Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man (1981)

This turned out to be a quick read. I finished it today, started yesterday.
I liked this book better than another book I read by this author. Whistle Stop cafe? The first part where they moved to the new place on the beach was a bit better than the second half. Okay I did not really laugh out loud like some readers did but I did enjoy it. ( )

I loved this book. It has all the best of the South in the 50's - movie stars, innnocence, and ridiculous characters. Daisy is the only child of an alcoholic father and a socially frustrated mom. Daisy with her chipped front tooth, gullible and accepting attitude and the sweet innocence of a girl on the edge of womanhood.

From there the book flows from one interesting character and incident to another. From Daisy playing poker in the black pool hall to her and a friend peeking in the curtains of the girlie show. Each get-rich-quick scheme of her father's from raising worms to having the best soda shop on the out of the way beach to having Daisy die and come back to life. Each escpade has it's truth and it's fiction and it's hard to know what to believe and what not to..much like it is for Daisy Fay.

The final joke is on her when she enters a beauty contest to win the runner-up prize to college in NYC. Who is laughing when she actually wins...

This is a fun read!

This was an entertaining book - I like this author's books.

Back Cover Blurb:
Fannie Flagg takes us on a journey to a South that only Southerners know, to a time when 'Blue Velvet' was played at the Senior Prom, and into the life of Daisy Fay Harper, a sassy, truth-telling heroine who just can't stay out of trouble. What's more she tells us everything - from what (or who) made her Daddy and Momma split up to what is really stashed in the freezer of the family's malt shop.
Daisy Fay is coming of age in the Gulf Coast's Shell Beach, which is The End of the Road of the South, but a dandy place to meet the locals like hard-drinking Jimmy Snow, former debutante Mrs Dot and Daisy's own Daddy. They're all part of the fun that takes us down home, back to the '50s and into the best story ever written east of Texas.... ( )

Fanny Flagg can make you laugh out loud. She does with this great book. ( )

Daisy Fay Harper is now one of my favorite characters! She is spunky and independent and surrounded by a great cast of characters. This book spans Daisy Fay’s life from 1952-1959 at the beginning of the book she is 11 years old. Daisy Fay’s daddy is a drunk but she stands by him through thick and thin, he isn’t a mean drunk so that’s ok LOL.

It is so fun to read about her discovering life especially since this book is set in the 50’s.One of my favorite scenes is when they are living in Shell Beach and Daisy likes to sneak in and watch the entertainment at the local Blue Gardenia Lounge like the one-legged tap dancer and Ray Layne the young singer but the one she is so looking forward to is a real dancer from New Orleans named Tawny the Tasseled lady and her reaction to that was “She isn’t even a real dancer!” “All she does is spin them tassels one way then the other and shake around” I laughed so hard picturing this!

Not only is Daisy a great character but everyone else is this book is too from her bingo addicted grandma, to her daddy’s best friend Jimmy Snow who is a crop duster but seems to crash his plane a lot! Oh my I could just go on and on about this book this is the 3rd book by Fannie Flagg I’ve read and I think it is now my mission to read everything she has ever written.

If you like southern fiction and great characters who will make you laugh out loud you must read this book!

5 Stars ( )