LITTLE ALTARS EVERYWHERE

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 [Published: OCT/ NOV 02]