Ya-Yas in Bloom

February 14, 2005
The Ya-Ya sisters shimmy on and off stage in this disjointed follow-up to Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
, Wells's bestselling novel about the singular friendship and escapades of four larger-than-life Southern women. The author is off to a good start with the tale of how Vivi, Teensy, Caro and Necie met as little girls in 1930, their spunk and liveliness a harbinger of things to come. But the focus on the Ya-Yas' early years soon wavers and the novel is all over the map—here a few tales about the grown-up Ya-Yas, like Vivi's run-in with her son's first-grade teacher, a pompous nun; there a story about Vivi's eldest daughter, Sidda, one of the so-called "Petites Ya-Yas," and her directorial debut at age eight at a Valentine's Day party. A chapter appears out of nowhere from the viewpoint of Myrtis Spevey, a contemporary of the original Ya-Yas, who is so excessively jealous and resentful of the friends that she comes off as a cartoon character. After a vexing 30-year leap, Myrtis's creepy, emotionally ill daughter, Edythe, takes over the narrative, kidnapping one of the Ya-Yas' grandchildren. What begins as a collection of haphazard but entertaining snippets from the Ya-Yas' lives suddenly bumps up against a sober story about a missing child and the lengths to which parents will go to protect their young. Readers may lose patience as even the loose family-album format fails to hold up, but Wells still charms when she focuses on the redemptive power of family love and the special bond that comes from genuine, long-lived friendship. Agent, Kim Witherspoon.
(One-day laydown Mar. 29)

Forecast:
Flaws aside, this has a chance at #1, though it may not stick at the top of the lists as long as
Divine Secrets. Major ad/promo.

Tony Award winner Judith Ivey may not be from Louisiana, but there's no doubt her heart belongs to the home of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and the highly acclaimed sagas of the Southern belles. In this newest addition, Ivey reveals the beginnings of the Ya-Yas' friendship in the 1930s, sixty years of marriages, children, scandals, and the bond that holds them together. She flawlessly performs the stories as dozens of easily identifiable, believable characters, not only in the purrs and hisses (often tinged with booze) of the beloved Ya-Yas, but also the giggly lisps of the 4-years-olds and the roaring, blustering bassos of powerful Southern gents. If ever there was a match made in heaven, Ivey and the Ya-Yas are it. M.T.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2006 Audie Award Finalist (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine