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

"The rest of the day, Sookie kept catching glimpses of herself in the mirror. She knew she looked the same on the outside. She walked and talked like the same person. But she didn't know who or what she was on the inside."
                      -from the novel

I have been a fan of Fannie Flagg (pun intended) for years but had somehow missed reading this book from 2013. In reading it I realized how much I've missed the Southern charm of her stories.

The novel begins in Point Clear, Alabama in 2005 when Mrs. Earle Poole, Jr., called Sookie, receives a registered letter which reveals a shocking family secret. This revelation throws Sookie into a serious identity crisis. Sookie's conflict alternates through the novel with a secondary plot involving the Jurdabralinski family from 1928 into the 1940's.

Polish immigrants, the Jurdabralinskis come to own  Wink's Phillips 66 filling station in Pulaski, Wisconsin. Spunky Fritzi and her sisters run the station when their father is taken ill and brother Wink is serving in the army, explaining part of the title The All-Girl Filling Station... Ahead of her time, Fritzi learns to fly, becomes part of a flying circus and later joins the WASPs (Women's Air Force Service Pilots), a little-known unit serving gallantly in WWII.

Discovering the intersection of Sookie and Fritzi's stories make the book a page-turner. The interesting characters add even more charm.

"A Conversation with Fannie Flagg and Pat Conroy" in the Reader's Guide section at the end was a treat for me because Conroy is a favorite of mine, as well.

I am rating The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion a 5. I enjoyed it very much and even gained some knowledge and appreciation for women's contributions in WWII.
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This novel became our March 2017 selection for the Page Turners group. Since I had read it close to a year before, I had to do a little review, including reading this blog post. Our group seemed to enjoy the book with ratings of 4 and 5. The average was 4.3. Several of us had known little about the WASPs in WWII but one member of our group has personally known women who were pilots of that organization. She, too, is a pilot and has flown with some of them. She assured us that Fritzi's character combined many of their attributes. The All-Girl Filling Station.... made for an enjoyable discussion!