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Book Reviews Title Divine
Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood Fiction-Net
Rating Buy It
From Amazon.co.uk - BUY
NOW! Cover
Story When Siddalee
Walker, eldest daughter of Vivi Abbott Walker
(Ya-Ya extraordinaire - part Scarlett, part
Katharine Hepburn, part Tallulah), is interviewed
about a hit play she has directed, her mother is
described as a 'tap-dancing child abuser'. Enraged,
Vivi disowns Sidda - devastating her daughter who
postpones her wedding and puts her life on hold
until she is granted forgiveness. Trying to repair
the relationship, the Ya-Ya's, Vivi's intrepid
tribe of Louisiana girlfriends, sashay in and
insist Sidda is sent 'The Divine Secrets of the
Ya-Ya Sisterhood', a scrapbook of their lives
together from the day in 1932 when they were
disqualified from a Shirley Temple lookalike
contest for unladylike behaviour. Expected to raise
babies, not Cain, the Ya-Yas are bonded for life in
an unforgettable exploration of the complexities of
mother-daughter relationships and the power of
female friendship. We
Say I could really
feel the intense heat of the Deep South summer and
the sweat trickling down my back as I imagined
myself lying in a hammock on a porch overlooking
the cotton fields. Well, it was at least sunny as I
sat by the hotel pool devouring this book as a part
of my holiday reading package. It's certainly ideal
for this purpose, a great big brick of a paperback
with an epic story and plenty of gossipy
anecdotes. Fortunately, it's
also intelligent and insightful. The elder
generation, the Ya-Ya sisterhood themselves, make a
formidable quartet. As Dylan Thomas would have it,
"raging against the dying of the light" of old age.
Sidda, the daughter of the most tempestuous of the
Ya-Ya's is the reader's companion on the journey of
discovery about the past. A thoroughly modern
American woman, needing to make her peace with her
unconventional mother and herself. Like the Ya-ya
scrapbook that Sidda has to decipher, this book is
full of faded, atmospheric American snapshots.
Family pictures that only tell part of the story. I
was gripped as the mysteries were revealed in
evocative flashbacks. Deaths, journeys, breakdowns
and a description of the actual film premiere of
"Gone with the Wind" (just imagine!). This is
American writing at its best. Review by: Rachel
Taylor |
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