Book Review: The All Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion

(Editor’s Note: Local woman and voracious reader Betty Jean Jordan said she read this book, and felt compelled to write a review, and offered it to the newspaper. We welcome Mrs. Jordan’s book review, and hope you enjoy it.)

I’ll bet that the land of The Monticello News has a lot of fans of Fried Green Tomatoes. Most people are probably familiar with the movie, filmed in nearby Juliette, but did you know that it is based on the book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg?

This is the same Fannie Flagg who frequently appeared on the iconic TV show Match Game back in the 70s and early 80s. Anyway, if you liked Fried Green Tomatoes, you’ll really enjoy her latest novel, The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion. I listened to the audio version, read by the author herself, making it an extra treat.

In The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion, Ms. Flagg uses several approaches familiar to her readers. She tells two stories that occur decades apart, yet they are related. Also, she realistically depicts Southern characters without making them seem contrived. Some of them might even remind you of people you know! The plot takes a few unexpected twists, too, of the magnitude of “the secret’s in the sauce.”

This story centers on Mrs. Earle Poole, Jr., known to everyone as Sookie. Sookie lives in Point Clear, Alabama and has a loving husband and four grown children. Her most complex relationship, however, is with her mother, the larger-than-life Lenore Simmons Krackenberry. Everyone loves Lenore, but Sookie’s closest friends suspect that it’s not always easy being her daughter. Then one day, Sookie learns something that changes the way she looks at herself, Lenore, and everything else.

The other storyline features the Jurdabralinskis, a proud Polish family from Pulaski, Wisconsin, who run a busy filling station. Fritzi, the oldest of the four Jurdabralinski sisters, takes over operations in the absence of their father and brother during the early years of World War II.

Fritzi, who was a female stunt pilot before the war, puts her mechanical skills to use and trains her sisters. Together, the four girls make the family filling station more successful than ever. Unfortunately, as the war continues, gasoline and rubber are rationed, and eventually the Jurdabralinskis must close the station.

Fritzi and two of her sisters join the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), a female branch of the U.S. Army Air Forces, which was the forerunner to today’s U.S. Air Force.

The book really shines here, paying well deserved tribute to a real-life group of brave women. Women with pilot’s licenses were recruited to help the war effort by flying aircraft from factories to ports of embarkation and military training bases. They also towed targets for artillery practice and transported cargo. The women’s service relieved male pilots for combat duty.

The WASPs underwent training that was essentially the same as male aviation cadets, and they flew every type of military aircraft used in World War II. Sadly, the WASPs were never granted military status, making them ineligible for military benefits, including the GI Bill. Many Americans have never even heard of the WASPs because the official records were classified and sealed for nearly 35 years.

Masterful storytelling with a Southern flair and a good history lesson: The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion provides both.

Visit our local Jasper County library and check out this gem of a book.