The Bookworm Club Review
Created | Updated Oct 7, 2003
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Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Reviewed by Pinwheel Pearl
Divine Secrets is one of my favourite books. It tells an insane, yet fabulously believable tale of Sidda, a New York theatre director who falls victim to the press twisting comments about her mother. When the mother, Vivi, a hot-headed Southern belle, reads the comment, she
promptly disowns Sidda. This makes Sidda postpone her wedding and run off to a cabin in Seattle to mull over her life. It is here that the Ya-Ya's, Vivi's 'intrepid tribe of Louisiana girlfriends' find her, bringing her the 'Divine Secrets', a scrapbook of their friendship since they were disqualified from the Shirley Temple look-alike contest in 1939 for unladylike behaviour. Sidda uses the book for research on a new play, and the Ya-Ya's use it to try and reconcile Sidda and Vivi.
So, why call the book insane? Quite simply, because that's the best way to describe the Ya-Ya's. They are outrageous, stubborn, suffering from overindulgence, and utterly lovable. Those who read and love the book all cry 'I want some Ya-Ya's!' Because throughout all the good and truly terrible times they have suffered, the Ya-Ya's friendship holds strong, unbreakable. Divine Secrets lives up to the old cliché of making you laugh one minute and cry the next. It is as brimming with flavour as Vivi's gumbo, as fizzing as a glass of Coca-Cola she
has stashed at the back of the cupboard. The book is delicious, and deserves to be savoured, although it is all too easy to devour it whole.
'Little Altar's Everywhere' runs alongside 'Divine Secrets'. I don't recommend it as I felt it spoiled the good side of the Ya-Ya's by dwelling too much on their mistakes. I thought 'Divine Secrets' gave a more rounded picture, and didn't deem this second book necessary, in
my opinion, it doesn't tell you anything new. Read 'Divine Secrets' with an open heart, it teaches many fine lessons about love.
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