Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Dec 16, 2009

Chelsea rated it:

The story of Rose, a habitual abandoner, who finds herself in a home for unwed mothers in the 1960s. The story is about the place almost as much as the people--a place where people come for a brief, but life-altering, time and then move on. It is also the story of the people who stay there--Rose, with all her secrets, her daughter, the nuns and the groundskeeper. I loved the story of the place and I thought the writing was quite good. It held my interest and there were a few really lovely mo More...

4 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2008

Kate rated it:

Ann Patchett is probably best well known for having written Bel Canto which I am best known for not having read. But I was browsing in Borders one day and happened upon Patron Saint and was finally moved to purchase a book after several months of not having bought any really. The story centers around St. Elizabeth's, a home for unwed mothers in Kentucky in the 1960's. One night, a woman named Rose enters the home, unwilling to share her secrets, stating that her husband has died and she will giv More...

3 comments like (7 people liked it)

Sep 18, 2010

Mel rated it:

I have mixed feelings about this particular Patchett novel. I didn't want to put it down but I wasn't happy when I finished.

I was totally sucked in by the story's opening but then the tone changed and the character depth faded a bit. The turmoil the main character feels is never discussed once she finds her way to St. Elizabeth's, yet it drives the remainder of the novel. Just as the story picks up steam again, it's over. Given the story line and the characters I thought the story co More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Holly rated it:

I just read this entire book in one sitting. The title is what caught my eye, such a wonderful title. It is beautifully written, and reminded me of the trance that Alice Hoffman books put the reader into, even though this book did not have the mystical, magical imagery that Hoffman infuses her books with. This is a story of Rose, a young woman that marries twice to men that she does not really love, and though she spends her life helping others, never really finds the unknown thing that she is s More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Mar 31, 2007

Wormie rated it:

Ann Patchett’s debut novel, The Patron Saint of Liars, is a beautifully written story about people, secrets, and lies. The book’s title intrigued me; “Patron Saint of Liars” – a conflict between virtue and dishonesty. Patchett’s writing is quiet and compelling as she shares the story of Rose Clinton, and how her lies affected her life and the lives of those around her.

After three years of marriage, Rose Clinton finds herself pregnant. Unsatisfied with her life, and questioning her l More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Nov 17, 2010

Julie rated it:

When Rose discovers she is pregnant, she panics and flees her husband and life in California to stay at St. Elizabeth's, a home for young, unmarried pregnant women in Kentucky. But once there, her life changes in ways she never would have imagined. St. Elizabeth's becomes her permanent home and its kitchen becomes the center of her life, as she prepares meals for the house full of pregnant women and nuns. Distancing herself from her past is her main priority, more so than her daughter or new hus More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 01, 2008

Andi rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2008

sydney rated it:

I like Patchett's more recent books (Bel Canto, Truth and Beauty) better, but this was a good novel that showed her talent for weaving together many different characters' stories into a whole.

It's the story of Rose, a woman who leaves her husband in California to have her baby in a home for unwed mothers on the other side of the country. But when she gets there, she isn't sure whether she wants to go home. A third of the way through the book, the point of view changes from Rose's t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 18, 2008

Danielle rated it:

Yeah, so I actually didn't love this book like I was expecting to. It was kind of depressing, and there wasn't an overarching moral lesson or something that made the unhappy ending worth it. Don't get me wroing, I loved Bel Canto, and that didn't end happily either, but I actually thought this story would have been better for a different kind of ending. At least a redemption of sorts. But no luck.
My biggest complaint, and this is kind of silly, but I thought the whole point with the healin More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Dec 31, 2007

Judy rated it:

This was the first novel I've read by Ann Patchett, but it felt strangely familiar and I kept wondering if I'd read it before. I don't think I had, but maybe I'd read another book set in a home for unmarried mothers. Or maybe it is that I've read a number of books where a character walks out on family and home because s/he decides they are living the "wrong life", as Rose does here. (I'd just read another novel, Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum, where a central character More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 14, 2009

Bethany rated it:

Sometimes a book is written so well that you get a glimpse into a life you might have otherwise not understood. This is one of those books.

