Offical Review - Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood

[MamaBookAddict]

Divine Secrets of the Yaya Sisterhood is one of my all time favorites. I read the book about as often as I see the movie - which is a couple times a year. The book is better of course, more detail. DSYS is a story about a girl who grew up in small town Louisiana with 2 younger sisters, a younger brother and a somewhat crazy mother. When it starts, Siddalee Walker is a theater director being interview for Time magazine. She tells about her sometimes abusive childhood and mentions that her mother is 'one of the most charming, wounded people in the world.' Then all hell breaks loose. Her mother Vivi Abbott Walker has taken every word to heart and written Sidda out of the will, taken down all her pictures and refuses to speak to or of her.

The book flashes back not only to Sidda's childhood, but Vivi's also and you can see where Vivi got her child rearing methods from. As a daughter of an extremely devout mother and a partying, man about town father, you learn that Vivi's childhood wasnt easy either. Her mother treated her as the devil and even sent her off to a very strict convent school for a year, where Vivi crawled inside herself so deeply that she almost didnt come back.

Sidda's childhood was interspersed with days at the beach, and double birthday cakes and plane rides above the country side. But also times when the shades had to stay drawn and the children spoke in whispers, and her mother would disappear for periods of time. Sidda grew up and moved away to New York where she became a director and met the man she was going to marry.

When her mother's friends, the YaYa's hear about the article and Vivi's reaction to it, they take the memorabilia book (which is chock full of memories and secrets that only they know), send it to Sidda, and tell her that if she is ever going to understand her mother and the whys and why nots, she needs to read it. The book takes Sidda back to the 30's, 40's and 50's and brings some understanding to her mother and herself.

Its a wonderful book and reading it, for me, is cathartic somehow. It gives you a peek into life in the South and what growing up may have really been like back then.

[gnewburn50]

Loved the movie and loved the book! I am going to read again because it's been a while and I think you do miss some details the first time around!

[aussiescout14]

I loved this book. It was a wonderful comment on the 1950's and attitudes towards women and depression. It was also a heart rending novel about love and friendship.