The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies is a short story collection published by West Virginia University Press in September of 2020 by author Deesha Philyaw. It consists of nine stories of Black women and their sexuality, churches, families, homes, and relationships. This debut short story collection won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the 2020/2021 Story Prize, and the 2020 LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. The Secret Lives of Church Ladies is being adapted for television by HBO Max with Tessa Thompson executive producing. Deesha Philyaw’s writing has also appeared in the Harvard Review, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

Plot Summary

In the first short story, “Eula,” Philyaw intertwines allusions to Christianity with sexual passion between two adult women. This juxtaposition points to the shame surrounding female sexuality (including queer female sexuality) that stems from growing up in a religious culture.

In “Not-Daniel,” Philyaw presents the clear tension and irreverence of two strangers having sex in a hospice parking lot to complicate the concept of infidelity. The two strangers are responsible adults, yet they’re still vulnerable in the space where death is looming and inevitable.

In “Dear Sister,” Wallace “Stet” Brown dies of a massive stroke, which is what prompts the writing of a letter from one sister, Nichelle, to another. The story introduces four women who are all Stet’s daughters–all but 2 of them are from different mothers. This makes them all half-sisters. They were raised together, often seeing each other at their grandmother’s house and having sleepovers together. Nichelle decides to reach out to a fifth sister that none of them have met to let her know that their father has died. Her name is Jackie. Nichelle has no idea what Jackie’s relationship with Stet has been throughout her life, but she feels that she has a right to know of his death. The story shows the personalities and experiences of each of the sisters and how, even though their father was absent, they all grew up together and have an unbreakable bond.

“Peach Cobbler” tells the story of Olivia and her mother who live together in a small house where they share a bedroom. Every Monday since she was a little girl, Olivia’s mother makes a delicious peach cobbler from scratch; this cobbler, though, is not for Olivia and her mother to eat; it’s reserved for Reverend Neely, the reverend of the church they attend. Olivia’s mother and the reverend have an affair for most of Olivia’s childhood. When she gets older, she is asked to tutor the reverend’s son, and Olivia begins a relationship with him. She works through how to become her own person despite her mother’s coldness, distance, and control.

“Snowfall” explores the main character, Arletha, and her longing for home. She and her partner Rhonda have built a new life in the city where they can be themselves, but Arletha misses her home in the South. She misses her mother, even though their relationship is fraught. Having one foot back in her hometown and one foot in her new life creates tension between her and her partner, and they work through how to find home in one another.

In “How to Make Love to a Physicist,” Lyra goes on a journey of self-acceptance. She meets a man that she really likes, but she can’t seem to give him the chance to get to know her. She realizes that she needs to work on her relationship with herself and make her body her home before she can build something healthy with someone else. She works through guilt and shame from her Christian upbringing and her mother’s ideals and comes out a free woman.

“Jael” follows the diary entries of a 14-year-old girl and her grandmother’s reactions to reading her diary. Jael is a queer teenager who fantasizes about the preacher’s wife in her local congregation. She looks out for her friend who has a relationship with a 35-year-old man and takes care of business in the best way she knows how to.

“Instructions for Married Christian Husbands” is an organized list of straight forward instructions from a single woman who frequently has sexual affairs with married Christian husbands. She gives instruction about parking, social media, health and wellness, religion, “your wife,” money, sex, “your conscience,” substances, travel, therapy, arrival, foreplay, fantasies, feelings, and departure.

“When Eddie Levert Comes” revolves around a mother-daughter relationship. The daughter is basically stripped of an identity outside of her role as a “daughter, housekeeper, cook, babysitter, nurse, slave” (159). She was the object of her mother’s hurt and rage and was abused by her growing up. As an adult, she is charged with taking care of her mother who has dementia; her mother believes every day that Eddie Levert, the singer of The O’Jays, is going to come and pick her up for a date. This story is one of holding hurt and trauma without the option of real closure and resolution.