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Lives of the Saints
"Hysterically funny, beautifully written. . . . Warming and endearing, brilliant."-Anne Tyler, New Republic After four years of college in New England, Louise Brown is back in New Orleans, steeped in society's "wastrel-youth contingent" yet somewhat detached, observing it all. From one lush, sweltering event to another, Violent Love, Breakdowns, Moods, laconic speech, and drunkenness reign, inscribing the South's hallmarks of defeat and refuge in a group of people as intense and adrift as one could encounter. At the center (in Louise's eyes) is Claude Collier, rumpled, accident prone, supremely sweet-and desperate. For Claude, Louise is his steadying focus; for Louise, Claude is the only man who can break her heart "into a million pieces on the floor." By turns elegiac and eccentric, Lives of the Saints is the debut novel that marked Nancy Lemann as a rising literary star. PRAISE FOR THE BOOK "A lovely nutty book about a lovely nutty girl. . . . Hilarious, haunting, poignant."-Walker Percy "Spikily comic. . . . This is how Blanche DuBois talked before the lampshade was torn away and life became lit with a naked bulb." -James Wolcott, New York Review of Books Nancy Lemann is also the author of Sportsman's Paradise, a novel, and The Ritz of the Bayou, an account of the trials of Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards. She lives in San Diego.
143 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
November 14, 2019
P. 32
"Louise, you're a kick", Claude said. I don't know why. "Come on, you want to go hear the Ink Spots? They're singing out on Airline Highway at the High-Lite Inn. It's on the way to Des Allemands. Want to?"
"The Ink Spots?"
"Yes, it's on the way."
"Oh, the Ink Spots. Aren't they kind of old?"
"Yes, they're kind of old. They're kind of old now, you're exactly right, but they still sing. They're singing out on Airline Highway. Want to go?"
"I love the Ink Spots," I said.
"Or maybe we should just sit around talking about the Ink Spots. That's what you'd probably rather do, knowing you," Claude said.
p. 33
On the corner of Indulgence and Religion, in the Lower Garden District, there is a violently pretty spot. It was Claude's parents' house.
p, 45
Emile LaSalle. …
He was full of stories about the famous. He told me he once sat in an opera box next to Mussolini during the war and that Mussolini had tried to marry his sister. Then he told me that Nathaniel Hawthorne once walked into a restaurant when Mr. LaSalle was a very small child, and Nathaniel Hawthorne went straight up to his sister and patted her on the head and said she was cute.
"You've got quite a sister, haven't you?" I said.
"Aw yeah. I been hobnobbing in my time."
p. 72
Claude had beckoned the undertaker into the kitchen, saying he wanted to "talk shop." Then he asked the undertaker what kind of funeral he would like to have himself, after seeing so many other people's funerals, and what kind of burial he would like to have. The glamorous undertaker said, "I would like to be exploded."
"You mean exploded, like with dynamite, at the funeral?" said Claude.
"Yes."
This was Claude's kind of person.
p. 127
Mr. Collier sat in his study and fingered a ring which his wife had not worn for many years. He gave it to her when they married. She returned it to him one day in the late fall of 1950, and they did not reconcile until Saint was conceived.
The ring was a thin gold band carved with vines. On the inside it was inscribed I cling to thee.
On page 140, Nancy Lemann mentions a gospel group called the Zion Harmonizers. There is an actual gospel group called the Zion Harmonizers. They were founded in the late 1930's and are still active today, obviously with different members. I have an album with one of their recordings from the mid 1950's, so I found the mention interesting and cool.
Lives of the Saints is filled with anecdotes that charmed me, even if the narrative didn't go much of anywhere.
Perhaps that's just New Orleans.
"Louise, you're a kick", Claude said. I don't know why. "Come on, you want to go hear the Ink Spots? They're singing out on Airline Highway at the High-Lite Inn. It's on the way to Des Allemands. Want to?"
"The Ink Spots?"
"Yes, it's on the way."
"Oh, the Ink Spots. Aren't they kind of old?"
"Yes, they're kind of old. They're kind of old now, you're exactly right, but they still sing. They're singing out on Airline Highway. Want to go?"
"I love the Ink Spots," I said.
"Or maybe we should just sit around talking about the Ink Spots. That's what you'd probably rather do, knowing you," Claude said.
p. 33
On the corner of Indulgence and Religion, in the Lower Garden District, there is a violently pretty spot. It was Claude's parents' house.
p, 45
Emile LaSalle. …
He was full of stories about the famous. He told me he once sat in an opera box next to Mussolini during the war and that Mussolini had tried to marry his sister. Then he told me that Nathaniel Hawthorne once walked into a restaurant when Mr. LaSalle was a very small child, and Nathaniel Hawthorne went straight up to his sister and patted her on the head and said she was cute.
"You've got quite a sister, haven't you?" I said.
"Aw yeah. I been hobnobbing in my time."
p. 72
Claude had beckoned the undertaker into the kitchen, saying he wanted to "talk shop." Then he asked the undertaker what kind of funeral he would like to have himself, after seeing so many other people's funerals, and what kind of burial he would like to have. The glamorous undertaker said, "I would like to be exploded."
"You mean exploded, like with dynamite, at the funeral?" said Claude.
"Yes."
