Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: Difference between revisions

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Viviane Joan "Vivi" Abbott Walker, the leader of the Sisterhood, becomes an abusive alcoholic who beats her (three or four, depending on whether you're watching or reading) children in a dissociative episode wherein she becomes convinced that the reason her offspring are so annoying to her is because they are possessed by the devil. Years later, the eldest daughter, Siddalee Walker, now a successful playwright, accidentally exposes the whole incident in a magazine story which describes Vivi, quite accurately, as a "tap-dancing child abuser." She is disowned. Vivi's three friends decide to fix matters by kidnapping Sidda away from her fiancee and taking her home to force the two to talk.

 

There's a sequel to the book, ''Little Altars Everywhere,'' in which the child abuse is a lot more sexualized and egregious. Arguably a [[Downer Ending]]: The point seems to be that while Siddalee has gotten past her childhood and used it to grow ... she's got three siblings who are yet to have such experiences.

* [[Abusive Parents]]: ''Oh Jesus and how.'' In the central instance Siddalee is stripped and beaten to the point of wetting herself; ''Little Altars Everywhere'' makes it clear that dear Momma was [[Parental Incest|shtupping]] the youngest son, Baylor, and heavily implies that she was either [[Fetish Fuel|getting off]] on the beatings she was dealing out or trying to [[Victim Falls For Rapist|make things better]].

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: In the book, Vivi and Sidda finish the book laughing and crying on a porch swing, and tacitly acknowledge their past with a ritual exchange of tears. [[It Makes Sense in Context]].

* [[Boarding School of Horrors]]: As a teenager, Vivi is sent to a harrowing religious school where toilet paper is rationed, food is gruel and she is left passed out on a dirty bathroom floor while a prefect reports her for being wasteful.

[[Category:Lit Fic]]

[[Category:Chick Lit]]