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125th out of 1,715 books
—
402 voters
The Patron Saint of Liars
by
Ann Patchett
Since her first publication in 1992, celebrated novelist Ann Patchett has crafted a number of elegant novels, garnering accolades and awards along the way. Now comes a reissue of the best-selling debut novel that launched her remarkable career. St. Elizabeth's, a home for unwed mothers in Habit, Kentucky, usually harbors its residents for only a little while. Not so Rose C...more
Paperback, 352 pages
Published
April 7th 2003
by Fourth Estate
(first published 1992)
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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 moment...more
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
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 could have bee...more
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 could have bee...more
Aug 21, 2007
Holly Booms Walsh
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
fans of Alice Hoffman novels, people who yearn, Oprah's book club
Shelves:
fiction
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
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 love for her...more
After three years of marriage, Rose Clinton finds herself pregnant. Unsatisfied with her life, and questioning her love for her...more
Jan 31, 2013
Heather
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
no one
Shelves:
adult
Oh, Ann, this was really sub-par. I was initially interested in the set-up, but your lack of deeper exploration into the implications of it made me bored and disappointed. This book contains a potentially great premise (life for pregnant women in a home for unwed mothers, and life for a family who works there), and in my opinion completely falls flat. The book contains selfish characters whose reasons for being so are woefully unexplored. Main question: WHY does Rose always feel the need to leav...more
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
I've been on a junket of Patchett books; this is my third 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 run the...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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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 to her husband'...more
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 to her husband'...more
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 healing spri...more
My biggest complaint, and this is kind of silly, but I thought the whole point with the healing spri...more
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 does just...more
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.
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.
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
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 Habit, Kentucky at St...more
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 Habit, Kentucky at St...more
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 Rose didn't e...more
The nuns and other expectant mothers at St. Elizabeth's turn out to provide healing that Rose didn't e...more
When I read Ann Patchett novels they remind me of other books I have loved like "Heart of Darkness" while reading "State of Wonder". Liars reminded me of "Cider House Rules" which remains superior. As I was reading Liars my sister talked to me about something she learned in a writing class about closing narrative perspectives. Liars is told in three parts, first by Rose, then her husband, and later her daughter. I thought about this concept of narrative perspectives hanging open and I found that...more
I thought I loved anything written by Ann Patchett, but this was an exception. The writing was beautiful, but I felt that I couldn't get everything out of the book that she intended without the help of a discussion group or a degree in fine arts.
On the plus side, I enjoyed all of the characters; they were unique and memorable. On the minus, it was like a giant short story: rich in detail and character description but cryptic in the extreme.
I couldn't perceive any arc for the characters, which i...more
On the plus side, I enjoyed all of the characters; they were unique and memorable. On the minus, it was like a giant short story: rich in detail and character description but cryptic in the extreme.
I couldn't perceive any arc for the characters, which i...more
I know I read this before, long ago. Yet I hadn't reviewed or even rated it here, and I couldn't remember enough of what happened while I was reading it to deter me from stopping. So, right off the bat, it's worth reading twice.
The story is told through three voices. First through Rose, a pregnant woman who arrives from a cross-country trip to a small town's home for unwed mothers. Then we get to hear how Son, the caretaker and gardener of the house views things. Finally we hear from Cecilia, Ro...more
The story is told through three voices. First through Rose, a pregnant woman who arrives from a cross-country trip to a small town's home for unwed mothers. Then we get to hear how Son, the caretaker and gardener of the house views things. Finally we hear from Cecilia, Ro...more
Patchett's particular skill, I think, is in having characters tell their entirely believable, complex stories while the reader is still on the outside, watching them. It's a sort of first person/omniscient approach that raises more questions than you'd think. Instead of knowing all, you find yourself wondering and caring and being, by turns, delighted and surprised.
This is an early work. It tells the story of a woman who simply cannot stay grounded. She has to leave, even when she has no idea wh...more
This is an early work. It tells the story of a woman who simply cannot stay grounded. She has to leave, even when she has no idea wh...more
I am giving this book four stars out of respect and not so much because (as the Goodreads definition goes) I "really liked it".
