Customer Reviews

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl

5 star:		(99)
4 star:		(54)
3 star:		(40)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Fannie Flagg serves up a hefty helping of Southern humor in this sometimes funny, sometimes melodramatic, but always interesting story. Baby Girl is Dena Nordstrom of Elmwood Springs, Missouri, who becomes one of the top tv journalists in New York City. She learns a lot of lessons in the big city, such as tv news has no ethics, tabloid shows are what America wants, and people with no morals rise to the top. When Dena crashes from the stress of big city living, she goes back home (against her will) to be coddled and loved by her extended family. The very best parts of this book take place below the Mason-Dixon line as cousin Norma and her husband Mackey Warren delight readers with their down-to-earth goodness and hysterically funny dialogue. Also adding to the fun is Kappa sorority sister extraordinaire Sookie from Selma, Alabama, the complete antithesis of Dena. Sookie is a devoted wife and mother, a born-again Christian, but mostly she is a loving friend who never forgets that being a Kappa is the ultimate achievement for all women. Flagg describes small-town living perfectly and captures all the love, humor, and genuine neighborly concern that small towns have become famous for. Lucky for Dena, because she has a major crisis to confront. Things become serious when Dena delves into her past and searches for the mother who abandoned her many years ago. The climax of this novel is surprising and totally unique. I was shocked at what I learned about Dena's mother and overcome with emotion at the poignancy of the story.

But the reason this book appealed to me so much was primarily due to Neighbor Dorothy, the first character we meet and the one whose spirit hovers over the entire story. As Flagg moves back and forth from the forties to the eighties and all points in between, we get a picture of what it is like to grow up in a loving environment and how it stays with you and reaches out to help you no matter how far away you roam. So curl up with Dena, her friends, neighbors, and shrinks, and most of all Neighbor Dorothy, for a bittersweet trip North and South and see which world is the one for Dena.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD, BABY GIRL is the second Fannie Flagg novel that I've read. The first, of course, was Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. Welcome To the World, I have to say, is not as wonderful as the other book, but I think comparing the two may be a mistake.

The novel switches back and forth between the present, the 1970's, and the past, the 1930's and 1940's. Dena Nordstrom is a famous television personality of the 1970's, almost akin to what Oprah Winfrey is for us today. She's' highly respected and well-loved by her many fans. She brings ratings to her television network, and everyone just loves her. She lives in New York, lives a fast life of parties and liquor and all the trappings that come with being a famous celebrity.

Then we switch to the 1930's and 40's. We see Dena's roots, where she came from. We get them in pieces, in short scenes, because Dena herself does not know too much about her childhood or about where she came from. Her mother was a mystery to her, and she knows hardly anything about her. All she knows is that she once loved her mother very much, but somewhere along the way she stopped loving her.

The scenes of the 1930's and 40's take place in a small country town called Elmwood Springs, Missouri. To modern day Dena Nordstrom, this is hicktown. She has no desire in going back home. Fannie Flagg paints a quaint, wonderful little town where everyone knows everyone else, and there is not one secret in town that nobody knows. However, the biggest secret is something that no one knew, because Dena's mother chose to keep it secret.

Dena has troubles sleeping and soon is forced to see a psychiatrist to help. She starts with one psychiatrist, Gerry, but he soon sends her off to another one, a friend of his, Dr. Diggers. She's black for starters, and she's a paraplegic. She gets around by using a wheelchair. Dena learns to trust Dr. Diggers, and through the psychiatrist she and the reader start to learn more about Dena's past,and her mother's past. What we find out at the end of the book caught me by surprise because it certainly was not what I had expected!

I highly recommend WELCOME TO THE WORLD BABY GIRL. One hint of warning: I did not find the first part of the book very readable, because I did not really see where Fannie Flagg was taking this book. However, by the time I reached the end, it was a big "aha!" for me and it made so much more sense. This book was well done and I can see it made into a movie, as FRIED GREEN TOMATOES was years ago. Be very patient with this book - you will be greatly rewarded with the ending.

I bought this book at a Library Book Sale, and I brought on my vacation to a Rhode Island beach last year, and I enjoyed it immensely. I loved it, and Ms. Flagg wrote a good yarn. The storyline was really good, and I couldn't put it down. A MUST READ. If you like a good southern story, you will definitely enjoy this one.

Fannie Flagg is truly improving as an author! Her first novel: Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man was good, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe was great, this book is wonderful!

A very interesting plot about a newscaster named Dena Nordstrom who lost her way home. She finds it with the help of two psychiatrists, a bleeding ulcer, a fellow, older newscaster, and of course the hilarious cast of characters from her hometown in Missouri! Aunt Elner is one of the greatest characters in literature! Under the ghost of "Neighbor Dorothy" a 1940s homemaker who had a radio show which "on a cold, clear day" could be heard all the way to the Canadian border, Dena learns the meaning of home in much the same way Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz does: in a voyage of self-discovery, including finding out some shocking, sad, truths about her mother's and her own past and origens.

