Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

by Rebecca Wells

book data

19251 ratings, 3.65 average rating, 1161 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		20%
4		36%
3		30%
2		9%
1		3%

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published

May 7th 1997 (first published 1996) by Perennial

binding

Paperback, 368 pages

setting

The United States

isbn

0060928336 (isbn13: 9780060928339)

description

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...more

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Emily rated it:

(review of isbn 006075995X)

01/27/08

bookshelves: novels

Read in July, 2006

Rebecca Wells can think up a few succulent stories, but her writing is absolute fast-food. It left me depressed to think that women are encouraged to read so-called "chick lit" on the basis that they only need a few sentimental tales about love, friendship, and/or family to satisfy them, no matter how infantile the writing style or half-baked the arguments. Of COURSE the story had to end with a big white wedding! That signifies catharsis in every woman's life, right?

By ...more

Like this review? yes (9 people liked it)

3 comments

Traci rated it:

(review of isbn 006075995X)

04/11/08

Read in January, 2002

recommended to Traci by: almost everyone
recommends it for: imperfect mothers and daughters

When I was pregnant with my oldest child, a girl, I had a dream. In my dream, I was in the hospital, postpartum, holding not the one child I knew that I had been pregnant with . . . but two children. Both girls. One of my baby girls was quiet, observant, peaceful. She had big, open eyes that reflected her big, open heart. The other child was physically larger than the other baby and it's complete opposite. Ugly, angry, needy. I sat there holding both babies in their swaddling clothes while the o...more When I was pregnant with my oldest child, a girl, I had a dream. In my dream, I was in the hospital, postpartum, holding not the one child I knew that I had been pregnant with . . . but two children. Both girls. One of my baby girls was quiet, observant, peaceful. She had big, open eyes that reflected her big, open heart. The other child was physically larger than the other baby and it's complete opposite. Ugly, angry, needy. I sat there holding both babies in their swaddling clothes while the one cried and demanded and writhed . . . and the other lay in my arms quietly observing . . . simply taking it all in. I had what has now become the all-too-familiar feeling of being in over my head - lost even before I had begun. And then, in my dream, my own mother walks into the room with the also all-too-familiar glower she has reserved for me for as far back as I can remember. The look that says "You don't deserve this".

I've never forgotten that dream and until recently, couldn't figure it out. Years later, I do in fact have two daughters and a son . . . born not in that order. My two daughters are almost a decade apart in age the older (bigger) one is definately NOT the noisy, demanding one. No . . . she's definately the open, loving one. (An old soul if ever there was one.)

What does any of this b.s about my dream have to do with Divine Secrets?

Basically, everything.

I have since sorted out this dream . . . my oldest daughter is now 17. A young woman. Just three years younger than I was when I carried her in my womb and dreamt of her and my mother and that demanding other child that needed so damn much all the time.

In the first few pages of Divine Secrets, you are plunged into the life of an interesting, lively young woman and her relationship with her mother. All the bad behavior, jealousy, rage, and hidden wounds.

When I read this book in 2002, I cried because I got that woman's rage towards her mother. I was that woman.

Now I find as my own daughter enters adulthood . . . I identify with the pain of that mother.

By the way, that demanding baby in my dream was me and frankly, that demanding baby in my dream is really a lot of us mothers to some degree or another. Raising our own daughters while trying to finish the job of raising ourselves where our mothers might have failed. Obviously, that analogy doesn't apply to everyone . . . but it's the link between that dream of mine and the thread of understanding that evolves in this book that are the same....less

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Debbie rated it:

07/13/08

bookshelves: absolute-drek

Read in January, 2004

recommends it for: People who do not read books but would like to think they read one

I think Vivi WAS a tap-dancing child abuser. Any discussion of this fact ends at the "being whipped with the belt" scene. Vivi had no right to be enraged when this fact comes to light--she should have been embarrassed, yes. Her daughter arguably should not have revealed this dirty laundry but should have worked it through with her mother privately.

According to this book, a scrapbook of silly adventures with Vivi's zany friends makes that behavior forgivable...not an apology...more

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1 comment

Eva rated it:

(review of isbn 006075995X)

10/15/07

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: anyone who thinks Steel Magnolias is the best movie EVER

I am so tired of this sort of storyline. A group of Southern women who form a timeless bond of woman-ness and Southern-ness and triumph in the face of all hardship because they are delicate as blossoms yet strong and fierce. Uh-huh. I'm Southern, I'm a woman, and I haven't seen such a bond between Southern women of any generation in all of my years. I don't know where this romanticized notion came from, but it's time to put an end to it. Down with Southern chick-lit!
That said, when enterin...more

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2 comments

Jeneral rated it:

(review of isbn 006075995X)

07/19/08

Read in July, 2008

I'm having a hard time deciding if I liked this book or not. On the surface, not so much. About 30 pages in, I wasn't sure if I was going to make it through, or if I was going to go insane if I saw the word "Ya-Ya" one more time.

