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I Still Dream About You On Ipad & Kindle | Fannie Flag

So here's the dilemma: how can a respectable Southern woman, who wants everything neat and orderly, who has a responsibility to always look her best, and who cannot bring shame either to the South or to her former title of Miss Alabama, neatly commit suicide? Particularly when her condo doesn't have a gas stove, she can't use a gun (because the newspapers will be all over that–Southerners and their guns, you know), and her car is leased by her business so she can't wreck it. And to make matters worse, life keeps interfering with her perfect plan. The Whirling Dervishes come to town. A hair appointment looms (and that pesky 24-hour cancellation policy), parking tickets and bills need to be paid first, there's too much goat cheese in the refrigerator, and there's a mystery to be solved in one of the old mansions on the hill. Such is the dilemma for Maggie Fortenberry, a former Miss Alabama beauty queen who has endeavored to create a picture-perfect life–a "neat orderly way of being" that she envies in other people's lives. She is so busy admiring everyone else's seemingly perfect existence and punishing herself for her private transgressions that when we meet her in this story she is composing (on perfect stationery- with unfortunately a less-than-perfect pen) her suicide note. She approaches her suicide plans in the same calm, orderly way she has tried to live her life: making a list and being careful not to leave any loose ends or mess. What a wonderful book. Fannie Flagg has such a gift for writing quirky, funny, and compelling characters including the eternally optimistic Hazel, the "biggest little real estate woman in the world", super-smart but ice-cream addicted Brenda, and Babs Bingington, the New Jersey-born real estate agent who is marching through Birmingham like "Sherman taking Atlanta." Not to mention Leroy, the love-struck goat. Flagg has nailed Southern culture and Southern womanhood for all its strength and silliness. And beneath her humor is compassion– for the characters, their lives, and their stories. This is a book about dreams–dreams lost and dreams found. The dreams of youth–and how to find new dreams when you are no longer young and "have nothing to look forward to" as Maggie laments. Maggie grew up in "Magic City" above a movie theatre called "Dreamland" but her life hasn't been magical or dreamy– or maybe it has and she just doesn't see it from within her depression and the seething rage just under the surface of smiles and perfection. Even her home doesn't reflect a real life: it must be immaculate because it is the model home for the condo complex shown by realtors to potential buyers. Ironically, the act of ending her life is what ends up saving it: as Maggie puts an end to all the activities she's hated but did because she was supposed to (canceling her gym membership for example) she finally starts to own her true self. Where that leads makes this book a wonderful adventure. Fannie Flagg, who has written two of my favorite books, Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man: A Novel and Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe: A Novel, has done it again. "I Still Dream About You" is another funny, sad, heartfelt story. I realize it's trite to say that you'll laugh and cry–but you will. Enjoy!

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