What do You think about Standing In The Rainbow (2004)?
I so much enjoy Fannie Flagg's Work. I'm happy that you have found her too. And if you are going to read Fannie Flag, make sure you are also reading Florence King. Laugh? I thought I'd Die!
—Kelly
I felt such a sense of nostalgia when I read this book, for a place and time I never experienced. It's the same feeling I get when I watch A Christmas Story or It's a Wonderful Life. When you're little and you get sick, you always know there's a place for you on Mom's lap - there is a comfort in knowing that you will be taken care of. I never experienced the 40s and 50s, but I sense from that time that the same secure feeling existed - a confidence in the greatness of America, and its ability to survive and thrive because of its wholesome values. Growing up in the 80s and 90s,I was educated from a sense of disillusionment about this earlier time and about that mentality. Now, we tend to villainize the ignorance and the arrogance of the upper white middle class, that innate sense of American superiority, because of the gaping hypocrisies and all that it left neglected. We note, for instance, that America had internment camps at the same time that we were taking Germany to task about concentration camps. This pursuit of debunking the popular myth of the wholesome, pure quality of the 40s and 50s isn't without foundation. But I found myself on board with Fannie Flagg's message - there was something special about the 40s and 50s, and the attitude of believing good things of America; there was something good about that time that we discarded somewhere. Today's generation has followed the Cold War, Vietnam protests, the Monica Lewinsky scandal... and I think the sense of skepticism that has caused us to take the 40s and 50s to task is the same attitude that shapes the way we look at our country now, and at the government. Without hope. Without faith. The 40s and 50s may have done a lot of things wrong, but I can't stop myself from being nostalgic - just for the hope. This was the time that engendered so many of the hallmarks of American tradition - baseball, apple pie, small town life, white Christmases. I am glad that Flagg wrote about some of these things.
—Rachel Crooks
This book should have been different. It starts out being about Neighbor Dorothy's family and the town they live in, Elwood Springs, Missouri.. The first character you get to know is her young son Bobby and you get the feeling that you are going to get to see his life unfold. You do up to a point. In the meantime, we are introduced to all kinds of people from the town or passing through to do Neighbor Dorothy's radio program. I enjoyed getting to know the various people, and the story felt centered as it continued to center around Dorothy and particularly Bobby. But at the point where Bobby goes off to school after fighting in Korea and being a bit lost at home for a while (about half way through the book), it stops following him and his family almost completely. They become a comment here and there. I was particularly bored when we had to read on and on about Hamm Sparks political life. That part seemed to go on and and on, so I was thrilled when it ended! I think the ending was suppose to sew things up and feel like a complete picture, but to me it didn't have that effect. I was just glad I finally finished this nearly 500 page book! Clean and sweet, just rambling and too convoluted!
—Alice
