This is a cute, fast, sweet novel. It was difficult to get into the story because for the first third of the novel, there is no actual story. It just bounces around from different times in history from the points of view of different people, many of whom we’ve met in Flagg’s earlier books. Then, when it finally resembles an actual narrative, basically nothing happens.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book, which RELEASES OCTOBER 27, 2020.

I just love Fannie Flagg's books. Readers who loved Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe are going to enjoy her upcoming The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop releasing October 27th.  It's been a while since I read FGT, but I remembered all the characters and liked how the author picked up on showing us how some of their lives unfolded.  Bud and his daughter Ruthie have such a sweet relationship.  Thank you to the publisher for the ARC - fans are in for a big treat this fall!

I loved this book and remembering the characters from "Fried Green Tomatoes."  This is light fun read with some remarkable characters. It's also an homage to old hometowns and wonderful memories.  I read this in an afternoon and found it delightful.

Bud Threadgoode, you remember Ruth's son from "Fried Green Tomatoes", is all grown up now.  Now that he has lived his life, married & had a daughter, been in the military & then owned his own veterinary practice, he has been reminiscing about his life back in Whistle Stop.  So he sets off on an adventure, doing a runner from the assisted living facility he has been living at, and makes the journey back there only to discover the town no longer exists.  What he does find is a new friend, someone who knew some of his family. They  swap stories and memories from the good old days and Bud learns that home isn't necessariiy just a place.
I loved this book.  In between the story about Bud and his daughter in the current day, there were stories, emails, newsletters, & all sorts of things from when Bud was growing up.  So we get to relive some of the magic of Whistle Stop, of Idgie & Ruth, of Ms. Evelyn & Ninny.  This is a fun, light read that will leave you with a smile on your face.  I highly recommend it.

I love everything Frankie Flagg writes and this is no exception. I waited to read this book until I was in the right frame of mind to savor it, and it was well worth the wait. Revisiting the family is a calming balm and Flagg’s writing is superb. Thank you Fannie Flagg, please never stop writing.

LOVED IT! I have always loved Fried Green Tomatoes, both the book and the movie, and this book took me right back there. I felt like I was returning to old friends, old home, and old times. Everyone was familiar, and the new characters that were introduced were perfectly fleshed out and made sense for the story line. 

I was honestly a little afraid that after so many decades, it would be difficult for Flagg to recapture that magic, but she nailed it! I think this is the best book I've read this year. Perhaps the best book I've read in a long time. 

If you're a fan of FGT, then this is definitely a book to pick up!

Loved it! The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop is a warm quilted blanket on a cool fall day. Fannie Flagg did not disappoint with this beautiful story that gets us all caught up with Ruth, Idgie, Bud, and introduces us to Ruthie. This tale shows us how life moves on, but somehow remains the same. It's full of love and memories, joy and achievements. Wonder Boy weaves back and forth through decades, and ends up with a beautiful and satisfying ending. Highly Highly Recommend!

Thank you, NetGalley, for allowing me to read this book.

This book is like catching up with an old friend you have not seen in years. Sharing memories, catching up with the family, crying a bit and laughing a lot. A perfect book!

Fannie Flag is a reliable author and this book is no exception.  She once again drew me into the story and made me care about the inhabitants of this world.  If you want something light and fun to read, grab this book and dig in!

I imagine Fannie Flagg sitting on her lanai with a tall glass of sweet tea, conducting a bit of a character exercise with herself, running through her favorites from Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe and mapping out what happened to them at the end of the story, who they married, children, and where they finally moved away to live.  After this fun little writing workshop, she said what the hell, and sent her notes to her publisher.  That's my theory at least.
I can always count on Flagg to give me a great story with memorable characters living in a time and place much more friendly and tight knit than our own.  And what better a time than now to not only have a new Flagg novel, but one bringing us back to Whistle Stop!
However, in the current climate, there's just something missing that I was desperately hoping for--every character is white, straight, gets married to an opposite-sex partner, and proceeds to have at least one child.  At the very least characters like Sipsey and Big George should have received more fleshing out and further stories but they appear basically in name only.  Big George has a daughter, who could have easily headlined chapters (as she's also a chef and using her grandmother's famous recipes to boot!) but only appears as a quick mention and only in the capacity of the kitchen.  Instead, we're subjected to point of view chapters featuring the over-bearing, controlling, and all together unpleasant mother in law of Buddy's daughter.  Even having Idgie and Ruth back for a bit felt like a wasted opportunity.  Their story didn't get an expansion--nor was there much interaction between the two of them in any of the 1930s-set scenes.  We do finally (FINALLY) have a somewhat admission that their relationship was beyond that of friendship alone, but nothing more.  I do hope one day to finally read that chapter of the Whistle Stop story.
Wonder Boy is just missing heart.  Flagg always  shines brightest with her female characters. A running theme through all her books is the community women are able to quietly run, foster, and support as well as encourage within each other.  What a perfect opportunity to branch out to include non-white/non-straight stories!  An opportunity both missed and sorely missed.  This ends up being an okay book instead of a great and memorable one.  I look forward to the day we can return to Whistle Stop and hear more of those incredible minority stories.