Martha Rose gets married. She realizes that she does not love her husband, and begins to feel trapped. She finds out she is pregnant. She leaves. This begins the journey of the rest of her life.

This book is about the choices that she makes and the impact that her choices have on others.

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Feb 16, 2009

Carrie rated it:

I really, really enjoyed The Patron Saint of Liars. I had previously read Patchett's Bel Canto and wasn't wowed by it, particularly the ending, which I found a little forced. But The Patron Saint of Liars was great. It tells the story of Rose, a young woman who flees her young marriage, and moved to Kentucky, to a home for unwed mothers to give up the baby, and what happens to her in that place. And I just loved it - the characters seemed like real characters, their motivations understandable, a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 16, 2009

Kathleen added it

The Patron Saint of Liars, by Ann Patchett. B-plus. Produced by Harper Audio, downloaded from Audible, narrated by Julia Gibson.

This was Patchett’s debut novel. She talked about writing it in her book: “truth and Beauty.” The central character was Rose. She left her adoring husband mainly, it seemed, because she was pregnant and didn’t want him to know because she was afraid her life would never change and she would be trapped. She left California and eventually ended up in Ha More...

0 comments like

Dec 17, 2008

AJ rated it:

This is one of those books I read years ago, but the characters are still lingering about in my head. It's the 1960s and Rose finds herself unhappily married and unhappily pregnant. She flees her husband, mother, and life and arrives at St. Elizabeth's home for unwed mothers, where she plans to give birth and leave, but probably not to return to her husband, who doesn't even know she's pregnant.

The nuns and other expectant mothers at St. Elizabeth's turn out to provide healing that More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2012

Zoe rated it:

An interesting first novel, with all the strengths and weaknesses of a good writer finding her footing. Rose arrives pregnant at a house for unwed mothers in Kentucky, having left a husband behind in California. What to make of this prickly, restless, powerful woman, the two men who love her and her child growing up among nuns and pregnant girls? Engaging, lovable characters, I wanted to know what would happen to them. I wanted to hang out with them for the whole book. Ultimately, though, f More...

0 comments like

Nov 18, 2011

Shannon rated it:

Told through three different point-of-view characters, this is the story of a young wife who panics when pregnancy threatens to bind her forever to a man she now realizes she doesn't love. Leaving her old life behind, she runs away to take refuge in a home for unwed mothers, intending to give her baby up for adoption - a plan she ultimately alters.

I enjoyed Patchett's writing style (although the editor in me wanted to correct her punctuation shortcomings), but the story itself didn't More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 12, 2011

Lorraine rated it:

Rose, the main character, decides she must leave her husband of three years because she married him for lust and not love. She is three months pregnant and leaves her California home and ends up in Kentucky at St. Elizabeth’s, a home for unwed mothers. At this point, her life becomes a lie. She left her husband and her mother who she loves more than anyone in the world.

Rose marries Sonny, the groundskeeper at St. Elizabeth’s and raises her daughter there. Again she is living a lie—with More...

0 comments like

Oct 24, 2011

Emily rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Oct 01, 2011

Kathryn rated it:

It's really hard to write a review for a book that was this good. I feel like anything I say would do it an injustice. I guess that's why I'm not a book reviewer by profession. I did meet Ann Patchett at the Writers and Readers event at Cleveland Public Library. She was one of the most enthralling speakers I've ever heard. I felt like I was having a dialouge with her, even though she was on stage. I felt like I was having a dialogue with her characters when I was reading this book. She's More...

0 comments like

Feb 26, 2010

Jack rated it:

I've been on a junket of Patchett books; this is my thrid in the past two months. She is a fantastic wordsmith aand generally an excellent stort-teller. This is clearly a less mature effort, with an opaque heroine whose motives remain as elusive - and frustrating - to us as they do to the folks in this tale. Rose runs away from her husband and, almost by whim, moves into a rural Kentucky home for unwed mothers. She stays there for many years, without revealing her past to the sisters who r More...

0 comments like

Feb 10, 2010

Tamara rated it:

To live and work in a place where everyone is pregnant must be chaotic, and yet this book was quite calming.

