in the end. I would have liked to have focused more on Idgie and Ruth, the two main characters. We learnt about Idgie's passion for Ruth, but we saw very little from Ruth's perspective. I'm a little put off by less-believable parts of a book, and this one had a few, but maybe real life in the mid-20th century southern USA does look a little unbelievable from my 21st century perspective.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed the book; it's well written, easy to read, and portrays women's relationships with each other in a simultaneously very positive and very real way. Not many novels do such a good job with women's friendships. The female characters aren't perfect but they are all striving to be good people, written to be so likable. I wanted to see what happened to them as the years stretched on. But I feel a little conflicted about the book's portrayal of issues like homophobia and racism. This book is pretty sunny about these serious topics. They aren't ignored; they get noted, and they have consequences, and the women fighting against oppression of women understand that oppression stretches to lesbians and people of color (which is not common in books set in these years, so I appreciate that). But they are whitewashed in a strange way that sometimes made me uncomfortable. Here's an example: the ladies have a conversation with the sheriff (I think? some law enforcement officer) about how he wants them to stop serving black people out of the back of the restaurant. They are shrewd and throw everything back at him, noting they know who is participating in KKK rallies (by the shoes -- so clever) and intellectually outpacing him until he essentially leaves with his tail between his legs. It's a great, satisfying scene. But there's no mention of the fact that there's no real threat to them as white people, and they haven't actually done anything meaningful. Meanwhile the KKK is regularly murdering black people throughout this time period. I try not to measure books against the 2015 stick when they were written earlier, but it did fall flat to me as a modern reader. I'm sorry to hear that in the film version, Ruth and Idgie were just friends and Ruth was in love with Buddy. What a shame.
    • 5/5
      I read this book a long time ago as a teenager, and I've seen the movie more times than I can count. It was nice to re-visit Idgie, Ruth, Mrs. Threadgoode, Evelyn, and the many amazing characters who call Whistle Stop home. This is my favorite "girl power" book. The women in this book are so real, so strong, and their relationships with each other are an inspiration. If you haven't read this book, do yourself a favor and check it out! You won't regret it.

      The movie doesn't delve into Idgie and Ruth the way the book does, and I was so happy to see their relationship more fully realized. I remember watching the movie as a child, knowing that Idgie and Ruth were something special, but I wasn't quite sure what. I did know that it resonated deeply with me though.
    • 4/5
      This is a warm and friendly book written about Flagg's hometown of Irondale, Alabama, just east of Birmingham. The cafe exists. It was known for most of its existance as the Irondale Cafe, but now it also known as the Whistle Stop Cafe and the fried green tomatoes are great.
    • 3/5
      First it is the story of Evelyn, who is feeling the effects of menopause, and her visits with "Ninny" Threadgoode in a nursing home. Over desserts and iced tea, Ninny reminisces about her life and the lives of residents of Whistle Stop, Alabama. The stories revolve around the friendship of two other women, tomboyish Idgie and the lovely Ruth, who ran a small cafe around the time of the Depression.While Ms. Flagg's writing is lovely and her characters are well developed, I was bogged down by the two and three page chapters bouncing back and forth in and between the various characters. I like to immerse myself in a book and the ultra short chapters kept cutting off the thread of the story, and thus, I would lay the book down.