This is the first book of Fannie Flagg's that I have read and I found it to be a charmingly written love letter to small town life. The characters and situations deriving from events that occur over decades is charmingly written with characters that are wonderfully fleshed out.Towards the end of the story, when Miss Flagg begins to relate what happened to each of the characters, you find yourself wishing her to stop, as you don't want to say goodbye to these fun people.Miss Flagg takes the time to incorporate history into her characters as she relates their stories and thereby weaves magic into the folks from Elmwood Springs.