Little Altars Everywhere [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Rebecca Wells (Author, Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 9, 1998

Plot Summary: "Little Altars Everywhere, the first novel by Rebecca Wells, is the bittersweet story of the Walker clan of Thornton, Louisiana. Vivi Abbot Walker, the mother, is the eye of the hurricane. Her husband, Shep, is a cotton planter, and the two of them have four children: Siddalee, Little Shep, Baylor, and Lulu, who is named for Tallulah Bankhead, one of her mother's patron saints. Each member of this funny, charming, and wounded family describes the view from his or her perch on the family tree. The book opens in 1963 with the recollections of Siddalee as a young girl, and continues with entries from her siblings, parents, and the black "help" who cannot save the Walker's from their darkness. Twenty-seven years later, Wells returns to the Walkers, and this time the stories are startlingly different. The previous stories weren't necessarilylies, but they weren't the whole truth. It becomes clear that ultimately, there is no one truth within a family; there are only each character's tiny pin-light of truth. "Little Altars Everywhere is finally about the tiny murders that occur within a loving but lost Catholic Louisiana family. It offers no miracles of redemption; instead it suggests the power of an open heart to offer protection to the innocent. Discussion Topics: 1. Wells uses multiple narrators to unfold the story in "Little Altars Everywhere. What advantages are gained by this? Does this multiple perspective mean that we sense the story from a broader perspective from that of any one character? And what, if any value, is that broader perspective when evaluating the moral behavior of a character? Does the use of multiple narrators point to a truth that is too big, too uncertain, and too complex for any one character or person to put all together into a cogent vision? Do multiple narrators soften our judgments about a character? 2. What attitude does the novel take toward institutional religion (i.e., denominations), spirituality (a belief in and need for God and meaning), and human suffering. Catholicism is a strong presence in the novel. How does Catholicism both bless and damage the Walker family? 3. Vivi imparts a complex legacy to her children. What are the ingredients of this legacy? Shame? Suffering? A sense of wonder? A capacity for rapture? 4. Wells has said that " humor is the healing art." Discuss this in light of this novel. 5. Wells opens the novel with references to Little Richard in the " Prologue" and to Aaron Neville in the concluding chapter? What significance mightthis have? What role does racism play in the story of the Walkers? How does the value system of Chaney and Willetta differ from that of Vivi and Shep? 6. At the end of the novel, Sidda has a moment of insight into both her life and the lives of her family when she suddenly realizes that, " All their longing was pure." What does Sidda mean by this expression? 7. How can the acceptance of suffering help transform that suffering into love? About the Author: Rebecca Wells was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, where party-loving French Catholic Louisiana meets North Louisiana Baptist territory in the same parish where her family has lived since 1795. She grew up on a working plantation and was trained well in the school of Southern Ladyhood and Roman Catholicism. Early on, she began to suspect that " she might have a vocation other than marrying a lawyer or becoming the local T.V. weather girl, " but the idea of being a professional writer never entered her mind. Writing, she thought, " was done only by people who lived in New York City who were very thin." Wells has always been a storyteller and an actor. As a girl, she staged plays with her siblings, cousins, and friends, and performed in community theater productions. She learned to read early, and recalls, " It was like someone handing me the keys to another country, and I could go there any time I wanted." The geographical territory of her writing has stayed close to Louisiana, however, and readers often assume that her work is autobiographical. Wells admits, " I grew up in a fertile world for story-telling, filled with flamboyance, flirting, futility, and fear. My work, though, isthe result of my imagination dancing a kind of psycho-spiritual tango with my own history, and the final harvest is fiction, not memoir." Starring in college productions, she began to write one-woman shows for herself, as well as short plays. After traveling the United States by train, Wells attended The Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, where she studied language and consciousness with Allen Ginsberg and Choyyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and acting, movement, and voice with members of The Living Theatre, among others. As an actress in New York City, Wells studied with Maurine Holbert, working within the Stanislavski method, as well as a depth psychology approach to acting, which seeks to integrate spirituality and performance. " I live in an actor's body, " Wells says, " in which the cultivation of sense memory, active listening, and belief that the sublime can arise out of the most common character, word, or gesture is somewhat of a religion to me." While performing at regional theaters throughout the country, Wells was also active in the nuclear disarmament movement. An early member of Performing Artists for Nuclear Disarmament, Wells visited Seattle in 1982 to help initiate a chapter of that group. She fell in love with the Pacific Northwest, and has lived there for the past fifteen years. Her solo play, Splittin' Hairs, was developed at The Seattle Rep before going on to tour over fifty cities, including the wilds of bush Alaska. Wells is currently writing a novel based on Splittin' Hairs, which HarperCollins will publish. Wells's Gloria Duplex, " an erotic worship service for the theatre, " debuted at Seattle's Empty Space Theater in 1987, with Wellsin the title role as an erotic dancer who undergoes a mystical experien

