Divine Secrets of the YA-YA Sisterhood: A Novel - Softcover

Wells, Rebecca

Softcover

ISBN 10: 006075995X ISBN 13: 9780060759957

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2004

Synopsis

-A big, blowzy romp through the rainbow eccentricities of three generations of crazy bayou debutantes.---Atlanta Journal-Constitution-A very entertaining and, ultimately, deeply moving novel about the complex bonds between mother and daughter.---Washington Post-Mary McCarthy, Anne Rivers Siddons, and a host of others have portrayed the power and value of female friendships, but no one has done it with more grace, charm, talent, and power than Rebecca Wells.---Richmond Times-DispatchThe incomparable #1 New York Times bestseller--a book that reigned at the top of the list for an remarkable sixty-eight weeks--Rebecca Wells's Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is a classic of Southern women's fiction to be read and reread over and over again. A poignant, funny, outrageous, and wise novel about a lifetime friendship between four Southern women, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood brilliantly explores the bonds of female friendship, the often-rocky relationship between mothers and daughters, and the healing power of humor and love, in a story as fresh and uplifting as when it was first published a decade and a half ago. If you haven't yet met the Ya-Yas, what are you waiting for?

About this title

Review:

Siddalee Walker's mother Vivi disowns her daughter when a reporter, who interviews the 40-year-old, successful director, describes her mother as a "tap dancing child abuser". Devastated, Sidda postpones her wedding. The Ya-Yas, Vivi's strong circle of friends since childhood, are horrified and agree to send Siddalee the scrapbook of "Divine Secrets" to try and help her to understand her mother and herself.

Sidda submerges herself in the wild, wondrous and wicked world of the Ya-Yas as she reads through half-a-century's worth of letters and clippings contained in the Ya-Ya Sisterhood's parcel of "Divine Secrets". Middle-class Louisiana quakes as the quartet makes its way through adolescence: from being disqualified from the Shirley-Temple-look-a-like competition because Teensy did a "poot", to attending the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta, only for Vivi's hoop skirt, "much to her confusion, to go entirely over the head of the person sitting in the seat in front of her", to spending a night in jail after floating naked on a hot southern evening in the town's water cooler.

Rebecca Wells, author of Little Altars Everywhere (in which Siddalee Walker describes the anguishes of childhood), has created a beautifully crafted, penetrating insight into society, friendship, the mother/daughter divide and religion. No subject is taboo as you dip in and out of the lives of Vivi, Teensy, Caro and Necie--the Ya Yas. --Nicola Perry

Review:

"A very entertaining and, ultimately, deeply moving novel about the complex bonds between mother and daughter."--Washington Post

"Divine Secrets is funny, funny, funny."--Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

"An entertaining and engrossing novel filled with humor and heartbreak... Readers will envy Vivi her Ya-Ya 'sisters' and Sidda her lover, who is one of the most appealing men to be found in recent mainstream fiction."--Library Journal

"Every woman should have a pack of buddies like the Ya-Yas."--Albuquerque Journal

"Wells' Louisiana is thick with sensual excesses -- bayou French, pralines and sour cream cookies, crayfish etouffee, honeysuckle-smothered trellises, camellias and jasmine... In Divine Secrets, you can hear the ice cubes clink on every page... Wells' book succeeds marvelously."--Seattle Weekly

"The sweet and sad and goofy monkey-dance of life, as performed by a bevy of unforgettable Southern belles in a verdant garden of moonlit prose. Poignantly coo-coo, the Ya-Yas (and their Petites Ya-Yas) will prance, priss, ponder and party their way into your sincere affection."--Tom Robbins, author of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas

"An insightful, delicious novel."--Oregonian

"A big, blowzy romp through the rainbow eccentricities of three generations of crazy bayou debutantes trying to survive marriage, motherhood, and pain, relying always on eah other... A novel of wide reach and lots of colors: fun in a breathless sort of way."--Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"One heck of a rollicking good read..."--Columbus Dispatch

"Hard to resist...Wells offers up some appealing characters and good stories."--Chicago Tribune

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 006075995X
• ISBN 13: 9780060759957
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 383