In fact, I only read through the first section, written from Rose's point of view. Rose is a woman in her early twenties who has left her husband and found out she's pregnant, all in one period of time. She's living in a Catholic home for expectant mothers, in the late 1960s.
The writing, sentence by sentence, is inherently (maybe deliberately?) super-quotable. Still, as...more
In fact, I only read through the first section, written from Rose's point of view. Rose is a woman in her early twenties who has left her husband and found out she's pregnant, all in one period of time. She's living in a Catholic home for expectant mothers, in the late 1960s.
The writing, sentence by sentence, is inherently (maybe deliberately?) super-quotable. Still, as...more
I wanted to love this book, and I did love it for a while, while I was reading it, but less as it went on, until the end, when I felt: OK, THAT didn't work. The book is written from the perspective of three different characters: Rose, a young woman who abandoned the husband she didn't love as soon as she realized she was pregnant, and delivers herself to a far-off home for unwed mothers run by nuns; Son, the groundskeeper of that place; and Cecilia, Rose's daughter, at 15.
Part of the reason I l...more
Part of the reason I l...more
Let me start off by saying I love Ann Patchett. I love Ann Patchett because Bel Canto is one of my top five favourite all time books and I can't let it go. I've read almsot anything and everything she's written since then as a result of this. Run, The Magician's Assistant were both throughly mediocre, I must admit that despite those flops I thoroughly enjoyed State of Wonder. So despite all of this and secretly thinking in my head that I've built Ann Patchett up to more than she can live up to.....more
The first book by Ann Patchett that I read was Bel Canto, for book club. This is my second. And, I am sure there will be a third...
I am giving this book a strong 4 stars, and depending on how much the book sticks with me (I am anticipating forever), I may raise it to a 5. I just read it yesterday, and am still mulling it over.
This is a story about a woman (Rose), who inherently has a complete inability to be apathetic towards those around her. She has an uncanny ability to separate herself fro...more
I am giving this book a strong 4 stars, and depending on how much the book sticks with me (I am anticipating forever), I may raise it to a 5. I just read it yesterday, and am still mulling it over.
This is a story about a woman (Rose), who inherently has a complete inability to be apathetic towards those around her. She has an uncanny ability to separate herself fro...more
This makes two books by Ann Patchett which I have thoroughly enjoyed. I think she has a wonderful knack for giving you enough detail and backstory so that you really feel like you understand what is going on without ever boring you. I find that very impressive. My only problem with the book is simply that I find the character of Rose completely incomprehensible. Her emotions (or lack thereof), her need to get away and not commit to anything ever is so far removed from how I see things that she's...more
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, for me...more
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 hold water....more
I enjoyed Patchett's writing style (although the editor in me wanted to correct her punctuation shortcomings), but the story itself didn't hold water....more
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 a man she...more
Rose marries Sonny, the groundskeeper at St. Elizabeth’s and raises her daughter there. Again she is living a lie—with a man she...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
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 just an...more
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Ann Patchett is an American author. She received the Orange Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2002 for her novel Bel Canto. Patchett's other novels include The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, and The Magician's Assistant, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and received the Nashville Banner Tennessee Writer of the Year Award in 199...more
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“I wanted to eat her pain, take it into me and make it my own.”
—
23 people liked it
“As long as it's a regular day, not too rough to begin with, the ocean is pretty smooth once you make it out past the first set of waves. That's why people are afriad to swim in the ocean. They try to jump over those waves and get slammed down to the bottom and pulled across the sand like a piece of shell. You've got to go throught them, dive under just when they're rising up for you, set your direction, close your eyes, and just swim like hell. Once you get throught that, you'll find there isn't a better place for swimming because it's the ocean and it goes on forever. You don't have to see anyone if you don't want to. If you look out, away from the beach, it's easy to imagine that there's no one else but you in the whole world, you and maybe a couple of sea gulls.”
—
11 people liked it
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It doesn't seem like she bettered her life in any way. I do not see what was so great about her...
Feb 03, 2013 11:36am
Apr 12, 2013 01:38pm