Customer Reviews

The Patron Saint of Liars

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

"The Patron Saint of Liars" is the debut novel of author Ann Patchett. Patchett has also written the extraordinary "Bel Canto." This novel, originally published in 1992 was the announcement of a major new talent in literature. The story she tells is a simple one, but filled with grace and written with skill. In the 1960's, pregnant, Rose Clinton leaves her husband in California with nothing but a note saying that she is unhappy and that he should not try to find her. She has no intention of coming home. Her destination is in Kentucky: St. Elizabeth's home for unwed mothers. It is where women from all over go to give birth and give up their children. It is a Catholic home in a Baptist town. Rose does not believe that she can be a good mother to her child and that she shouldn't be a mother. Not now. Perhaps not ever.

The novel is told in three sections. The first section is told from the perspective of Rose. Through her eyes and with her words we learn about why she left California, how she ended up at St. Elizabeth's and what that experience was like. Patchett writes Rose so well that when her section ended I couldn't imagine that the next section of the novel could possibly be as good as what it was that I just read. Section two is told by Rose's husband. The final section of the novel is given to Rose's daughter. "The Patron Saint of Liars" is a remarkable novel. It is filled with insight into the characters and it seems at times also into our own lives. This isn't a story of faith, but it is also filled with a sense of grace and healing at all turns, even when the characters are facing personal difficulties.

With "Bel Canto" I knew that Ann Patchett was a talented author and I wanted to experience her other novels. After "The Patron Saint of Liars" it is clear that Patchett ranks among my favorite authors. She doesn't slam the reader with hard hitting slamming dialogue, but rather allows that sense of grace and healing which is so much a theme of the novel come out in nearly every sentence. As a first novel this is even more remarkable as accomplished authors would be fortunate to write a novel as beautiful as this. I would give "The Patron Saint of Liars" my highest recommendation.

-Joe Sherry

This is Patchett's first novel, and she's gotten better and better. If I hadn't read Bel Canto before this one, I'd have awarded 5 stars.
Divided into 3 parts, the book spans the lives of its three main characters: Rose, a woman with 'issues' who has trouble attaching to people but tries to do her job in life as well as she's able. Son, Rose's 2nd husband, is a giant of a man who is damaged by a tragedy and finds a place for himself as handyman in a 60's home for unwed mothers. And Cecelia, named after a tattoo on Son's arm of his first love, damaged by her weird upbringing but a complete person nonetheless, thanks to the mothering of the 'saint' in the story,, a clairvoyant nun who mothers them all.
I loved this book.

I am a new Patchett fan. I was blown away by Bel Canto, loved Taft, and am saving Magician's Assistant. But I found Patron Saint of Liars to be, ultimately, just too terribly sad and melancholy. And I saw no redemption in the story at all. Well written, sure but . . . what was the point? I felt like I was being told some kind of parable that I failed to see the point of. Okay, WARNING: READ NO FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT THE PLOT TO BE SPOILED FOR YOU. Some reviewers have expressed puzzlement over the Rose character. I thought it was puzzling how people kept falling madly in love with her--she was such a cold fish! Her daughter I could understand, but why such extraordinary devotion from her 2 husbands and Sr. Evangeline? The loneliness of Son--and in the end, the loneliness in the portrait of Thomas Clinton--was just devastating. And I also felt there was a certain spiritual tragedy in the conclusion. It was Cecilia's right to know about her father, and for that matter, Thomas had a right to know too. But both Son and Sister Evangeline were, at that point, too terrified of losing Cecelia, so they kept the fact of her genetic parentage hidden, robbing her of her own history, and cheating poor Thomas who really went away with nothing. Those two very sympathetic characters--Son and Sister Evangeline--in the end caved into their own desperate emotional needs, and placed those needs ahead of Cecilia's ultimate best interests. So it goes; I guess when people are vulnerable and desperate, that's what they do. But the whole picture is so darn sad. What the heck are they doing spending their lives at St. Elizabeth's in the first place--especially Son? Couldn't he get over his guilt over the first Cecilia? Or has the power of the ancient healing spring turned evil and voracious?

Patchett takes the reader through the painfully honest, searingly personal account of how the life of Rose--an interminable escapist--impacts the lives of those around her.

The novel draws its strength in part from Patchett's ability to tell her story from multiple perspectives: a single mom, daughter and second husband. Each point-of-view feels as fresh and true-to-character as the last.

If you're looking for a tidy, happy fairy tale ending, look elsewhere. Patchett's characters will make you love them, hate them, and think deeply about your own relationships and secrets--very much a must read.

