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Fiction. Literature. Humor (Fiction.) HTML:A funny, serious, and compelling novel by Fannie Flagg, author of the beloved Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (and prize-winning co-writer of the classic movie). �??[This] tale of tough, eccentric, endearing women who first endure and then prevail. . . . will make you laugh out loud�??and shed a few tears. . . . Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! is another rattling success.�?��??Richmond Times-Dispatch Once again, Flagg's humor and respect and affection for her characters shine forth. Many inhabit small-town or suburban America. But this time, her heroine is urban: a brainy, beautiful, and ambitious rising star of 1970s television. Dena Nordstrom, pride of the network, is a woman whose future is full of promise, her present rich with complications, and her past marked by mystery. Among the colorful cast of characters are: Sookie, of Selma, Alabama, Dena's exuberant college roommate, who is everything that Dena is not; she is thrilled by Dena's success and will do everything short of signing autographs for her; Sookie's a mom, a wife, and a Kappa forever Dena's cousins, the Warrens, and her aunt Elner, of Elmwood Springs, Missouri, endearing, loyal, talkative, ditsy, and, in their way, wise Neighbor Dorothy, whose spirit hovers over them all through the radio show that she broadcast from her home in the 1940s Sidney Capello, pioneer of modern sleaze journalism and privateer of privacy, and Ira Wallace, his partner in tabloid television Several doctors, all of them taken with�??and almost taken in by-Dena There are others, captivated by a woman who tries to go home again, not knowing where ho… (more)
User reviews
However, there are a few things that kept me from rating this book more highly. The ending was wrapped up a little too neatly and in a way that didn't seem all that believable to me. A big secret was revealed from out of the blue (at least, I didn't see it coming). And the book felt a little long to me. At several points, I thought we had reached Dena's turning point, but she just continued obliviously down the same path.
But there were several characters that I loved - including Dena's southern sorority sister Snookie. Having grown up in small town Missouri myself, I thought that Flagg captured some of the quirks of small town life beautifully. Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! wasn't a perfect read, but I enjoyed it.
I really like this book; it is just a feel-good sweet and easy read.
The story follows TV presenter, Dena, as she tries to keep up with a demanding career that has both its virtues and pitfalls for her. Slowly, we also get to see that Dena tussles with a
Some have described this novel as a mystery, and partly it is, but it's written with soul too.
The chapters go back and forth in time - some of these chapters are essential to the mystery.
There are times when you wonder if Dena will find the answers to the questions she ponders most about - but the author has her special ways. Much about the mystery comes together eventually (more so for the readers), but it is a relief to see that Dena finally finds the emotional comfort she needed.
Fannie Flagg is a storyteller of note. She writes with all the senses flowing, yet so smooth and cozy. Then there are words of wisdom and sayings that strike a chord.
Welcome To The World, Baby Girl! was my second novel by Flagg. The first I read was Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man.
I enjoyed both and I am glad to have been introduced to them as well as having first watched the movie Fried Green Tomatoes, which was based on Flagg's novel of the same title and whose screenplay she also wrote.
About a third way through I'm thinking "Christ this is a long book" and at about half-way it finally struck me that Flagg
While the "surprise" by today's standards wouldn't be such an issue, I know that it was indeed shocking during the time frame of this novels setting. Flagg presents it in such a way as to be totally believable.
Dena is a fancy New York news anchor who spent some time in Elmwood Springs as a child, and
I really like this book; it is just a feel-good sweet and easy read.