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Title: Patron Saint of Liars : A Novel by Ann Patchett ISBN: 0-06-054075-3 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 18 March, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.62 (21 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Lovely and lyrical
Comment: 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.
Rating: 4
Summary: "Everything else in the world gets modern...
Comment: 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.
Rating: 4
Summary: Regrettable Rose
Comment: 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.
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Title: The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett ISBN: 0156006219 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 17 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Taft : A Novel by Ann Patchett ISBN: 0060540761 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 18 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Bel Canto: A Novel by Ann Patchett ISBN: 0060934417 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 16 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Three Junes by JULIA GLASS ISBN: 0385721420 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 22 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress : A Novel by DAI SIJIE ISBN: 0385722206 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 29 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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