There were some things that I liked about it. Friendship that endures, closer than blood. Knowing there's always someone there in your corner, and they've been there your whole life. Daughters learning that Mom had a life before she became a Mo...more

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Deb rated it:

(review of isbn 006075995X)

08/29/07

bookshelves: bookclub

When the whole Ya-Ya craze was going on, my book club decided we'd better read it to see what all the fuss was about. In the end, we had to take a vote ("ya-ya" if you liked it; "no-no" if you didn't). I fell into the "no-no" group.
I found it disturbing that hordes of women were flocking to this book that is really about completely dysfunctional families and marriages and a really unhealthy attachment to friends from the past. It made me wonder what's going o...more

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

2 comments

Cheri rated it:

(review of isbn 006075995X)

07/05/07

bookshelves: ick

Seriously not my cup of tea. Cutsey language, sentimentality run amok, and a deep sense of nostalgia for times that, well, I couldn't possibly feel nostalgic for. I'm not sure how an abusive mother is supposed to be funny or colorful, nor how transferring your disfunction onto you children is to be held up like a badge of honor. Maybe I needed to have crazy parents to understand it.

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Jennifer rated it:

(review of isbn 006075995X)

11/28/08

bookshelves: 2002, chicklit, fiction

Read in September, 2002

recommends it for: People who like Lifetime movies.

I felt like this was a better story than Little Alters Everywhere - but really it was just a Part 1 and a part 2. I had a hard time with the abuse and alcoholism - just like I did in the first book. I think if I hadn't watched the movie first I would never have commited to reading these two books - since they seem to be scrunched together for the movie.

I have no desire to read any further in this series. The writing was good and the characters believable - but I felt like it was jus...more

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Embee rated it:

(review of isbn 006075995X)

06/14/08

Read in January, 2000

recommends it for: Women who cherish their longtime relationships with best girlfriends.

Grab a girlfriend, drink mint juleps and toast to sisterhood! This book shares all the details of the close relationships girlfriends share.

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

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Brandy aka Marsden rated it:

(review of isbn 006075995X)

01/30/08

My mother and her Ya-Ya’s were called the sisters of Beta Sigma Phi sorority in Charleston S.C. I grew up on the marshes watching them swing dance, shuck oysters, and throwing what always seemed like a never ending festival that celebrated life. They did community work and supported the local theatre, but mostly they just had a good time. I grew up in the whirlwind of color and laughter that now seems only like a distant dream. Momma passed 12years ago and I don’t think I will ever be the sa...more

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Alissa rated it:

(review of isbn 006075995X)

03/25/08

bookshelves: fiction-novel

Read in March, 2008

I would give this book a PG-13 rating for language and a couple crude scenes- which were mild, but suggestive.

The entire book discuss' in detail the importance of few key character relationships. Getting to the MAIN relationship, in my opionion, and setting up the climax of the book is what took a while. About half way through it really hit home and I felt deeply connected to the story(s), and the characters. Eventhough, I was raised in a very different way, I felt that I could e...more

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Amy rated it:

(review of isbn 006075995X)

01/03/09

Read in September, 2002

I always find myself attracted to novels that weave through generations, digging up colorful stories of the characters' pasts - allowing the reader to see them at different stages, thus making their present stage more understandable. Thus, when Divine Secrets took this route, I found it to be an engaging novel, leaving me almost breathless in some scenes, opening up tear ducts in others. The lives of Vivi and the YaYas takes shape immediately - luring us in, keeping us close as we move from page...more

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Salwa rated it:

(review of isbn 006075995X)

12/22/08

Read in December, 2008

Someone gave me this book many years ago. It sat on my shelf. I almost gave it to Housing Works in a sweep of books to donate, but saved it at the last minute. So, I decided to finally read it as a sort of guilty pleasure. Well, part of it actually surprised me in its sensitivity, true-to-life descriptions, and gripping story line. Unfortunately, that only made up half of the book---the half about the group of girls, the Ya-Yas growing up. The other half, about a daughter of one of the Ya-Yas, w...more

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Catherine rated it:

(review of isbn 006075995X)

09/15/07

Some of the mother-daughter stuff here was intense. The impact of the mother's mental illness, you could see how it reverberated throughout the daughter's history and mental landscape. There is a lot of joy in this book, but it probably became a hit because the writing was fairly poignant too. My favorite scene from the book is the lesson her mother teaches when the daughter realizes "too late" that she really does want to fly, and how she can make things possible if she really wants

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Dixie Diamond rated it:

(review of isbn 0060173289)

12/31/08

bookshelves: fiction, louisiana

Read in December, 2008

recommends it for: emphatically, NOBODY.

