Living with Saints [Hardcover]

Mary O'Connell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2001

Mary O'Connell's literary territory owes as much to the pop icon Madonna as it does to the Virgin Mary. Adventurous in subject and spirit, and alternately playful and intense, each story in Living with Saints features a female saint whose life story is thematically woven into deeply resonant contemporary settings. O'Connell's tone is sassy and often profane, and in exploring the elements and effects of Catholicism in women's lives, she demonstrates an insider's nuanced understanding of its rich traditions even as she questions their limitations. In one story, the sass-talking Saint Agnes, Patron Saint of Girls, delivers a disembodied running commentary to a high school class that is being subjected to a video called How Christian Girls Blossom into Maturity. In another, Saint Anne, Patron Saint of Mothers, sits on the corner of a bed offering words of wisdom while a woman has sex with her reptilian boss in exchange for time off to be with her baby. From grave illness to the mystery of a virgin pregnancy to the more quotidian heartbreak of balancing work and motherhood, Living with Saints maintains a buoyant freshness that transforms its moments of potential despair. Reminiscent of Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides in its arresting immediacy and of Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber in its brilliant reinvention of tales of old through the prism of the author's modern voice, Living with Saints is a savvy, insouciant collection of stories that will captivate readers of all or no faiths for years to come.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this wickedly clever debut collection, O'Connell places female saints in contemporary settings and reinterprets their stories. Sassy in tone from the opening sentence of the first story, "Saint Dymphna" ("Holy shit, thought Dymphna, The Women's Center has hired a moonie"), the collection is full of saints who are just as likely to offer up smart-mouthed remarks as they are to provide comfort. Dymphna, a Catholic school girl who has an abortion, later experiences the "true heart of another" in a surprising modern twist on her namesake saint's martyrdom. In "The Patron Saint of Girls," Saint Agnes hovers over a high school biology class and tries to explain how even in her moment of martyrdom, she was most worried about impressing a boy. Saint Catherine Laboure is a tattoo artist, and Veronica is a 34-year-old singleton in New York City. But O'Connell isn't interested in easy irreverent swipes at Catholicism; serious topics are addressed in every story teenage pregnancy and abortion, sexual abuse, debilitating illness, losing a loved one and the links between myth and life are tight and always unexpected. O'Connell has an uncanny ear for dialogue and an otherworldly communion with the hearts and minds of adolescent girls in particular. Whether offering a new version of the Immaculate Conception, testing the influence of St. Christopher on two young female travelers in 1980s London or depicting a cigarette-smoking Saint Anne offering bedside counsel to a single mother who is trying to make ends meet by sleeping with her loathsome boss, the bottom line here is an examination of faith. Traditionalists may be shocked, but everyone else (nonreligious readers included) will be delighted with these well-crafted, inventive and highly original modern-day visitations. (Oct.)Forecast: Strong reviews should move this charmer. The saint-worshiping market probably won't cross over, but those with a yen for Catholic kitsch will be delighted.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Though living in Italy and Canada may have helped Spencer shed her reputation as a regional Southern writer, her literary vision has always been free of geographical constraint. This collection offers selections from the Mississippi native's earlier short fiction together with several new stories. Best known of the earlier fiction is her stunning novella, The Light in the Piazza (1960), the deceptively simple tale of an American mother and daughter in Florence. The new stories include First Child, the misadventure of an unmarried couple and the child they take on a weekend trip, and The Weekend Travellers, a chilling tale of newlyweds who follow a Pottery sign down a deserted road, where the husband disappears. Spencer published her first story in 1944 and has since published over a dozen books of fiction; this is her first new collection in 15 years. Unlike much episodic short fiction being written today, Spencer's narratives always tell a story. In this she follows the tradition of Henry James and Katherine Mansfield, to whom she has previously been compared. For all public libraries.Mary Szczesiul, Roseville P.L., MI
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press (October 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871138263
• ISBN-13: 978-0871138262
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,248,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars miraculous book!, April 6, 2004

By 

dakota lane (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Living with Saints (Hardcover)

This is an inspired work, with a singular voice--O'Connell brings so much heart, poetry, grittiness and spirituality to her characters. There's a nearly supernatural energy in her prose, blessing every detail of the every day world with fresh perspective, whether she's describing a particular pain, a scent or the specific color of the shadows beneath the eyes of a neglectful mother. She has compassion for even her most hateful characters, making them that much more believable. This is more than a collection of stories--it's a transformative fable, telling tales of ultimate redemption with humanity and fine wit. Hope she gets the attention she deserves!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hallelujah!, October 11, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Living with Saints (Hardcover)

This is a superb collection of stories about the everyday women, the everyday saints, whom we might encounter on the edges of everyday life. The prose is amazing: powerful and immediate, it is sharply contemporary and colloquial, and often ascends to moments of insight, clarity, glory. You should read these stories especially if you're Catholic, and more especially if you're not. This book shows us how we are surrounded by saints, by the raw fire, faith, and courage that is no less than those of the miraculous ones; and how these women, too, have their own small (and not-so-small) miracles.

Read this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars blasphemous, November 2, 2010

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I'm no saint - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Living with Saints (Paperback)

What little I raed ... I found this book very blasphemous, condemning of the church and all ... shocking really given its title.

I returned it, but I wish I'd read a bit more of it to better determine what it is about and has to say. Anyone able to offer me a summary are welcomed to do so.