Books: The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion

The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion
by Fannie Flagg
Copyright 2014
Read by Fannie Flagg
Approximately 10 hours

Fannie Flagg returned to the format she used in Fried Green Tomatoes with great results in her latest novel.

The All-Girl Filling Station is a dual story, told in the present and in the past, much like Fried Green Tomatoes. An older woman, Sookie Poole of Point Clear, Alabama, learns disturbing news that will change her life.

The story jumps back in time to explain the news and how things came to be. In the process, Flagg introduces us to some special history: the story of the WASPS (Women Airforce Service Pilots), a group of women military craft flyers. Their story was lost for about 35 years.

Flagg creates several memorable characters, including Fritzi, an irrepressible young woman who learns to fly airplanes and then takes over her family's Philips 66 filling station when the only son leaves for the war. She and her sisters man the station, and soon truck drivers everywhere are lining the streets to get a fill-up from the lovely young women.

Sookie, an older woman in her 60s, is also an interesting and entertaining character. Her role in the story is made clear by the time the tale finishes, and hooray for happy endings.

I enjoyed listening to this book. I loved learning about the WASPS and of course had to research and see if they were true. Flagg has her facts right in the fiction, and the story she wove around this interesting bit of history is impressive and probable.

Definitely the best Flagg has written in a while - maybe the best since Fried Green Tomatoes. (I've read all of her books). I hope somebody makes this one into a movie.

5 stars