The whole time I was reading this, every metaphor I thought of had to do with drowning. And I guess that's what it was like for the main characters Son, Rose & Cecilia. They all seemed to hold onto secrets like they were holding their breath under water. In the end, you weren't sure if they drowned or became fish to survive...

Favorite Quotes:

Lorraine watched More...

2 comments like

Sep 20, 2009

Stephanie rated it:

Hmm, I'm sensing a trend here. Books by Ms. Patchett just aren't as good as her stellar "Bel Canto." I should remember this, but I always have a shred of hope that another one of her books will be half as good as that one.

In the late 60s, Rose, three months pregnant, suddenly decides that she doesn't love her husband. She gets into her car and drives to Kentucky from San Diego to a Catholic home for unwed pregnant women. She marries, has the baby and ends up staying on as t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 27, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

Anne Patchett's just damned good at coming up with titles, isn't she? Bel Canto, The Magician's Assistant. They are the kind of good titles that make me frankly hate her just a little because I think, "Damn, that's good. I could have done that," but of course I couldn't or I would have. This novel, The Patron Saint of Liars, was her debut and she started strong. The book begins with a fairy tale, a legend, a miracle story of a healing natural spring bubbling to the surface in a place More...

0 comments like

Feb 10, 2011

Mrsgaskell rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Apr 08, 2010

Terry rated it:

Mmmmm...as I said earlier, Ann Patchett is one of those writers I just wish I liked better. This book is fairly reminiscent of Anne Tyler's plots and themes, so if you like her books, especially her earlier ones, you'd probably like this book. Jody Picoult is another author Patchett makes me think of, but probably only because this particular book is told from three points of view.

I have to say once the book was over I thought, "Well, what was the point of that?" Probably More...

0 comments like

Mar 06, 2010

Stacy rated it:

I picked up this book after Magician's Assistant. I was so excited to read another Patchett novel.

I felt like I had read this book before, or have seen a movie depicting the scenes, or maybe it is just the style of Patchett that is comforting.
Seriouly, is there another book out there about a home for unwed mothers??

The I sat down as the sun came up and read the complete book in 4 hours.

An easy read, an easy escape and a guarantee that you will fall in More...

1 comment like

Dec 01, 2010

Kathy rated it:

The story begins with Rose, a pregnant young wife whose restlessness leads her to leave everything behind in California (her husband, mother, home) and drive to Kentucky to St. Elizabeth's home for unwed mothers. Once there, having lied about being unmarried, she takes over kitchen duties and forms a bond with Sister Evangeline. She decides she can't give up her baby and marries Son, the caretaker. The next section of the book is told from Son's point of view, and the last section is told fro More...

0 comments like

Nov 16, 2011

Phyllis rated it:

I first read Bel Canto a number of years ago. It was one of the best books of fiction I had ever read. An usual aspect is that all these years later, I can still close my eyes, see the setting (which I created from Patchett's words) and feel the intensity of that book. I ask myself why I didn't seek out then other books by this author. But happily I'm catching up now. Bel Canto and State of Wonder are definitely 5 stars each - a rating I very seldom give. I don't know exactly why I gave Patron S More...

0 comments like

Jun 23, 2010

Marlene rated it:

Ever since Bel Canto, which earned a rare 5/5 for me, I have not been able to give up on Ann Patchett, even though I did not care for Run. Here is another title, and quite a bit better than Run. She did a good job of developing the unusual main character, and did not fault to a happy ending, I'm glad to say. The resolution was correct. The NY times reviewed is as "a fairy tale." Lots of objections to that silly description. There was nothing fairy tale about it. In fact, it is kind of More...

1 comment like

Mar 14, 2009

Diane rated it:

I had forgotten what a beautiful writer Ann Patchett is and how precise she is with words. She creates beautiful detailed images of the lives of these characters. Even so, much about the characters' motivations and inner thoughts is left out. In the end we almost know less about Rose who sets out, pregnant, to a home for unwed mothers. Not an unwed mother herself, this is not a story about giving a child up for adoption and it's not about the lies and pain that any of those girls in the home wen More...

0 comments like

reviews