Fannie Flagg, of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café (both book and movie) fame, has written much more than just her most famous novel. Her book The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion is a great entry in her library of works that fans of Fried Green Tomatoes will love. This newer novel tells the story of Sookie, a sixty-year old woman who has just found out that she is not in fact a child of the prestigious Simmons family of Point Clear, Alabama, as she had always believed, but was adopted and is actually the daughter of a working-class Polish family from Wisconsin. As Sookie discovers, this Polish family gave rise to not only the only female-run filling station in the Midwest, but also to three women pilots who flew planes for the war effort during World War II.
Central to this novel’s plot is a group of women that I had no idea existed – the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) who ferried planes across the country for the Air Force and freed up male pilots for the war effort. It was fascinating to learn all about them and how they were treated during and after the war – for a long time, they were not even acknowledged by the U.S. government! In addition, the characters all felt like real people, especially Sookie, who was a multi-layered and dynamic character who grew tremendously as a person over the course of the novel. Lastly, the book was a gripping read and kept me guessing till the end with a few clever twists. A particular favorite my light fiction book club (every second Monday of the month at 2 p.m.), this book was fun, interesting, and kept everyone turning pages.
Review by Shannon Wood
Adult Services Librarian
Nordonia Hills Branch Library
