In Fannie Flagg’s high-spirited first novel, we meet Daisy Fay Harper in the spring of 1952, where she’s “not doing much except sitting around waiting for the sixth grade.” When she leaves Shell Beach, Mississippi, in September 1959, she is packed up and ready for the Miss America Pageant, vowing “I won’t come back until I’m somebody.” But in our hearts she already is.

Sassy and irreverent from the get-go, Daisy Fay takes us on a rollicking journey through her formative years on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. There, at The End of the Road of the South, the family malt shop freezer holds unspeakable things, society maven Mrs. Dot hosts Junior Debutante meetings and shares inspired thoughts for the week (such as “sincerity is as valuable as radium”), and Daisy Fay’s Daddy hatches a quick-cash scheme that involves resurrecting his daughter from the dead in a carefully orchestrated miracle. Along the way, Daisy Fay does a lot of growing up, emerging as one of the most hilarious, appealing, and prized characters in modern fiction.

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Daisy Fay Harper's story is told via her diary which begins in 1952 when she is eleven-years-old and ends in 1959 when she leaves Mississippi to begin her long-awaited future. Along the way, the reader is treated to a hodgepodge of beautifully-drawn characters including would-be socialites, restaurant operators, wayward preachers, theater people, back-alley abortionists, and more.

Whether it's rising from the dead, riding half-naked on horseback through the middle of town, or competing for a longed-for scholarship in the Miss Mississippi pageant, Daisy Fay is about the most endearing character to ever leap from the pages of a novel. She is stubborn, feisty, loving, loyal, and focused. Most of all, her coming of age is an accurate portrayal of Southern life in the 1950's. It has not been sanitized to be politically correct or rewritten to avoid offense. It is truthful and sincere and the most side-splittingly funny novel I've had the pleasure of reading.

Whether you grew up in the South or not, this microcosm of small-town life in the 1950's will touch your heart. So join Daisy Fay, her struggling mother and her father, the Miracle Man, for a trip back to a time and era that is too rich with human emotion to ever forget.

31 of 32 found the following review helpful:

What a refreshing read!Jan 26, 2001
By Busy Mom
If I ever have a little girl, I would like her name to be Daisy Fay. Well, maybe not. However, Daisy Fay is one of the most unforgettable characters in the history of books ~~ at least in my personal journey through book reading! She is hilarious and she tells you like it is.

There are several scenes in the book where you laugh out loud and you just have to share it with someone else. And the ending ... don't you just love a good story?

If you find yourself reading a dark and gloomy book, be sure to pick this one up. After reading it, you will find your outlook on life so much brighter and cheerful. Fannie Flagg is a master storyteller and though this is the only second book of hers that I have read, you can bet that I will read the rest of hers.

What is so memorable about Daisy Fay? Well, as a child of a broken home, she has managed to find humor in just about every situation of her life. She resists her mother's attempts to make her into a lady ~~ a secret desire just about every girl has ~~ and her father has always told her that he is so glad that he didn't have a son ~~ she was his heart. Daisy Fay captured a lot of hearts in this book and she is guaranteed to capture yours.

21 of 21 found the following review helpful:

Daisy Fay for President!Jul 11, 2002
By LittleDee
It's not often accurate to describe anyone as a hero/ine, but Daisy Fay Harper is the heroine of one of my favorite books, "Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man" by Fannie Flagg. It's a sweet, silly, noble, crazy book, sometimes heartrendingly sad but more often hysterically funny; and unlike some cutesie kid characters, Daisy will strike an unmistakeable note of truth with anyone who remembers what being a child was really like.

The book is in the form of Daisy's diary. The story starts when she's eleven and ends when she's about twenty. In the beginning, she's a very bright girl with a sense of humor that can only be described as "wacky" (I usually dislike that word -- but what else can you call somebody who titles her Halloween project "The Hall of Blood and Guts"?). Her parents are constantly fighting, primarily because her father is completely irresponsible, but she's very fond of her father because they're so much alike -- ambitious, charming, full of big ideas and harebrained schemes. Daisy daydreams about movies and popular songs, and eagerly anticipates blossoming into an exciting adulthood of fame, fortune, the occasional albino, and Technicolor adventures.

Like Pippi Longstocking, Daisy is feisty and self-confident, and her mental and emotional health are not at all hampered by "femininity". It doesn't bother her that being smart makes her different from the other kids at school, or that girls aren't supposed to be the class clown -- and if she even realizes that she's an oddball, she's OK with that. Despite her weirdness, she has her own circle of friends, including some grown-ups. She has only one arch-enemy, the arrogant, spoiled-rotten rich kid Kay Bob Benson (every kid knows another kid who's a hateful, backstabbing snake, and the adult authority figures never seem to catch on -- why is that, I wonder?), whom she's able to outsmart and outmaneuver without even trying very hard.

