Call number
Collection
Genres
Publication
Description
Fiction. Literature. Humor (Fiction.) HTML:“A hilarious, endearing novel.”—Los Angeles Times In Fannie Flagg’s high-spirited first novel, we meet Daisy Fay Harper in the spring of 1952, where she’s “not doing much except sitting around waiting for the sixth grade.” When she leaves Shell Beach, Mississippi, in September 1959, she is packed up and ready for the Miss America Pageant, vowing “I won’t come back until I’m somebody.” But in our hearts she already is. Sassy and irreverent from the get-go, Daisy Fay takes us on a rollicking journey through her formative years on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. There, at The End of the Road of the South, the family malt shop freezer holds unspeakable things, society maven Mrs. Dot hosts Junior Debutante meetings and shares inspired thoughts for the week (such as “sincerity is as valuable as radium”), and Daisy Fay’s Daddy hatches a quick-cash scheme that involves resurrecting his daughter from the dead in a carefully orchestrated miracle. Along the way, Daisy Fay does a lot of growing up, emerging as one of the most hilarious, appealing, and prized characters in modern fiction. Praise for Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man “Sheer unbeatable entertainment.”—Cosmopolitan “Unforgettable and irresistible.”—Chattanooga Free Press “Side-splittingly funny.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer.… (more)
Subjects
User reviews
It is so fun to read about her discovering life especially since this book is set in the 50’s.One of my favorite scenes is when they are living in Shell Beach and Daisy likes to sneak in and watch the entertainment at the local Blue Gardenia Lounge like the one-legged tap dancer and Ray Layne the young singer but the one she is so looking forward to is a real dancer from New Orleans named Tawny the Tasseled lady and her reaction to that was “She isn’t even a real dancer!” “All she does is spin them tassels one way then the other and shake around” I laughed so hard picturing this!
Not only is Daisy a great character but everyone else is this book is too from her bingo addicted grandma, to her daddy’s best friend Jimmy Snow who is a crop duster but seems to crash his plane a lot! Oh my I could just go on and on about this book this is the 3rd book by Fannie Flagg I’ve read and I think it is now my mission to read everything she has ever written.
If you like southern fiction and great characters who will make you laugh out loud you must read this book!
5 Stars
There is a lot of humour and at times I was laughing out loud. There are also poignant moments, when your
Fannie Flag writes character wonderfully and there are many rich examples in this book, including the Mrs. Dot frustrated at not living the high life she thinks she deserves, and Kay Bob Benson, a posh girl who looks down her nose at Daisy.
I really loved this book and on the back of it have read several other by the author.
story, told from the point of view of Daisy Fay Harper through the pages of
her diary from April 1, 1952 when she turned 11, through September, 1959,
when she was crowned Miss Mississippi. This kid has a very unique outlook
on life
read about, and the descriptions of the daily life at the Gulf Coast's Shell
Beach resort was rich and colorful.
The characters that populate the pages of Daisy's diary are vivid and leap
to life. There's hard-drinking Jimmy Snow, her father's best friend who
uses his crop-dusting plane to not only make a living but to seek revenge
against his old lover. And Mrs. Dot, a former socialite who married far
beneath her and finds herself living in the back of the local Bait Shop,
where she tries to hold Junior Debutante meetings for the young ladies of
the resort community. There's Kay Bob Benson, the snotty high-faluting
daughter of the richest folks in town whose nose is stuck so far in the air
that Daisy can't help but want to rub it in whatever she can think of. And
Pickle Watkins, Daisy's best friend through high school whose dreams seemed
destined to never come true. And Daisy's own parents, a very mismatched
couple indeed -- an alcoholic father with more get-rich-quick schemes than
you can shake a stick at, and a nervous mother, trying to be a lady and
raise her daughter "right" in the face of enormous obstacles. Daisy is
blunt and quite frank, telling us literally everything that matters to her
in her life, and in such a straight-forward and comical way that I found
myself laughing out loud over and over again as I went through this book.
Fannie Flagg is the author of "Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle-Stop
Cafe" and has a real talent to make common places and people come to life on
the page. I really do recommend this one for anyone looking for a good
light read that will bring a smile to your face and just might end up with
you looking at the world in a slightly different way. It gets a 5.
I can't say I loved the story. It was about a girl growing up with dreams who lives with her alcoholic father and, occasionally, her mother who seems to be driven by the drinking to be a shrew. There are a lot of dreams that don't work out in this book.
Mr. Cecil was my favorite character and I also liked Daisy Fay's interactions with people who were a little off the beaten path in terms of society.
The story takes place in the 1950s in Mississippi, which is out of my experience, but the author does a good job making Daisy a believable girl and moving the story along.
I think the story is well written. I am not sure what could have been done to make the beginning more interesting. I did end up enjoying the last part of the book.
Written as a diary, this is a highly spirited one.
Its entries are long for a diary but that's because the feisty protagonist, 11 year old Daisy, has so much to write about.
Don't let that turn you down from reading this delightful book, for that is its uniqueness.
Innocent and
The ending is a bit rushed and the diary entries three quarters of a way through the book don't get as personal as when Daisy wrote at the age of 11, but never boring, always something happening, this book is a gem.
I liked this book better than another book I read by this author. Whistle Stop cafe? The first part where they moved to the new place on the beach was a bit better than the second half. Okay I did not really laugh out loud
From there the book flows from one interesting character and incident to another. From Daisy playing poker in the black pool hall to her and a friend peeking in the curtains of the girlie show. Each get-rich-quick scheme of her father's from raising worms to having the best soda shop on the out of the way beach to having Daisy die and come back to life. Each escpade has it's truth and it's fiction and it's hard to know what to believe and what not to..much like it is for Daisy Fay.
The final joke is on her when she enters a beauty contest to win the runner-up prize to college in NYC. Who is laughing when she actually wins...
This is a fun read!
It was good, but
I did like Grandma & her BINGO playing friends....
Daisy Fay's father invests in an Ice Cream
Never stale, always enlightening and entertaining I am so glad I took a step back in time.
Its very