The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg

image from LibraryThing

A Fannie Flagg book is guaranteed to be a quick and interesting read and this one didn't let me down.  This story spans the years and the continent.

Sookie is the mother of 4 - a well settled southern woman with a mother who just won't quit!  I mean - really won't quit!!! We call her a battle ax around here! :)  She knows everything and everybody and he word and idea rule!  And poor Sookie she is at her mom's beck and call ALWAYS!

So - that is Sookie's life - complicated enough.  But, then it goes up another level.  There is a weird registered letter with a secret. . . Sookie was adopted. All her mom's pressure to be something, to follow the family way, to be more than she is.   

Sookie is blindsided!  Her entire life history is shuffled and twisted. She takes advice from some of her friends - some of the advice is better than others.  One of her friends, Malveern, suggests she join her naked drum circle to connect with her primal rage. That isn't really Sookie.  Instead, Sookie begins meeting with the town psychiatrist  - but not in his office right beside her mother's favorite beauty salon - instead they meet at the local waffle house for her counseling session.  

As Sookie's story slowly unfolds - another story is also unfolding.  Sookie's real mother according to the birth certificate is Fritzi, one of the bravest women alive!  She started her life as a wing-walker during barnstorming days and from there became a WASP - a group of women who transported planes during WWII across the country.  They were never really acknowledged but were amazing none the less.

As Sookie finds out more about her mother she slowly begins to understand herself.  This was a book about beginning again - no matter what the age or the past. It was just the story I needed. Fannie Flagg did it again!