Everyone’s hometown plays a special role. It’s a part of each person’s identity, and wherever they go, some fragment of home travels with them, tucked around a corner of their soul. Strangers may see the same place as a paradise or living hell but to to a native son or daughter, this spot is where they started to become the person they are today. That tie never completely loses its grip and while a lot of us leave our hometowns, some of us eventually go home. The rest return in their dreams. That’s the theme of Fannie Flagg’s 2011 novel, I Still Dream of You. On the surface, it’s a story of twentieth-century women adapting to twenty-first century demands. Brenda’s jumped into real estate work and politics with both feet, trying to improve the City of Birmingham and lose weight without losing her Krispy Kremes. Brenda’s friend Maggie isn’t adjusting as well. Maggie was raised to be a lady, considerate and kind but her inbred courtesy is often undercut by other, unprincipled real-estate agents. Like her beloved old homes on Red Mountain, Maggie is in danger of being destroyed by opportunists driven by the almighty dollar. The friendship between Brenda…
I saw Fannie Flagg when I was young. Not as young as my husband, (who remembers her stint as the local weather girl) but in the early 1970’s, when Nixon was still president, my family got to see her on stage in a road-company performance of “Mame” with Bea Arthur supporting her as Vera Charles. It was a night of transcendent joy. Mame is a terrific show and Fannie took over the lead as if it had been written for her, my father forgot he hated all musicals and at the end of the performance the company got the longest storm of applause I’ve ever heard. Seriously, we beat blisters onto our palms that night clapping for that flame-haired woman who insisted life was a banquet and most poor suckers were starving themselves to death. That night, I decided no actress could inhabit Mame’s character well without understanding and supporting this philosophy. Ms. Flagg’s The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion has me thinking I underestimated her years ago. Fannie Flagg understands Everyone and Everything. She certainly understands Sookie Poole, the central character and perpetual mother-of-the-bride in AGFSLR. Sookie’s a member of the sandwich generation, still trying to fill the needs …