by Rebecca Wells
A daughter unravels her mother's history, and in the process, realizes her own.
Reviewed by: Liz Smith
About Liz Smith
When an aquaintance sent me their used copy of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, I'll admit I was skeptical. Isn't this one of those sappy Southern novels with the cliché moral "Love your mother, she's made so many sacrifices for you?" And, why are you sending it to me, a rare reader of mainstream fiction, especially the kind that coincides with a recent movie in a blatant strategy for publicity? But being bed-ridden with a friek case of lyme disease, and unable to drive to the bookstore to pick up any alternatives, I decided to give it a chance.
By page one, my preconceptions were thoroughly overhauled, and my heart was truly warmed. The evolution of the story was truly enchanting. Siddalee, (Sidda,) a successful playwright, makes disparaging remarks in a press interview that cause her mother, Vivi, to disown her, and even threaten to sue. But right away readers learn that Vivi is no stereotypical selfish stage mother jealous of her daughter's success. Her anger is legitimate, and her quirkiness is charming. Sidda, heart pierced by the lash of her reaction, and tempted to cower from the true love she has found, sequesters herself in a cabin in the woods in a neurotic sabbatical to restore her soul and understand herself.
Vivi, prodded by her lifelong group of equally wild, though diverse, Southern girlfriends, the self-named Ya-Ya's, sends her their priceless scrapbook to assist her in reconstructing the memories and meaning of her life as it is entwined with theirs in hopes that it will enable her to embrace, rather than reject, true love.
The magic of this story is not its premise, girl finally understands mother, nor the way it is told, but the divine characterizations, dialogue, and details that are revealed of the experiences, both heartbreaking and hysterical that have engendered the now-inseverable bond between these eccentric Southern women who have steadfastly relied on each other for consolation and comraderie since girlhood, and all the nuances of friendship and forgiveness.
Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
Copyright © by Liz Smith, 2002
Reviewed by Liz Smith:
--The Broke Diaries - by Angela Nissel
--The Poetry & Short Stories of Dorothy Parker
- Random House
--Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
- by Rebecca Wells
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