The second overtly diverse element is the inclusion of African-American characters. Although the rep isn’t great, there is also a bisexual character. The book is very clear that they are in love and physically attracted. I’m told that the movie leaves their relationship open to interpretation. Ninny is happy to live vicariously through others – whether exciting figures of her past, more active denizens of the nursing home, or even Evelyn Couch. Even when we eventually learn her greatest sorrow (and deepest joy), she’s explicitly present only in a few of the past scenes. However she is only a backdrop to the adventures of Idgie Threadgoode (and later Ruth Jamison).

One might think Ninny Threadgoode is the main character. They do follow a narrative arc, with the larger overarching story being an unsolved murder, but with many smaller and more interesting story arcs within that frame. While The Weems Weekly and nursing homes scenes follow a chronological order, other elements follow the order what Ninny says and give more depth and backstory.

These also tend to be brief and always follow events connected to main characters. The fourth element consists of other news articles or clippings from places beyond Whistle Stop. The majority take place in Whistle Stop, but many also occur in Birmingham, or anywhere else main characters happen to go. Once we as readers, like Evelyn Couch, have gotten interested in Ninny’s stories, then we start to have scenes which take place in the past with the characters she mentions. The bulletins run between June 12th, 1929 and June 25th, 1969 and appear in the novel in chronological order. This newsletter, written by postmistress Dot Weems, appears in chronological order and is very short. The second major element is The Weems Weekly. When the novel was first published, these scenes would have been roughly contemporary – it’s now historical fiction. At first she just wishes the old lady would shut up so she can eat her candy bars in peace, but then she gets interested in the stories and they forge an unlikely friendship. She accompanies her husband on visits to his mother’s nursing home every Sunday, but can’t stand to sit and watch TV, so she finds herself in the visitor’s room with Ninny Threadgoode. Evelyn Couch is struggling with her weight, her marriage, menopause, and an inevitable feeling of doom.

The story is told through four different elements. There are two main threads to the storyline, which covers events in the fictional town of Whistle Stop, Alabama (just outside of Birmingham) between the early 1920s and the late 1980s. This is going to be a complicated review. NOTE: Although the reading level is low, this is an adult novel. My edition McGraw-Hill, New York, 1988.Īdult fiction, 403 pages including recipes. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg.

Fried tomatoes at the whistle stop cafe