First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

Sweeping from the gentler confines of the late 1940s small-town America to the tough side of the New York media circus in the ’70s, Fannie Flagg’s new novel 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 Neighbor 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 – Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! is a funny, constantly surprising novel that keeps you guessing and turning the page right up to the last.

It’s the end of the workweek—yay! I hope the week has been kind to everyone and that you’re all ending it on a high note. Just like that, we are already in the ninth month of the year. This also means that the feared Ghost Month, which extends until September 10, is about to come to a close. Ghost Month is often considered an ominous period, when businesses experience slowdowns and travel is discouraged. Nevertheless, I hope you’re being showered with blessings and good news. How time flies! Time takes its natural course, with little regard for us. I hope the first eight months of the year have been promising. As the year progresses, I hope everyone is given plenty of opportunities to grow and improve. With the weekend finally here, I hope everyone has a great one. It’s time to dress down and spend the long weekend resting from the rigors of a demanding career, pursuing your passions, completing household chores, spending time with loved ones, or simply relaxing.

The start of the weekend has been damp here in the Philippines. It has been raining today, and I sure hope my countrymen are safely in their homes, especially as the streets are starting to flood. I hope that it is not going to be another damp weekend here in the Philippines. It has been this way since the start of August. The monsoon season has certainly been making its presence felt. Ironically, the southern part of the country has been experiencing extreme heat caused by the super El Niño. Regardless of where you are in the Philippines or elsewhere in the world, I hope you’re all doing well—physically, mentally, and emotionally. Anyway, with the end of the workweek comes a fresh First Impression Friday update. In July, I embarked on a literary adventure into a territory closer to home: Asian literature. I have since concluded this journey in August. In September, I have commenced a new journey. I am now venturing into the works of American writers.

American literature has been a staple of my annual literary journey. With American literature being one of the most readily available, I guess one can never escape it. I also realized that I have several works of American literature in my ongoing reading challenges. Among these books is Fannie Flagg’s Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! It has been nearly two decades since I first encountered Flagg. I was still in university when I came across her and her novel Standing in the Rainbow while browsing a secondhand bookseller. I loved her writing and hoped to read more of her work. The opportunity came years later. Interestingly, it has been over a decade since I secured a copy of Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! Unfortunately, it was left to suffer the same fate as most of my books. It was left to gather dust on my bookshelf. It is for this reason that I included the book in my 2026 Beat the Backlist Challenge.

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! opens with a preface about the town of Elmwood Springs in southern Missouri. In the 1940s, it is described as being “like a thousand other small towns scattered across America.” This immediately sets the tone for the story, at least for me. The first Flagg novel I read is about small-town America. It is therefore no surprise that my second Flagg novel tackles, or at least attempts to explore, the same theme. The story proper, however, commences in a not-so-small town. The story opens in the Big Apple. In 1970s New York City, we meet the novel’s heroine, Dena Nordstrom. Living in Manhattan, she works for a cable network as a high-powered, career-driven morning-show star. Not only is she a major success, but she is also in line to continue rising through the ranks of morning television. It is a period when news networks are increasingly thriving on manipulative and exploitative interviews.

It is a great opportunity for Dena, as these kinds of manipulative interviews are made more presentable by the appearance and demeanor of attractive women like her. New York City, after all, is fast-paced and sleazy. It is brimming with groping news anchors. Then there are the dirt-diggers who are always on alert for skeletons in the closets of anyone. Everyone wants to get ahead, and the dirty laundry of the rich, famous, and powerful is always a great starting point. For Dena, her future is full of promise. She is, after all, the pride of the network. However, it is also this environment that has been causing Dena great distress. She has bleeding ulcers. She has also started drinking excessively, all to mask the unhappiness that has been sweeping over her. The ulcers eventually lead a doctor to send her to a local psychiatrist. Her psychiatrist immediately falls in love with Dena, leading to a bizarre and wildly inappropriate doctor-patient breach.

I have just started reading the novel, but the intrigue is slowly reeling me in. The opening pages, however, are a bit different from what I remember of Flagg’s writing. I guess this is because the story commences in New York City. Dena’s return to her hometown of Elmwood Springs seems inevitable, especially considering her struggles in the Big Apple. Small-town living will then be the focus of the story, in the same manner that it attempts to navigate the intricacies and complexities of life in New York City. I surmise that Dena’s provenance will then be contrasted with the fast-paced life of the Big Apple. Still, some major themes are slowly emerging apart from this central theme. The overarching themes, it seems, are family and identity. In returning to her hometown, Dena is hoping to heal and reconnect with her past.

The book is rather thick, just like my first Flagg novel. I am expecting more events to unfold. I am looking forward to seeing how Dena deals with her homecoming and how it will impact the balance of her life, or even her psyche. I can sense that the story is going to be tender and heartwarming. It is about to develop into the American version of the Japanese healing novel. I believe that Dena will find or realize something in her homeland that she did not expect. I am looking forward to seeing how the story will unravel.

How about you, fellow readers? What are you reading this weekend? I hope you’re enjoying your current book. Happy weekend!