Books: Can't Wait to Get to Heaven

Can't Wait to Get to Heaven
By Fannie Flagg
Copyright 2006
365 pages

Fannie Flagg, author of Fried Green Tomatoes, writes about southern small towns and the characters within.

I have read and enjoyed all of her books. This one delivered, but I confess I like her earlier works better.

Elner is an aged high-spirited town character who is stung to death by wasps whilst standing on a ladder picking figs. (We met Elner and the other characters in Standing in the Rainbow and Welcome to the World, Baby Girl.)

Her worry-wart niece, Norma, tries to make sense of this event.

Elner, meanwhile, goes to heaven and is given a piece of cake. She meets her sister, Norma's mother, Neighbor Dorothy, and a few other people (including Edison), before she is whisked back to earth. It wasn't her time.

She tells Norma of her experience and Norma tries to keep it quiet. Elner goes on to impart "life lessons" to everyone.

Later, Elner passes peacefully in her sleep, and there is a wrap-up of the way Elner's life has affected everyone around her (sort of like that Christmas classic).

There was some social commentary in the book - U.S. health care, in particular, gets jabbed at a few times. But this was more of "this is the way things are" than advocating change.

3 stars