Thirty-four years have passed since the story of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café ended. Buddy Threadgoode, Jr., who was a boy in that novel, is now grown up and retired from his job as a veterinarian and living in Briarwood Manor, a retirement home in Atlanta. He previously moved there with his wife, Peggy, who has now passed away. His daughter, Ruthie Caldwell, named for her late grandmother, Ruth Jamison, lives nearby, next door to her mother-in-law, Martha Lee, who is a real snob. Bud’s Aunt Idgie, who ran the Whistle Stop Café with Ruth, closed the café in the mid-1960s when the railroad yards began to shut down and people started moving away from Whistle Stop. After she closed the café, Idgie moved next door to her brother, Julian, in Florida and opened up a fruit stand. Former citizens of the town, spread abroad, are kept abreast of the latest news by Dot Weems, who used to write the Weems Weekly, through Christmas newsletters and other correspondence.
Bud has become homesick for Whistle Stop and wonders whatever became of the town. One Sunday he escapes from Briarwood Manor while residents are on their weekly visits to church. He gets on the train, hoping to pass through Whistle Stop. When he gets off the train, he discovers that Whistle Stop is no more and accidentally loses both his prosthetic arm and his way. What starts out as an adventure for Bud ends up being a reunion between Evelyn Couch, who was friend of the late Ninny Threadgoode, and Bud’s daughter, Ruthie. The two become fast friends and have a lasting impact on the lives of both former residents of Whistle Stop and their descendants.
Fannie Flagg has done it again! She has written another southern novel full of nostalgia and reminiscing. As with her other novels, The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop honors the relationships between family and friends and proves that you really can go back home again.
The characters are funny, charming, witty, and real. For people who have never read Flagg’s first novel or seen the movie adaptation, gaps are filled in and more stories are revealed about Whistle Stop’s citizens. Small-town life is portrayed in all its glory, and characters look back on their lives while remembering events that happened while they were living in Whistle Stop. This novel contains many poignant and funny moments, one especially involving Martha Lee’s 23andme genealogy test results, which are not what she expects.
Fannie Flagg’s script for Fried Green Tomatoes was nominated for an Academy Award and for the Writers Guild of America Award in 1992. That year, it won the USC Scripter Award for best adapted screenplay of the year. She also won the Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer of the Year in 2012. Seen, at left, is the cafe used in the filming of the movie. It has been restored and is now a real restaurant in Georgia. To learn more about it, go to this link. https://thewhistlestopcafe.com
The Wonder Boy from Whistle Stop is a delightful journey down memory lane. It is not necessary to have read the first book in order to enjoy this one, but it wouldn’t hurt! Hand it to readers who have read Fannie Flagg’s other novels and those who are fans of the Fried Green Tomatoes movie. I highly recommend it for high school and public libraries and give it five out of five fleur de lis.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishers for allowing me to read and review this book.
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