Standing in the Rainbow

Fannie Flagg

This book starts in Elmwood Springs, Missouri, in 1946. Bobby Smith is 10, his sister Annalee is 17, his mother is Neighbor Dorothy, a popular local radio talk show host, and his father is Doc Smith, the town pharmacist. It starts pleasantly with Bobby being a precocious 10 year old who bugs his older sister.

Standing in the Rainbow stays pleasant as Elmwood Springs goes through the next 20 years. Bobby and Annalee grow up. The Elmwood Springs neighbors stay pleasantly eccentric. A few more pleasant eccentric characters enter the novel, including a traveling gospel group, their shy daughter, and the future governor of Missouri. The book stays on the same winding, pleasant... and boring path. About three quarters of the way through the book I gave up. I just didn't care what happened to these characters. I didn't even bother to read the last few pages, which I will in some books.

I liked the other books I've read by Fannie Flagg, including Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe . But I kept reading this book and feeling like I was wasting my time. I finally decided I was wasting my time, and gave up. This is a pleasant, rambling, small town book. In my opinion, don't bother.