BOOK REVIEW: I Still Dream About You

Fannie Flagg is such a good Southern author. In I Still Dream About You, she creates wonderful pictures of a variety of Southern women, the likes of which I knew growing up in Dallas. As is true of the characters in this book, those moms and teachers and neighbors worried about hurting the feelings of others and would go out of their way to avoid any possible inconvenience to their friends. Of course, Fannie takes these traits to the extreme with her characters, especially protagonist Margaret Anne Fortenberry ("Maggie"). 


Maggie is a former Miss Alabama, selling real estate in Birmingham. In spite of her perfect façade, she's determined to end her life. She makes all the preparations--writing her suicide note by hand ("... the computer would be far too impersonal and certainly not in good taste"), making sure all her bills were paid ("She never wanted to give anyone the chance to say that a former Miss Alabama was a deadbeat."), placing ant traps under the sink, and even emptying her refrigerator to make sure no one had to deal with spoiled food after she's gone. The last thing she wants is to be a bother to anyone. Yet a performance by the Whirling Dervishes, a skeleton in the closet of a home she's trying to sell, and other inconvenient setbacks keep getting in the way of her plans to end her life. 


I won't post a spoiler and tell you how the story ends, but I will say that although the conclusion was predictable, Fannie Flagg entertained me from page one. While the book didn't contain the depth of Fried Green Tomatoes, it was well worth reading. This is a book I'd definitely recommend.


By the way, both of us Sandras are avid readers and we'll post random book reviews from time to time. These reviews will be from books we've borrowed from the library, bought new or used at book stores, received from friends, or downloaded to our Kindles. We receive no compensation for reading or reviewing these books.