Rating: 
Summary: fantastic, I l oved it and I was prepared to dismiss it....
Review: I loved the Shirley Temple chapter. I howled at the sophmoric humor that we all (secretly) enjoy. On a deeper note, the joy and pain of being both a mother and a daughter were expressed in a way that I can share with both my mom and my (17 year old) child. I also am so grateful for the friend who shared this book with me. I love her more than a sister because she shares herself unconditionally...well almost...
Rating:
Summary: Southern discomfort treated with tenderness and love
Review: Rebecca Wells has outdone herself by writing the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, her follow-up to Little Alters Everywhere. This book has the sweet taste of Southern culture and the bitter taste of the feelings that almost every woman has felt towards their mothers. Wells embodies her characters of Vivi and Siddalee with the emotions of the generations trying to understand, explain and cope. Fortunately for the readers, Wells has not made the book too sappy or sentimental. Instead, the story of the mother and daughter, and of the friends who are together forever, is told with charm, grace and humor. This book will make you laugh, cry and hope. When it is all over, you will be begging for the stories of the other Ya-Ya sisters and petite Ya-Yas. Well done Ms. Wells! The only thing better than the book, is the audio version performed by the author. It was fantastic!
Rating:
Summary: A completely mesmerizing novel!!
Review: I fell in love with The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. What an amazing book!! Rebecca Wells truly captured my heart with her words. She enabled me to identify with the characters because her descriptions of them were so real. It is a fabulous novel that all women should read because it discusses the complicated, yet wonderful relationships between mothers and daughters, sisters, and girlfriends. I give Rebecca Wells my praise.
Rating: 
Summary: vivacious page-turner, if shallow in parts
Review: The book was hard to put down, a definite page-turner.The writer whose work it reminds me of the most: Fannie Flagg, the Fried Green Tomatoes author and Match Game '73 personality. The emphasis on small bodies being ohsosexy seemed a particularly perverse tribute to quaint old anorexic ways. I can identify with the problem of having a competitive mother who is not open and direct about her emotional issues; the wondering if she'll ever own or clearly account for her part in the fiasco of one's childhood feels familiar.The scariest aspect of that dynamic is the realization that fear of judgment on the part of the mom leads to a strange bitchy competitive social vibe between mother and daughter.That's a sad, common phenom. This book gave me little hope for direct, open, loving, adult communication. Everyone's tactfulness became irritating to me right quick. The fairy tale quality of getting the mom's approval as the ultimate benediction: how codependent is that? The need for everyone to be so slender and charming, to safeguard the ya-ya charisma, felt compelling and grating.And finding the ultimate fiancé who's never wanted to marry before the age of 45 and is perfectly created to crave your particular vulnerabilities ... like a Margaret Mitchell plot on valium. The fairy tale quality of the psychological advice felt shallow. I wish I had heard what Sidda's Jungian analyst had to say. I say, Be scared, Connor. Siddalee's got some significant psychological work ahead of her. It was a book that made large, romantic gestures (300 acres of sunflowers!) more important than adult accountability.People are terrorized by the personally dominating, psychologically wounded, alcoholic Vivi. And this is cause for celebration? Someone might compare this work with Blanche Boyd's Terminal Velocity. At least her southern bad girl grows up with the help of the 12 steps. Are lesbians the only women who can get real in our culture? Sometimes it sure seems that way to me.
Rating:
Summary: It is truely INCREDIBLE!!!
Review: It as such an incredible book. I truely fell in love with it and was totally fascinated by how it always made you want to keep on reading. And after I finished it for the 15th time I passed it along to all of my friends. I would really recommend that you should really read this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Almost the best
Review: This would have been the best book I have read, ever, if the corny sub-plot about Sidda and Connor had been eliminated. I could hardly endure the writing in those parts. HOWEVER, the rest of the book was just GENIUS. I am a southern, Catholic, screwed up daughter of women who grew up just like Vivi, Necie, Caro and Teensy. This book would have saved me thousands in therapy if it had just been brought to my attention sooner!
Rating:
Summary: A song of the south.
Review: Moments of madness interspersed with holiday treats and lavish with wisdom, this "Ya-Ya" is a must for readers who appreciate the difficulties of living up to a "perfectly imperfect" mother in a time bereft of feminine role models. The only fault I found with it is its reliance on the overworked "I don't know how to love" flaw. Couldn't the narrator's vehicle to self understanding have been a bit more original?
Rating:
Summary: Best book I've read in years!
Review: As a self-confessed book-aholic, I read a great many books...so the above isn't said lightly. I don't know that men can get from it what I did...because what brought tears to my eyes and laughter from my heart was the way Ms. Wells depicted the mother/daughter relationship. She draws it in such splendid shades of gray...as all mother/daughter relationships truly are...a story of hardship, difficulties on both sides, and Ms. Wells never stoops to the easy black & white answer of "whose fault is it"...I loved this book when I read it pre-best-sellerdom, and shared it with student workers in my office...whose response was "Wow!"...so it affects both young & middle-aged women alike. As another reader/reviewer states, we all are either mother or daughter and so understand, if we are honest, the shades of gray in that wonderful, horrid, relationship of all relationships. And the wondrous thing is, the book seems not to be aware of itself...and while the subject matter is dark, the book itself does not depress (like many of the Oprah books I've read). I can't, even in 1,000 words, sum up everything I got from this book...other than to say, "Get it! Read it! And then share it with your mother/daughter!" Ms. Wells, if you're reading this, please...please...write another book!!
Rating:
Summary: I think that this book is one in a million.
Review: The plot to this book is great and Wells keeps you interested right from the beginning. I know I became so wrapped up in the novel I wished I could become a Ya-Ya. They seem to have had so much fun, and I think that everyone can relate to some of their mischeivious actions. Anyone who has a close knit group of friends needs to read this book. It will make you want to call your friends right then and share the stories with them. I would definitely recommend this novel for anyone. The book talks of the south, and perhaps some of the things people can not relate to unless they too are southern.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed in quality of writing.
Review: I bought this book with extremely high hopes as I enjoy well-written Southern novels. However, I was sorely disappointed in the quality of the writing and the perdictable plot. The writing was unimaginative, with trite metaphors that read as if they were lifted from a romance novel. The dialogue was poor -- and the four ya-yas were not developed enough. Rather than allow her story to develop through the characters' actions and speech, Wells use exposition. She tells us -- rather than shows us. The framing device -- Sidda retreating from marriage and going through the scrapbook -- was contrived, and the multiple points of view did not work. I don't understand why Sidda was a main character -- she was boring, underdeveloped and her relationship with her fiancee was trite. The best scenes were her mother's flashbacks -- the convent school for instance. Some judicious editing may have helped this lamentable novel. I was so disappointed when I finished that I grabbed a true masterpiece -- The Great Gatsby -- to restore my faith in literature. My colleague at work was so disappointed she stopped reading it -- I didn't and so reached the predictable end.
|
