Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg (hier online bestellen)
The story:
'Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe' is a folksy, funny and endearing story of life in a small town in Alabama
in the Depression and in the 1980s. However, the novel's laughter and tears are interrupted by a strange
murder and a still stranger trial.
It’s first the story 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 quite be the same.
About the author:
Fannie Flagg began writing and producing television specials at age nineteen and went on to distinguish
herself as an actress and writer in television, films, and the theater. She is the author of the New York
Times bestsellers 'Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man', 'Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe' (which was
produced by Universal Pictures as Fried Green Tomatoes), 'Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!', 'Standing in the
Rainbow', and 'A Redbird Christmas'. Flagg’s script for Fried Green Tomatoes was nominated for both the
Academy Award and the Writers Guild of America Award and won the highly regarded Scripters Award.
Flagg lives in California and in Alabama.
First sentences:
June 12, 1929
Cafe opens
The Whistle Stop Cafe opened up last week, right next door to me at the post office, and owners Idgie Threadgoode and
Ruth Jamison said business has been good ever since. Idgie says that for people who know her not to worry about getting
poisoned, she is not cooking. All the cooking is being done by two colored women, Sipsey and Onzell, and
the barbecue is being cooked by big George, who is Onzell's husband. .....
Themes:
Feminism was a theme in the novel, as Evelyn Couch became a symbol of lost housewives who felt they had
no direction. The "Towanda!" bumper sticker became popular in the 1990s--an homage to a very famous
scene in the book and movie in which Evelyn exacts revenge on a younger woman who stole her parking
space. Ruth's feeling of being trapped in her marriage with an abusive husband is another part of
this theme, as well as Idgie's acting and living of her personal life, unwilling to be a good
housewife.
Lesbianism was a theme in the novel, as the relationship between Idgie and Ruth was accepted by the
entire town of Whistle Stop. Although it was not labeled a lesbian relationship, every resident knew
about Idgie and Ruth, accepted it, and loved them for who they were. This relationship was minimized
in the film version of "Fried Green Tomatoes" when the events placed Ruth and Buddy Threadgoode
together, and Idgie was much younger than Ruth, suggesting that Ruth loved Idgie because she was
Buddy's sister. Many reviews of the film version critiqued what was viewed as a "glossing over"
of this theme, although the film received an award from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
(GLAAD).
Racism in the American South is a major theme.
* Sipsey, Onzell, Big George and their children are explored as characters. When Big George is put
on trial with Idgie, Sipsey's fear is that he will do time in prison which is significantly more
miserable as a black person. Idgie also stands trial with him, trying to clear him, because she
knows he will not stand a chance being a black man accused of killing a white one, whereas, as
a woman, and with any luck, she should be able to get out of the death sentence.
* Big George's son Artis does time in Kilbey Prison for assaulting a dogcatcher in the city of
Birmingham.
* Artis' life on the black side of Birmingham during the 1930s and 1940s is described exquisitely
in the book.
* Artis' brother Jasper is a Pullman Porter, and chose to buy a house in a white suburb of
Birmingham, Dynamite Hill, refusing to leave, even when his house was burned down.
* One of Jasper's children, having inherited from her father's fair skin, pretends to be a white
woman, to enjoy better treatment and be able to use the white elevator in a Birmingham department
store.
* Frank Bennett spies on his infant son under the pretense of being in a Ku Klux Klan exercise to
intimidate Idgie and Ruth for serving to black customers.
* One of Idgie's best friends, Grady Kilgore, working for the train companies as some kind of local
sheriff, is also a member of the local Ku Klux Klan, which he tries to deny when Idgie confronts him
about it.
Aging is a theme, as Evelyn goes through menopause and watches Mrs. Threadgoode, who is eighty-six
years old, begin to lose her focus and deteriorate.
Food is a literary theme to the point that Flagg included the recipes served by the cafe at the end
of the book.
Buchdaten:
Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe
Taschenbuch: 403 Seiten
Verlag: Vintage, New York (2. April 1992)
Sprache: Englisch
ISBN: 0099143712
Preis: € 8,99
Oder auf DVD:
Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe
Produktinformationen:
Darsteller: Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Marie-Louise Parker, Cicely Tyson
Regisseur(e): Jon Avnet
Format: PAL, Special Edition, Import
Sprache: Englisch
Region: Region 2
Anzahl Disks: 1
BBFC: Freigegeben ab 12 Jahren
Studio: ITV DVD
DVD-Erscheinungstermin: 17. September 2007
ISBN: B000NDETPQ
Preis: € 13,99
More works from the same author:
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