Book #81: Can't Wait to Get to Heaven

Title: Can't Wait to Get to Heaven


Author: Fannie Flagg


I think of Fannie Flagg as the Lorna Landvik of the South (they even both have alliterative names). I loved Lorna Landvik's Angry Housewives Eating Bonbons but have been underwhelmed by the rest of what she has written. Similarly, I enjoyed Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe but haven't really liked anything else of hers that I've read, Can't Wait to Get to Heaven included.


I'm missing our book club this week, so I don't know what everyone else in the group thought of this book, but I didn't like the story of old Elner Shimfissle (no one knows quite how old), who falls from a ladder and dies, then returns to tell about the experience. I found it sort of silly and too lighthearted and flippant. It's fiction lightweight. If you liked that dumb book by the Tuesdays with Morrie guy (The Five People You Meet in Heaven?) then you'll probably like this one. I didn't like either of them.


--originally published 12/12/06