A well-written sophisticated, funny, suspenseful book which will have you flipping pages to the end. Great plot, beautifully characterized, will take you home.

She remains a master of characterization, dialogue, language, and good old fashioned storytelling. I appreciate the contrast she was making between city and country here, but it's damn hard to engage me with a story about ethics in TV news, no matter how much is based on experience. It dragged in spots, with plot driving character when I prefer the opposite, but overall I'm glad I read it, and it certainly hit me with some shocks later on. However, I've been advised that you shouldn't read it immediately after STANDING IN THE RAINBOW, and that's right. If you compare the two, this one will fail. So don't compare them. Just enjoy.

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl is an amazing collection of lives and events that keeps you guessing all the way. It's not a mystery or thriller - this is a novel about one woman and her search for happiness, but Flagg interweaves so many elements that this book is a pleaser at many levels.
While I initially coudln't like the heroine, Dena, very much, Flagg fleshes her out by going into her past and surrounding her with truly lovable characters who get you to see the sweet person Dena really is. All of the supporting characters are memorable, including the villains, whose lesser traits are explained through Flaggs' narrative. You don't love them, but you understand why they do what they do.
Fannie Flagg is a great observer of human motivation, and has a fabulous sense of humour. Welcome to the World, Baby Girl is a novel you will enjoy and not be able to forget for a long time.

This book is my all time favortie book! I laughed and cried and couldn't put it down! Fannie Flagg so easily captivates her audience and this book is no exception!

I really, really enjoyed this.

I didn't think I would. I really hated the title. It started off kind of slowly, and I really disliked the main character, Dena Nordstrom, an up-and-coming television journalist/reporter who focuses on only her career and is experiencing stress-related illness because of it. I didn't really understand a few of the beginning parts, mostly the ones about the folks in Elmwood Springs, but after a bit, I got into them and enjoyed those parts very much. Flagg switches POV almost constantly, and it keeps the book from getting stale.

Dena's illness puts her into therapy (which she attends unwillingly), and her therapist (second one- first one had to send her to a colleague because he fell in love with her) starts to get her to dig up her past, which includes a mother who moved her from place to place constantly and finally abandoned her at age 15. Dena goes back to Elmwood Springs, MO to the only living relatives she has, to try to find out WHY her mother left.

This, my friends, is something you wouldn't expect. I was amazed when I realized WHY her mother left. I never saw it coming. Very, very interesting book, everything weaves together very nicely. Great plot, great story, great characters. Wonderful book, very highly recommended.

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! is another entry in Flagg's catalog of Southern fiction. The story jumps around in time, between the life of famous, glamorous TV personality Dena Nordstrom in the present day (1970's), and the history of Dena's hometown of Elmwood Springs, Missouri, circa the 1930's and 1940's. As a jaded Northerner, Dena avoids her past and her association with a backwater place in Missouri. The story of Elmwood Springs is also the story of Dena's upbringing and the disappearance of her mother, but Dena knows nothing of it. The reader, however, is certain to be charmed by Elmwood Springs, especially radio personality Neighbor Dorothy, who we are introduced to in the first pages of the novel. Longtime residents Norma and Mackey Warren (Dena's cousins) provide delightful dialog and antics, and show their love to Dena when she returns home after a long absence.

The title of the novel is perfect--Dena thought she was worldly and all-knowing when she was on top of the NY television world. In reality, there was a whole world in little old Elmwood Springs that she needed to learn about to become a complete person.

The reason I'm giving this 4 stars instead of a perfect 5 is that Flagg wrote the book to lead up to a major twist about Dena's past. Some of the narration and Dena's behavior on the way to this twist is a little weak. The reader might even get disheartened with the novel in the middle, because of the dragging-out of the lead-up to Dena uncovering her past. Once Flagg gets into it, however, the reader will say "a-ha! So, that was where she was trying to go!"

I must confess this book did take me a little while to get into, but once I did, this book just grabbed my attention. Dena, Norma, Macky, Gerry and other characters just revolved into fascinating people.

The book isn't hard to follow along despite the traveling back and forth over 40 years. And Dena is a character that is slightly unpredictable as you read along with her. Gerry though is my favorite character ~~ I cannot say why because I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read this book.

This book arouses many emotions ~~ loathing, suspense, laughter and joy and sadness. It also promotes friendships, family, loyalty and so on.

This is a book to pass onto friends and families. The characters will stay with you long after you turn the last page. It is a fun book. You won't regret buying it.