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"It can wear you to a nub, trying to be a popular person and a good Catholic all at the same time." So says Sidda, one of the characters inhabiting Little Altars Everywhere. Author Rebecca Wells uses her considerable acting talent to perform this abridgment, adding even more spark to her already lively characters. Everyone--Shep, Vivi, Willetta, and the rest--is given a distinct voice, and Wells plays each of them to the hilt. More like a recording of a one-woman show than a mere reading, Altars is an excellent example of how entertaining audiobooks can be. (Running time: 3 hours, 2 cassettes) --C.B. Delaney

From Publishers Weekly

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.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: HarperAudio; Abridged edition (December 9, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0694521531
• ISBN-13: 978-0694521531
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (252 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,561,587 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rebecca Wells is a novelist, actor, and playwright. She is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Ya-Yas in Bloom, Little Altars Everywhere (winner of the Western States Book Award), and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (winner of the American Booksellers Book of the Year Award, short-listed for the Orange Prize), which was made into a feature film. She performs from her work internationally, and her books have been translated into twenty-three languages. A native of Louisiana, she now makes her home on an island in Puget Sound, Washington, with her husband, their spaniel, and three sheep.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Innocence offered up on the altar of madness, July 17, 2000

By 

Sherrie Martin "sherchez" (Roanoke, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Little Altars Everywhere (Paperback)

I wish that I had read this before its sequel, "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood." With the background on the life of Siddalee Walker and her siblings offered in this fecund tapestry of family dysfunction, I have a much better understanding of Sidda's "whining."

This is a disturbing tale of a prominent family in small-town Louisiana and the hidden rot at its core. Viviane Abbott Walker is a self-centered, immature woman who would have done better to collect dolls than have living, breathing children to annihilate. The best answer the narcissistic Vivi can come up with to the everyday problems of life is to drown them in alcohol. Under its influence, she systematically physically abuses and emotionally batters her children, indelibly damaging them for life. Her weak husband's solution to the domestic battlefield is to flee to his hunting camp for days on end and drink himself into oblivion. This bittersweet novel was excruciatingly painful to read, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

There were divinely funny moments interspersed with heartbreaking passages that make one so angry you forget that this is fiction. I suspect that many of us can identify with key issues of this profoundly touching novel. I know I did. This is one of those rare jewels whose lessons to live by can change your life.

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Writing..., June 17, 2002

By 

Quaker Annie "reader" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Little Altars Everywhere (Paperback)

Richer, darker and deeper than the second book or the movie, this book truly is a 'must' read if you want to understand the Walker family, especially the mystery who is Viviane Abbot Walker.

Starting as a simple short story ("Looking for My Mules," with Shep, Viviane and an old man lost on their farm), Rebecca Wells' tales of growing up in Louisiana in a less than perfect home grew first into Little Altars Everywhere, then into the Divine Secrets book and movie. Each chapter contains a well crafted short story, told from the viewpoint of different characters. Each chapter offers a title with the name of the narrator and year they are talking in. In some cases, the titles are enough to draw you in (Catfish Dreams; E-Z Boy War; The Princess of Gimmee.)

From the 60's to the 90's, each story offers a simple, but meaningful slice of the entire Walker family's story. Some are told in the present, some are memories of what happened long ago. The chapters weave together to give you a wider view of what was going on from different perspectives.

As you read, you'll find yourself piecing together the story of Sidalee, her siblings, her mother Vivi and father Shep, as well as Willetta and Chaney, the black couple who were hired help, and who have an outside view of the family.

Don't stop reading with this book, or you'll miss a view of the whole person -- doting mother, child abuser, unloved child, shattered schoolgirl, broken hearted, passionate lover, distant wife and mother as well as a view of Shep as a fallible human being and how he contributed to Vivi's 'condition' and the affect it had on their children.

A treasure of a book, you may find it more unsettling than the movie or the second book. Excellent writing, it will leave you wanting to know more (unless you've already read the second book!)

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars sadder than the Ya-Ya's, but a must-read..., June 3, 2002

By 

lovestoread "aquacies" (Springdale, AR United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Little Altars Everywhere (Paperback)

I read "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" a couple of years ago and fell in love with it. When I found out there was a book that came before of the same characters I had to read it. The book was good and a must-read for anyone that reads the Ya-Ya's. BUT be prepared. It's definitely a more disturbing picture of Vivi. While we get a better look into Big Shep's head (Sidda's father) and learn that his compassion runs deeper than Vivi's but he just either doesn't know how to show it or feels there'd be no point to it anyway. Vivi's dark side is much more than I'd suspected having read the second book first. Her alcoholism is plain as day in Altars whereas in the Ya-Ya's she just seems to be a social drinker. (Same goes for Big Shep) And you can see more clearly the emotional scars all of her children carry and how they truly feel about their mother. This book left behind some disturbing images in my head and I wish that I had been left with the ones I garnered from reading the Ya-Ya's. One's where Vivi's motherhood crimes did not seem so vicious and contemptable.