The Whole Town's Talking

In Fannie Flagg's latest novel The Whole Town's Talking (#629) she includes everyone - even the folks in the Still Meadows Cemetery!  From the founding of Elmwood Springs, Missouri by Swedish immigrant Lordor Nordstrom through its heyday when even Hollywood stars include the town on tours, and its eventual decline after the interstate sucks the life out of downtown, we meet its citizens with all their foibles and faults and rock solid virtues.

There are good people and bad; everyday joys and sorrows, romances and unrequited love. successful businesses and criminal behavior.  It's all here, told with humor and compassion.  Ms. Flagg is such a skilled storyteller that she makes it seem not only plausible, but natural that when the citizens of Elmwood Springs die and are buried in Still Meadows Cemetery overlooking town, that they wake up to discover that their friends and relatives are there to meet them, and are anxious for news of those left behind.  But even at Still Meadows, there will come a day when some one's voice will no longer be there.  No one knows where they go, or when it will happen...

It's a delightful, touching, often funny set of insights into the life of a close-knit community.  Ms. Flagg has even included a nod to her previous novel, The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion which shone a long-overdue spotlight on the heroic work of the women who served during World War II in the WASPS.  (If you haven't read that story, you ought to!  See my post of 5/22/14.).  One of the ladies of Elmwood Springs finally gets her due here.

Put The Whole Town's Talking on your Must Read List.  You'll be glad you did!