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Little Altars Everywhere

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

"Brilliant. . . . A structural tour de force. . . . A classic Southern tale of dysfunctional and marginal madness. The author's gift for giving life to so many voices leaves the reader profoundly moved."— Seattle Weekly

The companion novel to Rebecca Wells's celebrated #1 New York Times bestseller Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Who can resist the rich cadences of Sidda Walker and her flamboyant, secretive mother, Vivi? Here, the young Sidda—a precocious reader and an eloquent observer of the fault lines that divide her family—leads us into her mischievous adventures at Our Lady of Divine Compassion parochial school and beyond. A Catholic girl of pristine manners, devotion, and provocative ideas, Sidda is the very essence of childhood joy and sorrow.

Little Altars Everywhere is an insightful, piercing, and unflinching evocation of childhood, a loving tribute to the transformative power of faith, and a thoroughly fresh chronicle of a family that is as haunted as it is blessed.

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  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 3, 1992
      The lineage of Wells's first novel can be traced directly to the ``adult children'' literature that has gained popularity in recent years. ``I have one main rule for myself these days: Don't hit the baby. It means: Don't hurt the baby that is me. Don't beat up on the little one who I'm learning to hold and comfort . . . ,'' Siddalee says in the book's final chapter. Her voice, like those of the lesser narrators (sister, two brothers, parents, grandmother, blacks who work for the family), sounds increasingly contrived as the book progresses. The structure doesn't help matters, allocating one or two chapters to most characters--in Part I showing Siddalee and her siblings as children in Louisiana in the 1960s, in Part II the same characters 30 years later. Attempts at black dialect or small-town Louisiana slang are also superficial. The entire book consists of retellings, with little room (or incentive) for readers to share the action. There are some wonderful sections, such as when the grandmother's lap dog has a ``hysterectomy,'' then learns to put dolls to bed as if they were her children, but such moments cannot sustain the reader's interest through more than 200 pages.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Judith Ivey is one of those artists who make you wish the U.S. had a Living Treasure category for artists. While I am not qualified to distinguish a Louisiana accent from perhaps a Mississippi one, it sounds good to me, and the intelligence, wit, and sympathy with which Ivey performs are in no doubt at all. LITTLE ALTARS is a series of linked stories that preceded Wells's phenomenally successful DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD. Here Vivi Walker's children, her husband, and the servants tell stories of life with Vivi, the most dramatic, and maddening of the Ya-Yas, making an unforgettable portrait of a very specific time and place and family. A marvel. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      November 1, 1999
      Wells's literary and theatrical talents are apparent in her account of the trials and triumphs of a fascinating but extremely dysfunctional family. Each chapter is told from the point-of-view of a different character, and Wells's provocative performance transforms the novel into a compelling one-woman show. Though Shep Walker, his wife, Vivi, and their four children derive a good living from Pecan Grove, 900 acres of rich Louisiana farmland, they are most successful at exacting and enduring suffering. Deceptively simple with its first-person narratives and everyday-language, the story explores such weighty issues as the loss of innocence, the traditional roles of women in the South, and the plight of farmers. Considering the phenomenal popularity of the companion novel, The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, this is an essential purchase for all popular fiction collections.--Beth Farrell, Portage Cty. Dist. Lib., OH

      Copyright 1999 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This charismatic book draws the listener into the lives of Vivi, Big Shep, Sidda and all the other characters from THE DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD. We hear about life in Thornton, Louisiana, along with reminiscences of adventures, trials and tribulations, all in exquisite Southern accents that are melodious and lulling in their tones. Yet they force the listener to pay attention to what the words mean, sorting accent from meaning. Wells's vivid characters spring out of the audiobook and into life. M.B.K. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:850
  • Text Difficulty:4-5

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