I'm a fan of quirky stories about small Southern towns. I love Clyde Edgerton's work (particularly Floatplane Notebooks) and Eudora Welty's The Ponder Heart. One of my all-time favorite novels is Michael Malone's Handling Sin and another is Rita Mae Brown's Bingo (which I am dying to turn into a movie.)
I'm also a long-time fan of Fannie Flagg, whose book, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe was made into the movie with the abbreviated title Fried Green Tomatoes. (And how much did I love Kathy Bates in that movie?) She's got a new book out, The Whole Town is Talking.
Here's the sales pitch:
Elmwood Springs, Missouri, is a small town like any other, but something
strange is happening at the cemetery. Still Meadows, as it’s called, is
anything but still. Original, profound, The Whole Town’s Talking, a novel in the tradition of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town and Flagg’s own Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven, tells
the story of Lordor Nordstrom, his Swedish mail-order bride, Katrina,
and their neighbors and descendants as they live, love, die, and carry
on in mysterious and surprising ways.
Lordor Nordstrom created,
in his wisdom, not only a lively town and a prosperous legacy for
himself but also a beautiful final resting place for his family,
friends, and neighbors yet to come. “Resting place” turns out to be a
bit of a misnomer, however. Odd things begin to happen, and it starts
the whole town talking.
With her wild imagination, great
storytelling, and deep understanding of folly and the human heart, the
beloved Fannie Flagg tells an unforgettable story of life, afterlife,
and the remarkable goings-on of ordinary people. In The Whole Town’s Talking, she reminds us that community is vital, life is a gift, and love never dies.
Saturday, December 31, 2016
Southern-fried fiction
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