- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Harper Perennial (Mar 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060759968
- ISBN-13: 978-0060759964
- Product Dimensions: 20.4 x 13.5 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (116 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,867,604 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Little Altars Everywhere is much bleaker than its predecessor Divine Secrets of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood, told by Rebecca Wells with a whisky drawl. Divine Secrets was about heart break, bad parenting and loyalty, spiked with a delicious spitefulness that Scarlett O'Hara would have adored. It was impossible not to be bewitched and bewildered by the Southern charm and molten rage of Vivi and her friends, the Ya-Yas. Bad things happened but narrator Siddalee Walker, Vivi's eldest child, was left with "love and wonder" for her desperado, drunken mother. The charm and the drunken revelry is there in Little Altars Everywhere but it's more desperate and hung over and destructive.
Siddalee, once again, is the hub of the stories, a smart and sensitive raconteur, but the other children also take their part in unpicking the legend that is Vivi. Here Vivi Walker is larger than life and twice as scary, a sort of Mommie Dearest character where affectionate gestures are tainted with inappropriateness, and repressed anger and boredom snakes out into harsh violence. All her children are damaged in some way. Lulu becomes the town's best shop lifter, "The Princess of Gimme", whilst Baylor is depressed and emotionally "parked at the edge of a graveyard." Little Shep's story "Snuggling" goes a long way to explaining the crazy sadness of the Walker children; it tells of Vivi climbing into bed with him: "She looked at me and whispered, Give me a hug, Little Shep, give me a hug and a kiss ... then she reached down and started to rub her hand across one of my nipples." And "Willetta's Witness" brings on the darkness as all four children are "lined up against the wall of that brick house and everyone of them buck naked. Miz Vivi out there with a belt, whuppin' them like horses". Despite all this Little Altars isn't a depressing read; the whiplash wit and the whiskey phrases add some measure of merriment to the misery. --Eithne Farry --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Rebecca Wells has written a funny, eloquent and sad novel that easily leaps regional bounds." -- Washington Post
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
One thing I really hate about Girl Scouts is those uniforms. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
One thing I really hate about Girl Scouts is those uniforms. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Like another reviewer, I really enjoyed Divine Secrets of The Ya Ya Sisterhood - but found this book much more profound and well crafted. The journey Wells takes us on is very clever. You start off reading something which is fizzy, funny, like reading champagne - and she slowly darkens the mood with the successive stories and voices. She constantly pulls the carpet from under you, just when you think you might be able to define a character as hero or villain, she flips your analysis on its head, and really makes you see the humanity at the heart of each character.
Can we have more please Ms Wells?
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read the Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood several years ago but far prefered this prequel which seems somehow fresher than the novel for which she is famed. Perhaps it helps to have read 'the sisterhood' beforehand, but I suspect not. It's funny & sad in equal measures & extremely readable.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I loved the "Divine Secrets" book and I was curious about where Rebecca Wells might take us this time. "Little Altars" is very different from "Divine Secrets" in that you see much more from the perspective of the young children growing up with their outrageous mother, Vivi. In the first half of the book there is much fun and excitement and despite the obvious flaws in Vivi's style of parenting you feel that the Walker children are certainly living life to the full. The early chapter "Skinny-Dipping" is hilariously delightful!
However, the mood changes abruptly in the second half of the book and you begin to see the darker side of the Walker family life. My view of Vivi changed greatly having read of the truly terrible things she did to her children (as narrated by Willetta, for example). The chapter by Chaney I thought was the most moving in the book, the last couple pages of which I read several times because it was so beautifully expressed. The only chapter I did not enjoy was "Catfish Dreams" which I felt was much less relevant and less personal than the heartfelt stories told in the other chapters.
Rebecca Wells is certainly very skilled at writing in the many diverse styles to suit the different narrators that contribute to this book. The stark realities of the dividing lines between the lives of Blacks and Whites in Louisiana is also very movingly portrayed. I can heartily recommend this title, and I don't think you need to have read "Divine Secrets" to fully appreciate it. This book is VERY American, and as an English reader I found there were several words and phrases that I didn't understand, but I comprehended enough from the context and I think in the end the sometimes strange language adds to the charm of the book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Little Alters Everywhere-Rebecca Wells
Great book! Very well written and engaging, although perhaps better accompanied by Well's two other novels in the series: Ya-Ya's in Bloom & The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya... Read more
Published 17 months ago by HF
A bit too depressing
I liked this more than 'Ya-Yas in Bloom' as it seemed less disjointed but it still wasn't as interesting as 'Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Read more
Published on 12 Nov 2009 by Rachel
a bittersweet book to break your heart
This book will break your heart, and you will love it. You will be left feeling lost, as you will have all these cares, but no where to put them. Read more
Published on 21 Feb 2001
she's done it again
an amazing tour de force - that focuses more on the walker family than on the ya-ya's. it was breathtaking in the manner that it completely changed yuor piont of view about vivi -... Read more
Published on 4 Oct 2000
Better than the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya sisterhod
I really enjoyed this, and I think that it is a shame it wasn't released before the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. In my opinion Ms. Read more
Published on 4 Oct 2000
Hilarious and heartbreaking
What a wonderful book about love, hate and the survival of the dysfunctional. It quickly becomes clear that all is not well at Pecan Grove. Read more
Published on 28 Aug 1999
Left me wanting more.
I first heard of Rebecca Well's when I saw her on the Rosie O'Donnell show. I have always been captivated by the mystery of Louisiana and I picked up 'Divine secrets" first. Read more
Published on 27 Aug 1999
Marvelous, Zany, A fabulous Read...
Rebecca Wells'use of language...change in character was extraordinary...her story though extremely sad, showed such humor and made it all just a pleasure to read... Read more
Published on 25 Aug 1999
A lot of ups and downs, either hilarious or depressing
I was much more impressed with the follow-up novel, "Divine Secrets..." The first half of the book, very visual, about growing up in Louisiana with the greatest mother... Read more
Published on 18 Aug 1999
Such a disappointment!
Really loved Divine Secrets and was so excited to sit down and read Little Altars. Couldn't believe how bad it was. Read more
Published on 18 Aug 1999
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