Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: A Novel (The Ya-Ya Series) - Softcover

Wells, Rebecca

3.85

557,011 ratings by Goodreads

9780062040350: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: A Novel (The Ya-Ya Series)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062040359 ISBN 13: 9780062040350

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2011

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“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-Dispatch

The 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?

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Review:

Wells is a Louisiana-born Seattle actress and playwright; her loopy saga of a 40-year-old player in Seattle's hot theater scene who must come to terms with her mama's past in steamy Thornton City, Louisiana, reads like a lengthy episode of Designing Women written under the influence of mint juleps and Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!. The Ya-Yas are the wild circle of girls who swirl around the narrator Siddalee's mama, Vivi, whose vivid voice is "part Scarlett, part Katharine Hepburn, part Tallulah." The Ya-Yas broke the no-booze rule at the cotillion, skinny-dipped their way to jail in the town water tower, disrupted the Shirley Temple look-alike contest, and bonded for life because, as one says, "It's so much fun being a bad girl!"

Siddalee must repair her busted relationship with Vivi by reading a half-century's worth of letters and clippings contained in the Ya-Ya Sisterhood's packet of "Divine Secrets." It's a contrived premise, but the secrets are really fun to learn.

From the Back Cover:

When mother and daughter Vivi andSiddalee Walker get into a savagefight over a New York Times articlethat refers to Vivi as a “tap-dancing childabuser,” the fallout is felt from Louisiana to NewYork to Seattle. A successful theater director,Siddalee panics and postpones her upcomingwedding—so Vivi’s intrepid gang of lifelonggirlfriends, the Ya-Yas, sashay in and conspire tobring everyone back together.

In 1932, Vivi and the Ya-Yas were disqualifiedfrom a Shirley Temple Look-Alike Contestfor unladylike behavior. Sixty years later, they’restill making waves. They persuade Vivi to sendSidda a scrapbook of girlhood mementos titled“Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood”—analbum that will reveal more questions than answersas it leads Sidda to encounter the legacyof imperfect love and the unknowable mysteryof life.

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