The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 28 July 2000
by Rebecca Wells
The enormous beauty and sweeping abject tragedy of life are the subjects of this touchingly written novel. Siddalee Walker, a successful theater director, is engaged to be married. When she earns her mother's wrath for a badly received article in a national newspaper, Sidda loses all confidence in her ability to love her fiancee. She retreats to a cabin on the shores of Lake Quinault on the Olympic Peninsula with an enigmatic package sent from her mother down in Louisiana. The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, a massive scrapbook covering 70 years of her mother's life, opens up a world of discovery for Sidda. Through many flashbacks, we read of her mother's youthful happiness and adult sadnesses. Sidda remains puzzled. The flashbacks we read are triggered by fragments of Sidda's memory, but illuminate her mother more for us than for her. Vivi grew up in a small bayou town with three amazing vivacious friends who called themselves the Ya-Yas. Their life was a sensuous awakening in their youthful femininity. Vivi's mother, though, was viciously jealous of her popular daughter. When Vivi had a family, and as Sidda plans to start one, there are doubts, fears, and an outright desire to flee. Indeed, these powerful feelings of doubt in starting a family, having children, just plain loving, are key throughout this book. Eventually, Sidda comes to some rapprochement with her mother. There is a lot of love in this book. It makes one wonder how much of it is autobiographical. It is touching, sweet, sensuous, occasionally funny, occasionally sad to the point of tears. A sweeping ode to life and love.