Welcome To The World Baby Girl - Softcover

Flagg, Fannie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099288559 ISBN 13: 9780099288558

Publisher: Vintage, 1999

Synopsis

Sweeping from the gentler confines of late 1940s small town America to the tough side of the New York media circus in the '70s, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! mines golden seams of goodness and gritty determination, prejudice and despair, love and survival, in the story of a young TV interviewer, Dena Nordstrom, whose future looks full of promise, whose present is an emotional mess, and whose past is marked by mystery.

With a cast of unforgettable characters, from the comic masterpiece that is Neighbour Dorothy (broadcasting home tips and good news to the midwest from her own front room) to the monstrosity that is Ira Wallace, TV network head - Fannie Flagg's novel is a funny, constantly surprising novel that keeps you guessing and turing the page right up to the last.

About this title

Review:

With home-cooked, Southern literary flair, Fannie Flagg (Fried Green Tomatoes) returns with Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! "Baby Girl", as she is lovingly referred to by her sweet, country cousins, is Dena Nordstrom, a tall, blonde, corn-fed girl who makes it big in Manhattan. Ms.Nordstrom is now the top TV anchorwoman in the city, beating out veteran journalists and making ungodly amounts of money. Although her life seems charmed, Dena is frazzled and miserable. She drinks uncontrollably, is a borderline compulsive liar, and is forced to undergo therapy because of her stress-induced ulcer. Her psychiatrist, Dr. O'Malley, falls madly in love with her, of course, and sends the blonde bombshell to a close colleague, Dr. Diggers. Living up to her name, Diggers shovels up a mountain of dysfunction and forces Dena to face her mysterious past; all the while the good doctor reports back to broken- hearted O'Malley about her patient's progress. Meanwhile, back at the station, Ms. Nordstrom has made friends and enemies in very high places. Her greatest ally is Howard Kingsley, the Cronkitesque reporter who wields power with more ease than most seasoned politicos: "He closed the door and handed the driver a 10 dollar bill. 'Take this young lady where she wants to go for me, will you? And be careful, she's valuable property'". It's a good thing she has friends like that, because her boss, Ira Wallace, makes George Costanza from Seinfeld look like a scrupulous saint. When Wallace hires a nasty but effective mole by the name of Sidney Capello to dig up garbage on celebrities, Nordstrom has a head-on collision with his sense of ethics (or lack thereof) and gets Capello canned. Or so she thinks. Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! is very much like its star, Dena Nordstrom: pretty, scattered, confused, and sometimes interesting. It's a long ride from the Whistle Stop Cafe.

Review:

"Utterly irresistible" (Time)

"[Flagg] keeps it simple, she keeps it bright, she keeps it moving right along - and, most of all, she keeps it beloved" (New York Times Book Review)

"Satisfying... [Flagg's] faith in the healing power of small towns and family is refreshing" (People)

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0099288559
• ISBN 13: 9780099288558
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496