About this item
"A big, blowzy romp through the rainbow eccentricities of three generations of crazy bayou debutantes." - Atlanta Journal-Constitution"A very entertaining and, ultimately, deeply moving novel about the complex bonds between mother and daughter." - Washington Post"Mary McCarthy, Anne Rivers Siddons, and a host of others have portrayed the power and value of female friendships, but no one has done it with more grace, charm, talent, and power than Rebecca Wells." - Richmond Times-DispatchThe incomparable #1 New York Times bestseller - a book that reigned at the top of the list for an remarkable sixty-eight weeks - Rebecca Wells's Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is a classic of Southern women's fiction to be read and reread over and over again. A poignant, funny, outrageous, and wise novel about a lifetime friendship between four Southern women, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood brilliantly explores the bonds of female friendship, the often-rocky relationship between mothers and daughters, and the healing power of humor and love, in a story as fresh and uplifting as when it was first published a decade and a half ago. If you haven't yet met the Ya-Yas, what are you waiting for?
About the Author
Rebecca Wells was born and raised in Alexandria, Louisiana. "I grew up," she says, "in the fertile world of story-telling, filled with flamboyance, flirting, futility, and fear. " Surrounded by Louisiana raconteurs, a large extended family, and Our Lady of Prompt Succor's Parish, Rebecca's imagination was stimulated at every turn. Early on, she fell in love with thinking up and acting in plays for her siblings - the beginnings of her career as an actress and writer for the stage. She recalls her early influences as being the land around her, harvest times, craw-fishing in the bayou, practicing piano after school, dancing with her mother and brothers and sister, and the close relationship to her black "mother" who cleaned for the Wells household. She counts black music and culture from Louisiana as something that will stay in her body's memory forever. In high school, she read Walt Whitman's "I Sing the Body Electric," which opened her up to the idea that everything in life is a poem, and that, as she says, "We are not born separately from one another. " She also read "Howl," Allen Ginsberg's indictment of the strangling consumer-driven American culture he saw around him. Acting in school and summer youth theater productions freed Rebecca to step out of the social hierarchies of high school and into the joys of walking inside another character and living in another world. The day after she graduated from high school, Rebecca left for Yellowstone National Park, where she worked as a waitress. It was an introduction to the natural glories of the park - mountains, waterfalls, hot springs, and geysers - as well as to the art of hitchhiking. Rebecca graduated from Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, where she studied theater, English, and psychology. She performed in many college plays, but also stepped outside the theater department to become awakened to women's politics. During this time she worked as a cocktail waitress--once accidentally kicking a man in the shins when he slipped a ten-dollar bill down the front of her dress - and began keeping a journal after reading Anais Nin, which she has done ever since.