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

To borrow an expression from the book, this sucker is "Trés ya-ya-no." How can a writer so obsessed with small town aristocracy manage to slip in so many references to peeing in one's pants?

I never manage to abandon books once I've started them, even when they're utter and total tripe. Thank goodness this reads fast so I didn't waste any more of my life on it!

I seem to be missing the Chick Lit Gene. I just flat-out do not understand, or identify with, this ki...more To borrow an expression from the book, this sucker is "Trés ya-ya-no." How can a writer so obsessed with small town aristocracy manage to slip in so many references to peeing in one's pants?

I never manage to abandon books once I've started them, even when they're utter and total tripe. Thank goodness this reads fast so I didn't waste any more of my life on it!

I seem to be missing the Chick Lit Gene. I just flat-out do not understand, or identify with, this kind of writing. I'm not like this. My friends aren't like this. My Mother, thank Heaven, is not like this. Our lovely Louisiana friends are not like this. I don't know anyone who is like this. I'm beginning to suspect that nobody is like this, except in pulpy pseudo-literature written by women with juvenile Scarlett O'Hara fantasies. I would be ashamed to be this kind of "feminine."

This is the story of Sidda, a dull, spineless, immature, 40-year-old with no identity of her own, and her malicious, self-absorbed, alcoholic, racist, mother, Vivi, who appears to be taking out the frustrations of a lifetime of being a legend only in her own mind on everyone around her by being as difficult as possible, solely for the sake of being difficult. One gets the impression that Vivi needed the Ya-Yas so she could be notorious somewhere, since she doesn't have the class or discipline to accomplish anything of genuine value.

It's badly written, the dialogue is clumsy, and I think it must hold some kind of world record for wallowing in self-pity. Wells is also an unbearable "reference-dropper" (like a name-dropper, but with catch-words instead of names: River Road Recipes, interspersed bayou French, Cajun fiddle, Community Coffee, etc.). Apparently the "divine secret" is that this bunch of self-centered superannuated teenagers chose to flash-freeze their high-school lives (and mentalities) at the expense of emotional adulthood, their marriages, and their children. Yeah, there's going to be drama and hardship in your life if you react to every little thing as if it's a catastrophe and use it as an excuse to drink and dope yourself into a stupor. "Complex" needs to stop being a literary euphemism for "manipulative, self-serving, toxic, and narcissistic." Ironically, Vivi is the least likable and least interesting of the four Ya-Yas, though she's supposed to be the luminary.

Is this the "flower of white womanhood" the South allegedly so tries to protect? If so, then small freaking loss. I guess it says something that Ms. Wells has lived in Washington state for the past 25+ years: If she loved Louisiana so much, why did she leave and then write boring, mindless, novels about it?

Excuse me--I'm going to go mainline some Larry McMurtry . . . ...less

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Pat rated it:

(review of isbn 0060173289)

02/20/08

Read in January, 1996

recommended to Pat by: A Ya Ya
recommends it for: Any friend or mother/daughter

All I can say is that I HAVE Ya Ya's and I gave birth to a Ya Ya with her own set of Ya Ya's.

I feel deeply sorry for any woman who does not have a strong bond with female friends. Me and mine, we go through thick and thin together. Marriages, births, divorces, deaths, weddings, surgeries, and travels. We cry some but we laugh much much more!!!

You either get it or you can't!

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Lindsey rated it:

(review of isbn 006075995X)

11/28/08

Read in June, 2006

A mother and her grown daughter transcend their present discord by journeying through the past via memories. Sidda forgives her mother and herself and learns that she can and does love. The whole novel is one big fat nod toward friendship and solidarity. Ya ya!

I've seen the movie too, but I feel like the book is richer. More complete. The story itself was something both fantastic and real, full of eccentric and lovable characters. It was real in the way that it stirred my heart and m...more

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Carjax rated it:

(review of isbn 006075995X)

11/26/08

Read in November, 2008

So,I vaguely remember seeing the movie...but honestly didn't remember that much about it when I decided to read the book. At first glance, it is certainly a book about lifelong friends (dysfunctional though they may be), but I ended up really reading through the eyes of a mother with a daughter.

I wonder how many of the things that I do or say are going to cause my daughter to need therapy when she grows up? Fortunately, I am much more grounded in reality than the Ya-Yas ever were...more

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Nina rated it:

(review of isbn 006075995X)

09/23/08

This book was fabulous, a tale of the Ya-Yas as adults with marriages gone sour and too many children, drinking problems, and abuse. This book has got it all. The movie of this book ruined it. Skip the movie, and read the real thing.

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Diane rated it:

(review of isbn 006075995X)

07/24/08

I stopped at a book store while on vacation specifically to get this book and "Little Altars Everywhere" because I heard the author on the radio one Sunday morning and was so enchanted by her that I knew I just had to read her books!

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