![\"wholetown\"](\"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/WholeTown.jpg\")
<\/a>Just as there is comfort food, there are comfort books. Once again, Fannie Flagg has dished up the latter in fine style.<\/p>\nSome people know Fannie Flagg mostly for Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Caf\u00e9<\/em>, which became a popular movie, and they think of her as a Southern writer. She is, indeed, a fine Southern writer, but she\u2019s also written some good novels with other settings. We already know the Midwestern town of Elmwood Springs, Mo., from her Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!,<\/em> Standing in the Rainbow<\/em> and Can\u2019t Wait to Get to Heaven<\/em>. (Forgive me if I\u2019ve missed one.)<\/p>\n And now Flagg gives us, as only she could, an overview of the history of Elmwood Springs from its founding in the late 19th<\/sup> century to the present. Fans will be happy to see some familiar characters again, but first-timers won\u2019t have any trouble appreciating what\u2019s here.<\/p>\n Of course, this novel is not some dry accounting of facts, but rather a history through stories of the people who live in Elmwood Springs \u2013 and even of many of the people who die and are buried there. Lordor Nordstrom, the dairy farmer who, with his mail-order Swedish bride, got things started back before Elmwood Springs had a name, set aside a special place as a cemetery for family, friends and their descendants. As the years go by, Flagg\u2019s stories of what has \u201cthe whole town talking\u201d move easily back and forth between the living and those who find themselves at Still Meadows, mostly at peace but keenly interested in what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n Still Meadows, as it turns out, is something of a misnomer. Its residents can talk to one another, even if they can\u2019t communicate with the living (for the most part).<\/p>\n This is not, however, a ghost story. It\u2019s very much a book about life, described with Fannie Flagg\u2019s characteristic wisdom. There is often humor in Flagg\u2019s stories, but it\u2019s never slapstick or condescending.<\/p>\n Flagg brings Elmwood Springs alive through a series of fairly brief stories told from a variety of points of view. Common themes and people tie everything together, even as the townsfolk find their lives changed by the Great Depression, wars (worldwide and more limited), women\u2019s suffrage, suburbanization and all sorts of modern inventions, including movies, airplanes and cell phones.<\/p>\n There are happy times and sad. Inevitably, there are tragedies. Some people get what they deserve, while others suffer fates that just don\u2019t seem fair. Yet, the overall feeling among the residents is that life goes on, and that\u2019s mostly a good thing.<\/p>\n This book is sentimental at times, but never sappy. It\u2019s certainly not formulaic. The stories may take a quirky turn at times, but never to an extreme.<\/p>\n Longtime fans should be warned that the audio version is not, as some earlier ones have been, read by Flagg herself. While her Southern accent enhances some of her books, the choice of Kimberly Farr for this one is wise. She\u2019s able to get the Swedish and Midwestern accents just right. And even though the book covers a lot of time, and it\u2019s important to pay attention to the setting of each new section, it\u2019s not hard to follow the audio version.<\/p>\n Whether you listen or read the print version, The Whole Town\u2019s Talking<\/em> will make you smile a lot, laugh at times and ultimately feel that things aren\u2019t so bad. It\u2019s a celebration of life, family and that elusive thing we call community.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE WHOLE TOWN\u2019S TALKING. By Fannie Flagg. Read by Kimberly Farr. 16 CDs; 12 hours. $54. Also available in print from Random House. Just as there is comfort food, there are comfort books. Once again, Fannie Flagg has dished up the latter in fine style. Some people know Fannie Flagg […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,897,426],"tags":[820,920,530],"class_list":["post-2036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio-books","category-humorous-fiction","category-popular-fiction","tag-audio-books","tag-elmwood-springs","tag-fannie-flagg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2038,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions\/2038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}