I like Daisy partly because she's a little bit like me -- or like I could have been in a parallel universe -- but mainly just because Daisy is who and what she is. She personifies the childlike qualities that most of us start out with and then lose somewhere along the way. Daisy's brave, smart, kind, resourceful, and funny -- but also stubborn, amoral, buttheaded, and conniving. She's loyal, generous, and supportive toward her family and friends (when one of her pals gets a fever that causes all his hair to fall out, she wins the essay contest by writing a composition titled "Why I Want to be Bald"), but downright vengeful toward her nemesis, the evil Kay Bob (who richly deserves it).

Daisy looks after she leaps, not before -- that is, if it ever occurs to her to look at all, which isn't often -- and the results aren't always what she expects or hopes for. She doesn't always succeed in being good -- in fact, a lot of the time, she doesn't even try -- mainly because the not-so-good way is easier and/or more fun. But deep down, she's pure at heart and trying to find her way in a world that doesn't always make sense to kids -- and too often, isn't kind to them, either. Daisy's underlying integrity makes the reader empathize with and root for her throughout the book, no matter what sort of mischief she's up to at a given moment.

The pleasurably implausible plot is full of surprises and convoluted twists and turns. The characters, far from being cookie-cutter cartoons of down-home Southern folks, are complex, varied individuals. Nobody is too good to be true; almost nobody is too bad to be true; and nobody is "quirky" in that cheesy fake-cute way that never *ever* happens in real life.

A lot of the book is fairly over-the-top, but in other passages, the humor is deadpan, almost as though Flagg were trying to sneak it past the reader. I don't want to give away too many surprises, but one example of this is too good not to share: In Home Ec, Daisy's classmate accidentally sewed the skirt of her dress to the sewing machine, and when the bell rang at the end of class and everybody stood up to go, it ripped off the entire sewing machine arm. The last sentence in Daisy's diary entry for that day reads simply: "Tomorrow we're having a lecture on 'Safety and Small Appliances'".

Flagg's writing style never clobbers or manipulates the reader -- she's equally clever, observant, and deft whether she's making you laugh or making you cry. Her obvious heartfelt emotion for the place and the people (good and bad) imbue the book with authenticity and compassion, without being sappy. There's also something about her writing style that makes me feel as though she's a genuinely kind person, one whom I'd like to have for a friend.

Despite some very real tragedies (on both a great and small level) in the story, the overall message of the book is basically simple and uplifting. Daisy isn't beautiful or brilliant or rich -- she's an ordinary kid with no superpowers, who spills her milk and trips over the volleyball net and swipes things from the five and ten. But as we find out, even ordinary people are capable of extraordinary moments and deeds. Daisy accomplishes some wonderful things (on both a great and small level), and is successful in her own way (which is the only way that means anything, anyway), and makes her corner of the world a little bit goofier place to be.

13 of 13 found the following review helpful:

One of my favorite books!Apr 11, 2001
By Laura
I have loved Fanny Flagg for a long time, and this was the book that introduced me to her. I don't even remember how many times I have re-read Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, laughing at some parts and wanting to cry at others. Told through the viewpoint of Daisy Fay Harper in her journal, this book brings you along on Daisy's journey to womanhood. While it definately addresses some fairly deep issues, the majority of the book kept me constantly giggling. You learn all sorts of things about her, from the tunnels she digs under the family's malt shop to the mischief she gets in with her best friend Pickle. If you're up for laughs, this is the perfect book. Daisy's adventures are something anyone can enjoy.

12 of 12 found the following review helpful:

This is one of the funniest books I've ever read!Jul 10, 2000
By Dan Barksdale III
Set a spell and listen as Daisy Fay tells the story of her life. From when she and her family leave Jackson, Mississippi to move to run an ice cream shop in Florida, where, in the winter, her father freezes animals to stuff to make more money. Read as she's "healed" by the miracle man in the most hilarious scene I've ever read! Read as her long lost grandfather, helps her to win the Miss Florida or Mississippi or Alabama crown. Against all odds, Daisy Fay manages to keep a postive, joyful, attitude, despite some pretty bad situations not of her own making.

This is a heartwarming, well-written book, read it, you'll laugh until it hurts! Fannie Flagg is a genius, read her books in order, Daisy Fay first, Fried Green Tomatoes second, and finally Welcome to the World, Baby Girl. This is time used wisely!

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