Welcome to the World, Baby Girl

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl is a novel by Fannie Flagg about main character Dena Nordstrom, a high-powered, career-driven morning show star living in Manhattan in the 1970s. Despite her successes, Dena struggles from stress and bleeding ulcers, causing her to consider reconciling with her mysterious past back in Elmwood Springs, Missouri. As Dena returns to the country to face her past, she is also confronted by the culture shock of the place where she was brought up in contrast with sleazy, fast-paced New York. At the center of the novel is the mystery surrounding Dena's mother, who disappeared when Dena was five, spent ten years traveling, and then finally left Dena's life in 1959 when Dena was only fifteen.

The novel opens in New York City in the 1970s. Dena works for a cable network as a star morning show host. She is not only a success but in line to continue rising through the ranks of morning shows, as news networks begin to thrive increasingly on manipulative and exploitative interviews that are made palatable by the look and demeanor of pleasing women like Dena. The world of New York City is fast-paced and sleazy, with groping news anchors and dirt-diggers looking for skeletons in the closets of anybody hoping to get ahead.

In large part because of her environment, Dena struggles with stress. She has bleeding ulcers and drinks excessively to mask her unhappiness. The ulcers eventually lead a doctor to send her to a local psychiatrist, who immediately falls in love with Dena, leading to a bizarre and wildly inappropriate doctor-patient breech. When Dena emerges from that whirlwind, she still feels overwhelmed and unhappy, and her therapist recommends she return to her hometown of Elmwood Springs to reconnect with her past and solve the mystery of her mother's disappearance.



Dena doesn't remember much about Elmwood Springs, but the locals remember her. A gang of country bumpkins with cute, simplistic personas, the people of Elmwood Springs call Dena Baby Girl, remembering her fondly as the daughter of a fallen World War II Veteran. When Dena arrives in Elmwood Springs, she immediately wants to leave. She calls her agent and begs for a return ticket to New York City. However, the hometown people of Elmwood Springs have a lot to say to Dena, and she has a lot to learn about herself from them.

Dena stays with her cousins and her Aunt Elner, a kind and loyal bunch, who are chatty and help Dena feel at home. Dena is fascinated by a local neighbor, Dorothy, who broadcasted a radio show from her home in the 1940s when Dena was a little girl. Much of the book is a return to that period through the voice of Dorothy, who provides insight into the recent past.

Ultimately, Dena's return home helps her better understand her past; her old college roommate, Sookie, and her aunt and cousins help her come to terms with that identity. Dena also reveals the truth about her mother and the shame that drove her from the town where she and Dena lived, and where Dena's father was considered a war hero. Learning the truth about her mother, Dena also discovers the atrocious work of gossipmongers working for the local paper and is forced to come to terms with the damage she is doing in her own career, back in New York City.



Fannie Flagg is an elderly actor, comedian, and author. She is best known for being a regular panelist on the show Match Game, and for writing the book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, which she adapted into the feature film Fried Green Tomatoes. Flagg won an Academy Award for that film adaptation and went on to write a number of other books, including a cookbook based on the film, Standing in the Rainbow (2002), A Redbird Christmas (2004), and other books. In 2012, she won the Harper Lee Award for distinguished authors from Alabama.