Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Rebecca Wells

The Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Every girl dreams she will be part of a group of girls as close as these four. They meet as young children and sixty years later are still best friends. They support each other. They love each other. They are closer than many sisters. They hide each others' secrets.

Siddalee is a Petite-Ya-Ya, Vivi's daughter. Sidda is now forty and has been emotionally separated from her mother. She accidently mentioned to a reporter that she had been abused as a child. The New York Times made a huge story of it. Now Vivi will not speak to her daughter. She has forbidden any of the other Ya-Yas or their families to speak to Sidda. Both women are hurting.

Sidda moves into a cabin alone to try to figure herself and her mother out. When she calls her mother for explanations Vivi hangs up. When Sidda instead asks about the Ya-Yas' relationship, Vivi sends the scrapbook she has kept for fifty years. As Sidda reads through the scrapbook, the reader learns about Vivi's life in Louisiana.

This book is an exceptional study of women and their relationships. Vivi has three very close friends, a distant mother, a daughter and three more children she loves, a remote yet adoring husband, and many friends. Vivi's life is recounted in small, telling stories of happenings in her life. Sidda's story is woven around the past as she learns to deal with her feelings for her mother. By the last quarter of the book there were times I had to stop reading because I couldn't see the words through the tears in my eyes. This is a well written book about strong personalities. No one is perfect. No one is evil. Instead, these are all real people with real joys and real problems. It is easy to get involved with these women.

This is a heart wrenching/heart warming book.

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