Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1850574 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

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

Synopsis
Siddalee Walker is the oldest daughter of the Walker clan of Thornton, Louisiana. Her mother is Vivi Walker, the bourbon-drinking leader of a pack of girlfriends, the Ya-Yas. Siddalee tells of her mother's drinking, her repressed rage and the unconventional life of the Walker family.

Customer Reviews

Utterly joyful - and utterly painful
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?

Better than the Ya Ya Sisterhood
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.

Delightful but equally shocking and moving.
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.