Maggie Fortenberry, a former Miss Alabama, is reaching the age when senior citizen bonuses are just round the corner. She still has a job, she has good health, she has a nice little apartment. So why is she making plans to finish herself off? Suicide seems a nice option: she can clean her home, never have to have her hair coloured again, give her money to charity, her clothes to the local theatre company and take herself off and never come back. What d'you know? Life has other plans for Maggie. Friends need help and she still worries about what will happen if the suicide bid doesn't come off. She's worked for the same realty (estate agent) company for many years. She's white, her best friend Brenda is black - and running for mayor of Birmingham, Alabama. Both of them experienced the bad days of the riots and violence back in the sixties, and neither of them understood what made it so bad. Whatever, these two women who care about each other, are reaching their 60s, and both are planning great changes.
To say more would give the reader too many clues, for this is not only a story about love and friendship, but a wonderful mystery is knitted into it. Oh, and there's a deliciously awful villain too! Fanny Flagg cannot be accused of writing great literature..... but she can be counted on as a great storyteller, and every one of her books has been a great story. I have never yet been disappointed in Fannie Flagg; she does lovely warm stories about human nature which are not chick lit but usually involve women and what they do. And so readable. Finished this in two days!
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