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Summary and Reviews of Welcome To The World, Baby Girl by Fannie Flagg

Welcome To The World, Baby Girl by Fannie Flagg

Welcome To The World, Baby Girl

by Fannie Flagg
  • Critics' Consensus (3):
  • Readers' Rating (7):
  • First Published:
  • Sep 1, 1998, 467 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Dec 1999, 396 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

Once again, Flagg's humor and respect and affection for her characters shine forth.

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!is the funny, serious, and compelling new 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). 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 home or love lie.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

Time Magazine - Jill Smolowe
....utterly irresistible. . .fast-paced.

People Magazine - Laura Jamison
Flagg's faith in the healing power of small towns and family are refreshing.

Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Because so much of Flagg's third novel takes place in the 1970s media-celebrity echelons of New York City, it doesn't offer the regional and historical color and texture of its predecessor Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café. Instead, Flagg's achievement here lies in a well choreographed story of loyalty and survival that zigzags deftly across the post-war years…..Fans may be sorry at first to leave Elmwood Springs for the big city, but even the most reluctant will get wrapped up in Dena's search for the truth about her family and her past. Also a Random House audio book.

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Read-Alikes

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