Have you read Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe?  This book takes you from the early 1900’s to the current day both in Whistle Stop, Alabama to the different parts of the country that the people from the original book moved to.  This book takes you into the stories of several of the people from the original book and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The stories go from early 1900 to late 1900 so some people may find it a bit confusing but I found it fun to find out what happened to Whistle Stop, Alabama and the wonderful characters.  I highly recommend this book.

As with other Fannie Flagg novels, I loved this one. Reading it was like catching up with old friends and family. In order for one to get the optimal enjoyment from The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop, they need to read Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café first. The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop revisits the wonderful characters we all came to love in both the novel and the movie, Fried Green Tomatoes. We learn what has become of the townsfolk and what the future holds for those that remain. I am always excited to find a new Fannie Flagg novel, and this one did not disappoint! Thank you, NetGalley and Random House, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review of this book.

Sometimes we just need a feel-good read, and Fannie Flagg delivers with The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop. Revisiting characters from her previous work, Flagg's charming mix of homespun wit, nostalgia, and gentle humor focuses on Buddy Threadgoode's family. As in life, there are good times and bad times for the characters, and most importantly, a "you can go home again" vibe that is so soothing. It's more than okay for books to be about reader enjoyment and this one fits the bill.

It was so nice to be back in Whistle Stop! This novel was quintessential Fannie Flagg. It was full of all the quirky, good-hearted characters that can always be found in a Flagg story, and it gives us a check-in with some of our favorites. Although sometimes it borders ever so slightly on the saccharine, it levels out into just a lovely, fun, feel-good story.

If you fell in love with Fannie Flagg’s FRIED GREEN TOMATOES AT THE WHISTLE STOP CAFE then this is the update to all of those adventures. THE WONDER BOY OF WHISTLE STOP moves back and forth in time, not unlike the first book, and completes the story arc for many of the major characters.  It is not really a stand alone book;  much of the book’s joy is derived from the follow-up to the first.  Flagg is one of my favorite authors and she is especially good at creating believable communities and extending their characters through time and circumstance.  Perhaps I hoped for too much from this book based on how much I loved FRIED GREEN TOMATOES or her series that begins with WELCOME TO THE WORLD, BABY GIRL.  While it’s a good book, I just wished for a transcendent book;  the kind that would stay with me for 20 years, as many of Flagg’s books have done.  This is not that kind of book.  But fans will be very happy, no question about it.  I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Reading this book felt like coming home after being away for a long time. This book had me hooked from page one with my return to Whistle Stop. The layout of this book was similar to the original story and I enjoyed the flashbacks between the past and the present time. I enjoyed catching up with all of the characters from the original story as well as the introduction of new characters when we see how Bud Threadgood's turned out.
Overall, this was a great feel good story that I had a hard time putting down once I started it. It was a truly enjoyable read that I would recommend to others

Five stars are not enough for Fannie Flagg's new book!!! She brings back all the lovable characters from her book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe and lets her readers know what happened to them. She also introduces a few new characters who will change all their lives forever! This is a must read for all Fannie Flagg fans!

Although I felt invested to finish the book, this tale felt very “phoned in”, to coin a 90’s phrase. Very formulaic & pat, as if fulfilling an obligation. & the ending, with the mother-in-law? Cannot imagine that in real life.

One of the best news I could have received: Random House via NetGalley asked me days ago if I wanted to read and review the latest book by Fannie Flagg: The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop. This book will be published this August 20th in the USA. 


Oh: I absolutely return with joy, enthusiasm at 


Whistle Stop, the imaginery little town in Alabama created by Fannie. 

Her characters, Idgie Threadgood, Ruth Jamison, Sipsey, Big George, Buddy Threadgood, Ninny Threadgood, Evelyn Couch, are all unforgettable characters. Magnificient plot the one of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, I remember that I also cooked the fried green tomatoes. It was the first time that I ate them in that way and they were simply delicious! 

 

As you remember, in that first book there is the essence of the South of the USA: religion, rebel spirit, violence perpetrated to a lady, a murder, racism, great food, friendship, love, departures, shocking events in grade to change the existence of people; it is a book plenty of humanity and real life in motion.


So, what about The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop, you'll ask?


