The Whole Town's Talking Summary
Fannie Flagg

The Whole Town's Talking Overview

Fannie Flagg’s literary novel, The Whole Town’s Talking, is about the town of Elmwood Springs, Missouri, and its inhabitants from 1890 through 2020. Told from a third person omniscient narrator, with some scatterings of letters, newspaper articles, and obituaries, this novel starts with the town’s founder, Lordor Nordstrom and how he came to America and how he finds a wife. The novel then iterates the life of the town’s inhabitants through the present, their deaths, and even what happens to them after they die. The themes of community, love, patience, legacy, and change come up in this novel.