In Fannie Flaggs high-spirited first novel, we meet Daisy Fay Harper in the spring of 1952, where shes 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 wont come back until Im 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 Fays 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.From the Trade Paperback edition.