A rainbow can be glimpsed through the Seattle Center fountainSummer 2002 photo by Joel Farmer
The summer I was seven or eight years old my mother’s appendix burst and while she was in the hospital I was sent to Baton Rouge to stay for a few weeks with my Aunt Katherine and Uncle Bob. While most of the country was engrossed it the Watergate hearings that summer, my two passions were soaking in the kiddie pool my aunt set up on the patio and watching the new tv show Match Game every afternoon. And I’ve been a fan of Fannie Flagg ever since.
Most everyone is familiar with Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistlestop Cafe, which is wonderful and I was titillated to read of her affair with Rita Mae Brown in Brown’s memoir Rita Will, but it wasn’t until I started working for the library that I discovered some of her later books, which have become my favorites. Yesterday I happened to shelve Standing In The Rainbow , which is the story of Neighbor Dorothy of Elmwood, Missouri– a "radio homemaker" who broadcasts daily from her living room. Accompanied by her mother-in-law on the organ and with occasional interruptions from her son Bobby, who more or less grows up on the air, Dorothy Smith provides an intimate and chatty hour filled with recipe exchanges, domestic advice, and personal bits about her family. Over the years Neighbor Dorothy becomes a real friend to the women in her area who tune in faithfully every day. The novel is richly plotted and beautifully written. A wonderful read.
Can’t Wait To Get To Heaven is a sequel to Standing In The Rainbow that continues the story of the people in Elmwood, Missouri some years after Neighbor Dorothy’s death. This time the action centers around 80 year old Elner Shinfissle, who one morning falls off a ladder, is taken to the hospital and dies. We are alternately treated to short vignettes of various people reacting to the news of her passing and scenes in which Elner ascends into Heaven, where she meets her old friend Neighbor Dorothy. Dorothy and Elner have a wonderful visit, and then Dorothy gives her visitor a slice of most delicious cake and tells her she has to go home now. Elner then wakes up in the morgue and things really get wild. Quite possibly Flagg’s funniest yet.
A Redbird Christmas is a short and sweet novel about an elderly Chicago man, Oswald T. Campbell, who is advised by his doctor that his emphysema will not survive another Illinois winter and on a whim moves to Lost River, Alabama where he turns out to be the only eligible man in town and is soon awash in flirtatious blue haired ladies. Only about 130 pages, this one is a very easy read and real heart warmer.
Good news is the tooth ache has gone away again for now. Work was ok, but I was tired and grumpy. And then I couldn’t sleep and am up late blogging. Tomorrow is the annual all staff meeting for the county library system and then I will have to work a few hours at the branch afterwards. Happy Friday!
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