Has Birmingham been especially hard hit by the global economic downturn?
Fannie Flagg: Yes, it has. But when I started this book, the downturn really hadn’t started yet! I had no idea how timely it would be. I wish I could say that I was so brilliant that I saw it coming, but I didn’t. I’m absolutely obsessed with real estate. There’s not a single open house I won’t go in. A lot of my friends are real estate agents in Birmingham and in Montecito, California, and they are really hurting. They are ladies of a certain age, as is Maggie, the main character in my book, who just can’t compete with young computer whizzes. GR: Instead of selling to someone who will bulldoze a home and rebuild, Maggie always wants to find a family to move in. Do you share a similar love for a house’s history? FF: Yes, I get emotionally attached to houses. I bought a house and then I sold it, but I just pined away for it like I had lost someone I loved. Embarrassingly, I bought it back two years later. Of course, it had gone up in price. But I had to have it. GR: Maggie is a former M
