The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion: A Novel by
Fannie Flagg
Description from Goodreads: Mrs. Sookie Poole of Point Clear, Alabama, has just married
off the last of her three daughters and is looking forward to relaxing and
perhaps traveling with her husband, Earle. The only thing left to contend with
now is her mother, the formidable and imposing Lenore Simmons
Krackenberry—never an easy task. Lenore may be a lot of fun for other people,
but is, for the most part, an overbearing presence for her daughter. Then one
day, quite by accident, Sookie discovers a shocking secret about her mother’s past
that knocks her for a loop and suddenly calls into question everything she ever
thought she knew about herself, her family, and her future.
Feeling like a stranger in her own life, and fearful of
confronting her mother with questions, Sookie begins a search for answers that
takes her to California, the Midwest, and back in time, to the 1940s, when an
irrepressible woman named Fritzi takes on the job of running her family’s
filling station. With so many men off to war, it’s up to Fritzi and her enterprising
younger sisters to keep it going. Soon truck drivers are changing their routes
to fill up at the All-Girl Filling Station. But before long, Fritzi sees an
opportunity for an even more groundbreaking adventure when she receives a
life-changing invitation from the U.S. military to assist in the war effort. As
Sookie learns more and more about Fritzi’s story, she finds herself with new
answers to the questions she’s been asking her whole life.
This is my new favorite Fannie Flagg book! This had just the
right amount of humor, emotion, and family drama to make it a perfect mix and a
great story.
Mrs. Sookie Poole has accidentally found out some life
altering information, that changes how she sees herself and who she thinks she is, which honestly she was already struggling with
before any of this happened, since she just married off her last daughter. She
has an overbearing mother who she thinks is never happy with anything Sookie
does. She is lucky that she has a wonderful, understanding husband and great
kids that help her through this difficult time.
We also meet Fritzi
in the 1940’s, her family runs a gas station but when her father takes
sick and her brother is sent off to war the girls of the family take over the
station and make it a big hit with an all-girl staff. This works for a while
but what Fritzi really loves to do is fly, and here is where we learn some
great history of the WAF’s and how these sister’s became an integral part of
that, it was a great history lesson of a little known part of the stateside war
effort.
This was somewhat of a coming of age book for Sookie, she
became something so much more than she ever thought she could be by the end but
what I loved is that her kids and husband knew how great she was all along but
she couldn’t see it. There is some great laugh out loud moments, and the
relationship between Sookie and her mother Lenore is interesting and makes you
realize sometimes people don’t see you the way you think they do.(and vice
versa)
I loved this book and when I finished it I thought about
starting over from the beginning again.
5 Stars
