Deesha Philyaw - The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

Deesha Philyaw - The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

4⭐

Genre: Short Stories, Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Feminism, Race, Religion

Pages: 179

Format:  eARC on NetGalley 

Publisher: Pushkin Press

Published: 5th May 2022 (UK)

 

Big thank you to Pushkin Press for having me on the blog tour and NetGalley / Pushkin Press for the eARC.

 Book Blurb: 

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church's double standards and their own needs and passions. With their secret longings, new love, and forbidden affairs, these church ladies are as seductive as they want to be, as vulnerable as they need to be, as unfaithful and unrepentant as they care to be, and as free as they deserve to be.

My Review: 

What a book! Perfect for when you want to take a break from your usual reads and definitely perfect to help you get out of a reading slump.

The book features nine short stories that follow different characters, although the centre stage is given to black women and girls in Southern America. All these Church Ladies, spanning over four generations, are all trying to figure out their place in the world, their desires, their passion and their needs, whilst also having a strong belief in God and his teachings.

I loved that the author explored the lives of different women, especially their inner thoughts, reasoning and passions, but also didn’t shy to show their outer characters, how vulnerable, strong, distinct, loving, caring and colourful all those women are. These stories also look at how these ladies react to pressures, standards and rules set by society and the church, and how all of that changed their lives in ways they might not even imagine.

It was such an easy and refreshing read.  I managed to devour this book in a few hours. Although, it is a book that I would love to go back and reread the separate stories, whilst giving more time to concentrate and get to know each of the heroines better in their respective stories. It is a book that is worth a place on your shelf and that you will come back to read over and over again, as each story has so much to give.

I also loved the writing style, words in this book just flows and there are no wasted words and no long-winded descriptions that would take you off the topic, everything is said for a reason and everything that has been said in these stories matter, either to the character or their story.

My favourite stories are ‘The Peach Cobbler’, ‘Dear Sister’ and ‘Instructions for Married Christian Husbands’, as they are all so powerful but at the same time made me have a rollercoaster of emotions, including laughs, tears and heartaches.

Overall: One of the best short story books I have ever read. Definitely worth reading and having on your shelf. I know that I will be re-reading it soon, especially to have a break from longer books that I am reading to give me that energy and get me out of the reading slump. 

This review was firstly published on NetGalley:  

                                      https://www.netgalley.co.uk/book/239051/review/959200

About the Author: 

Deesha Philyaw is the co-author of Co-Parenting 101: Helping Your Kids Thrive in Two Households After Divorce, written in collaboration with her ex-husband. Her work has been listed as Notable in The Best American Essays series, and her writing on race, parenting, gender, and culture has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, McSweeney’s, The Rumpus, Brevity, dead housekeeping, Apogee Journal, Catapult, Cheat River Review, TueNight, ESPN’s The Undefeated and The Baltimore Review; Essence, Ebony, and Bitch magazines; and various anthologies. Deesha is a Fellow at the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction and a past Pushcart Prize nominee for essay writing in Full Grown People.

https://www.deeshaphilyaw.com/