I imagined at first only the isolated story of Stump, Buddy Threadgood's Jr. the son of Ruth Jamison and her disgraceful husband Frank Bennett: there is much more.


The community of Whistle Stop, Alabama, with its hairdresser, the café and many more activities was in fact, very united; when the town slowly slowly died, no one lost definitively connections with the rest of the community. 


OK, life continued in other States for all the protagonists, sometimes distantly from Alabama, but persisted the curiosity of being updated, because roots are something that no one can remove or delete. Plus, the adventures experienced in the little town of Whistle Stop by all these characters were too unforgettable and fascinating.


The town had had also a potential journalist, Dot, who kept connected the entire community with a newsletter when she lived in Whistle Stop and later when she abandoned the area for another State thanks to a frenetic exchange of  letters with the rest of the Whistle Stop community here and there, reported the most relevant news regarding everyone with a long letter sent during the Christmas Time every year. A tradition I know very well; some American correspondents of the South love to write a long letter every Christmas for telling what it is going on in their corner of the world keeping us updated. 


This book, more modern and "mundane" under many aspects, is the reflections of our times; the various protagonists of these new stories are pretty old, some of them gone; who is alive is coping with ageing; this book is also a dream; the possibility of new beginnings for everyone.


The story of Buddy Threadgood is relevant in this sense; with the time he became a vet, he married a lady and has had Ruthie. Ruthie, once grown up, and, beautiful as her grand-mother Ruth was, married a boy, Brooks absolutely in love with her, althought persisted the skepticism of Brooks's mother, a pretty snob lady, desidering for her son someone else, much more rich, and more close to their social status.


Anyway, the marriage of Brooks and Ruthie was absolutely happy with the arrival of two children. Brooks had many dreams but unfortunately he won't realize most of them.


Buddy Threadgood Jr, old now, and with a sort of little dementia going on, before to fall too sick and not remembering anything, decided to run away from the Home where he was living in, searching for Whistle Stop and hoping to see another time his old native village.


Unfortunately his trip was deludent; the old places he knew so well, were, simply, unrecognizables.


Ruthie fell desperate when she understood that her dad escaped away, and at first she thought that he was dead. But he wasn't; thanks to this disappearance Evelyn Couch read the message published in a newsmagazine regarding the disappearance of Buddy Jr. 


She immediately recognized Buddy Threadgood Jr. 


Oh; Ninny had told her wagons of facts of Buddy. He lost his left arm at the age of 7; he was called Stump by Idgie. 


Evelyn was grateful to Ninny for what she did for her. 


Ninny was the best guidance she could have had; a help arrived directly from God. 


Evelyn, met Ninny in a home where stayed also her husband's mother, another disgusting lady; the one of Evelyn was a sad, absolutely depressing existence, with a man uninterested to let her show manifestations of any sort of affection. Thanks to Ninny, Evelyn, the unsecure creature who cried most of the time eating chocolate for forgetting the ugliest part of the world became a successful seller of Mary Kay Cosmetics and much much more, becoming a multi-millionaire lady. 


Evelyn called so Ruthie, asking to see her. Evelyn had a box of pictures and other items presented her by Ninny; a big gift containing the memories of her existence; many pictures of Buddy, Idgie, Buddy's mother.

Evelyn would have wanted to give this material to Buddy Jr.


Gratitude was so big in Evelyn, that she decided with Ruthie to restoring the old town of Whistle Stop! presenting to Buddy the old house where he lived in when little, modernized, restored, re-built.

 

As you will see there will be problems at first...


The book returns continuously in the remote past, and then in more recent years in a fluidity of space and time, in grade to motivate choices made by the various protagonists, reporting stories of people, anecdots of a little community who made the difference.


The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop is a pleasant return home; in a home, Whistle Stop that crossed the destinies of many people forever connected thanks to solidariety, love, friendship, help, preserved memories, good tales, great recipes, solidity.

It's a beautiful portrait of the South of the USA, its generosity, amiability and hospitality, the ingredients for a great reading, with the positive, optimistic touch of Fannie Flagg that it is one of the best distinctive part of her writing.


Highly recommended.


I thank NetGalley and Random House for this ebook.

Publisher sent to me to review.  I have read every one of her books.
Thrilled to read this as I am a fan of Fannie Flagg and a big lover of Whistle Stop Café- 
both book and the movie!  Both are classics in my world.

I started reading and I was immediately back in Whistle Stop, Alabama.
Idgie still makes me laugh.

Through Dot Weems' Newsflashes and newsletters
with her wit and wise sayings - I was laughing out loud.  
Excited to catch up with old friends and to have more adventures with them.
I love returning to Whistle Stop!!

A must -read for all!!