Little Altars Everywhere

Denver Post

"A gem of a book....Wells offers a virtuoso performance."

Seattle Times

"Energetic and delicious…each voice is unique, independent and right on."

Booklist

"A hilarious and heartbreaking first novel."

Columbus Dispatch

"At the Walker family altar, sainthood is a one-way ticket to purgatory, and getting there is half the fun."

Richmond Times-Dispatch

"Wells effectively juxtaposes the innocence and joy of childhood reveries with the pain and guilt of adult memories."

Washington Post

"Rebecca Wells has written a funny, eloquent and sad novel that easily leaps regional bounds."

Pat Conroy

What an exciting new voice, and what a splendid first novel. Just wonderful!

Denver Post

A gem of a book....Wells offers a virtuoso performance.

Andrew Ward

Some writers have all the luck. Not only did Rebecca Wells get to be Catholic, she also got to come from Louisiana. This means that half of her is conversant with the Mystery, and the other half is crazy. Out of this chemistry she has written a brilliant, pungent, and hilarious novel about the Walker clan of Thornton, Louisiana. . . I'd like you to meet Miss Siddalee Walker, a force of nature and a tool of fate, and one of the sharpest-eyed little chatterboxes since Huckleberry Finn. Little Altars Everywhere teems with wonderful characters. . . But it's Wells' tireless and ruthless evocation of childhood combined with an unfailingly shrewd comic ear that makes Little Altars Everywhere such a thoroughly joyful and welcome noise.

Seattle Weekly

Rebecca Wells' long-awaited first novel is a brilliant piece of work. . . 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 the reader profoundly moved.

Western States Book Award Citation Jurors

Wells presents an astonishing family of voices, potent in its pain, dazzlingly brilliant in its stretches and perceptions. This hilariously sad immersion into the Walker family of Thornton, Louisiana, will leave few readers unchanged.

Western States Book Award Citation Jurors

Wells presents an astonishing family of voices, potent in its pain, dazzlingly brilliant in its stretches and perceptions. This hilariously sad immersion into the Walker family of Thornton, Louisiana, will leave few readers unchanged.

Award Citation Jurors

Western States

Robert Moss

Rebecca Wells' long-awaited first novel is a brilliant piece of work...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 the reader profoundly moved.
— Seattle Times

ConroyPat

What an exciting new voice, and what a splendid first novel. Just wonderful!

Denver Post

A gem of a book. . . . Wells offers a virtuoso performance.

Seattle Weekly

Rebecca Wells' long-awaited first novel is a brilliant piece of work...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 the reader profoundly moved.

Denver Post

A gem of a book....Wells offers a virtuoso performance.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The lineage of Wells' 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.

Library Journal

In her 'family of stories,' playwright Wells sets up plenty of 'little altars' for the numerous members of the Walker clan to kneel at and make confession. This crazy, joyful Louisiana family has its share of secrets -- from alcoholism to incest -- that are slowly revealed as each person has his or her say. Readers will be most interested in the oldest daughter, Siddalee, whose sheer irreverence and consuming curiosity propels what little plot there is until she finally discovers how to forgive her family. Wells's keen sense of character and superb ear for voice unify the loose assemblage of tales. -- Rita Ciresi, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Library Journal

In her 'family of stories,' playwright Wells sets up plenty of 'little altars' for the numerous members of the Walker clan to kneel at and make confession. This crazy, joyful Louisiana family has its share of secrets -- from alcoholism to incest -- that are slowly revealed as each person has his or her say. Readers will be most interested in the oldest daughter, Siddalee, whose sheer irreverence and consuming curiosity propels what little plot there is until she finally discovers how to forgive her family. Wells's keen sense of character and superb ear for voice unify the loose assemblage of tales. -- Rita Ciresi, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Western States Book Award Citation Jurors

Wells presents an astonishing family of voices, potent in its pain, dazzlingly brilliant in its stretches and perceptions. This hilariously sad immersion into the Walker family of Thornton, Louisiana, will leave few readers unchanged.