First, Patchett can write very well--she carries you right along on a beautiful stream of words--so she is a joy to read no matter what else you might say about her. What I would say however is that while this is a really good book, she gets better in later books. It is probably not fair to judge this book by what she accomplishes later--but ah, we are human - and so we do unfair things. Just like Patchett's characters. I like her characters...not personally but as literary devices. They are complex. They are not presented in neat little packages so that we, the readers, are given a complete overview of who they are and why they do what they do. They are often contradictory and we have to keep asking why are they doing this -or that. I think we look for characters that are easy to understand because we are so desperate to try and make sense out of the world-and we are hoping that literature will help us do that. But I think good literature helps us see how complicated it really is and that there are no simple answers about why people do what they do. So Patchett gives us characters that make us crazy based on the decisions they are making-but who are good people, regardless of their decisions. We realize in the process that people do not have to do specific things to be good people-and that we don't really know -and don't have to know why a person makes the decisions they do- you can still care about them. Why, for instance, would a married woman, with a husband who adores her abandon him and go to a home for unwed mothers. Why would a woman who adores her mother decide to never communicate with her mother again? You read along saying to yourself-no! Don't do that. But she does it and, she is still a good person-a deeply good person-with a scar that is never explained to us but that drives her and diverts her-and we don't have to know and we have no right to judge. I guess my very favorite thing about Patchett is not that her characters are complex, contradictory and allusive but it is in the relationships Patchett builds between her characters--they are not relationships we recognize. Love between men and women may or may not be romantic. The love of a mother for a child does not have to fit into a cookie-cutter--all good or all bad. Loyalty maybe demonstrated by non-action as well as action. We may choose to move on-or stay-in any relationship or place but it won't change who we are. I think Patchett is masterful--here and in her other books--at creating these 'non-standard' relationships--and in the process broadening our thinking about what it means to be human. And while I like her later books better than this one--and I imagine it isn't fair to judge this book by her later work--I am still doing it...so this one gets four stars -- primarily because her others deserve five.

But babies just stay the same." So says Sister Evangeline, a nun who has worked for most of her life at St. Elizabeth's, a Catholic home for unwed mothers.

Sister Evangeline usually doesn't get to see the babies - the mothers are taken to Owensboro and they are then given up to adoption. But one day, one mother who comes to St. Elizabeth's breaks all the rules. This woman is Rose, a married woman who drove from California to birth her baby and then give her up, because she knew she couldn't be the mother it needed. But when the time comes, she chooses to follow another path, and keeps her child and stays on at the home.

Patchett's books is divided into three chronological stories of Rose's life at St. Elizabeth's - told by Rose, her second husband Son, and her daughter Cecilia. Throughout the book, the language is lyrical, helping to set the scenes where the plot is carried out. In the end, perhaps none of the characters are truly sympathetic. But they are all memorable, and ultimately we perhaps come to realize that no one with a story to tell is completely sympathetic. Overall, I found this book to be a lovely read.

I read Bel Canto and was blown away by Ann Patchett. Such heart-breakingly beautiful writing, I wouldn't care if she was writing about the mating habits of slugs because I know her writing would make it wonderful. I followed Bel Canto with Patron Saint of Liars and was not disappointed, only affirmed. She quickly became one of my favorite authors. I could see the clouds rolling lazily over Habit, Kentucky. I could smell the grass. I didn't want it all to end.

The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett is well written, but not exactly exciting. The story line was inventive and seemed to have a lot going for it, but I kept expecting something to happen that would somehow complete it. Nonetheless, each of the characters in the novel, especially the ones who had a narrating section, was very well developed.
I think that the author had a way of connecting herself with each of the characters so that they seemed real. Even the characters that had relatively minor roles were very tangible, like someone that every reader would have met at some point in their life. The main character, Rose, however, somehow made the novel feel incomplete because of her emptiness as a person. The fact that she was such a secretive character, even up until the end, left me feeling unsatisfied. Her personality is sympathetic yet despicable at the same time. Overall, I feel that the novel was passable, granted that it was Patchett's first novel. I would recommend this book for a light read, but not if you want to get something lasting out of it.

Themes throughout the book - Those Who Stay and Those Who Leave, resonate, particularly through Son's narrative. The placement of the story is unique and offers a look at those who can neither stay nor leave, but are simply waiting. But while I was touched by sections of the story (particularly through Son's narrative), I was frustrated by Rose's actions. I reread her narrative and had a difficult time understanding the extremeness of her actions - what function in her past told her to run instead of facing those who loved her - and what would catapult her into the life she chose to lead. Other than that, the novel is lovely, soft and warm and sad. There's a lot to discuss. I look forward to reading more Patchett.

I didn't want this book to end - I wanted to keep reading the inner monologues of Rose and Cecilia and Son. What better compliment or recomendation is there about a story? What captured me was the vulnerability and honesty, the unflinching self-evaluation of the characters. I loved the relationships, the language, the almost tangible landscape. Some moments between Rose and Cecilia, Son and Cecilia - were so rich and so raw - I had to look away from the page for a moment. That's writing worth reading - and sharing!