This was Claude's kind of person.
p. 127
Mr. Collier sat in his study and fingered a ring which his wife had not worn for many years. He gave it to her when they married. She returned it to him one day in the late fall of 1950, and they did not reconcile until Saint was conceived.
The ring was a thin gold band carved with vines. On the inside it was inscribed I cling to thee.
On page 140, Nancy Lemann mentions a gospel group called the Zion Harmonizers. There is an actual gospel group called the Zion Harmonizers. They were founded in the late 1930's and are still active today, obviously with different members. I have an album with one of their recordings from the mid 1950's, so I found the mention interesting and cool.
Lives of the Saints is filled with anecdotes that charmed me, even if the narrative didn't go much of anywhere.
Perhaps that's just New Orleans.
August 21, 2023
lush and chaotic and full of breakdowns
February 18, 2013
I adore this book, and read it every few years. Nancy Lemann has a poetic and funny voice that's utterly enchanting and when she's writing about New Orleans, she is in her element. The Collier family appears elsewhere in her books, but never so vividly, and poignantly, as here. A gem.
June 3, 2017
This is among my favorite New Orleans novels, I knew real people like many of these characters in 1970s and 1980s NOLA.
October 6, 2020
Thanks to my friend Paul for recommending this book to me. I can't say that it broke my heart into a million pieces on the floor, to use one of the main character's favorite phrases, but it definitely got more and more under my skin as I made my way through the book. Unusual, moving, and excellent.
July 31, 2023
"Claude was just Going Through A Phase. He just had not Found Himself yet. St. Augustine had spent his youth in vice and dissipation, and look how he turned out. But the idler's lot is a sad one, and this I do not deny."
original review 10/24/20:
this was a very strange book. similarly, it was the most Dramatic book I have ever read that does not actually consist of /drama/. nothing much happens: Louise Brown comes home to New Orleans after college, falls in love with a "Wastrel Youth" who is somehow also the "kindest person in the world," and then her heart gets broken by him. Lemann uses capitalization to emphasize and change the meaning of certain words; like, for example, Wastrel Youth, and Going Through a Phase, and Found Himself in the previous quotes. this is fun because i do this now (Kiely's Sad Hours at the Bookstore Cafe, my Bad Semester, etc) and because it has become a part of our cultural (online) lexicon in the present 21st century, 35 years after this book was published. many times, these unnecessary capitalizations made me laugh, and definitely made me understand those words or phrases differently; but, when you emphasize everything, nothing is very important at all.
I liked Louise as a character, but also we never learn much about her at all. the entire book is about Claude, maybe for good reason, but it makes me sad that most of what we know about Louise, we know in the context of the boy she lives her life for. the beginning of the book, which takes place at a New Orleans society wedding, was quite funny; almost in the vein of Evelyn Waugh's writing. however, the book drastically changed halfway through with a tragic event that i did not see coming, and after that, the book isn't sweet or funny at all, really. the book's voice was funny and clever, but nothing much is accomplished. the book is open-ended; we have no clue what happens next, and worse yet, i don't actually care. i liked the book's insistence that it's okay to Fall Apart and Have A Breakdown, i loved the Waugh epigraph at the beginning, i loved the setting of New Orleans; and ultimately this was a quick, plotless, very unique, and ultimately very strange read.
(3.5 stars)
re-review 7/2/23:
I reread this after visiting New Orleans for the first time with my best friend, and I definitely understood some of the particulars of the geography and character of that bizarre and layered city much more this time around. at the same time, though, this book is still ~just okay~; something about it still doesn’t sit too right with me. It kind of reminded me of The Great Gatsby at the end, there, with the Good character devolving into shady business dealings and vice and dissipation, as Louise says in the quote above. the main point that I take away from this story is that you really cannot let someone else be the main character of your own life!!!!!
original review 10/24/20:
this was a very strange book. similarly, it was the most Dramatic book I have ever read that does not actually consist of /drama/. nothing much happens: Louise Brown comes home to New Orleans after college, falls in love with a "Wastrel Youth" who is somehow also the "kindest person in the world," and then her heart gets broken by him. Lemann uses capitalization to emphasize and change the meaning of certain words; like, for example, Wastrel Youth, and Going Through a Phase, and Found Himself in the previous quotes. this is fun because i do this now (Kiely's Sad Hours at the Bookstore Cafe, my Bad Semester, etc) and because it has become a part of our cultural (online) lexicon in the present 21st century, 35 years after this book was published. many times, these unnecessary capitalizations made me laugh, and definitely made me understand those words or phrases differently; but, when you emphasize everything, nothing is very important at all.
I liked Louise as a character, but also we never learn much about her at all. the entire book is about Claude, maybe for good reason, but it makes me sad that most of what we know about Louise, we know in the context of the boy she lives her life for. the beginning of the book, which takes place at a New Orleans society wedding, was quite funny; almost in the vein of Evelyn Waugh's writing. however, the book drastically changed halfway through with a tragic event that i did not see coming, and after that, the book isn't sweet or funny at all, really. the book's voice was funny and clever, but nothing much is accomplished. the book is open-ended; we have no clue what happens next, and worse yet, i don't actually care. i liked the book's insistence that it's okay to Fall Apart and Have A Breakdown, i loved the Waugh epigraph at the beginning, i loved the setting of New Orleans; and ultimately this was a quick, plotless, very unique, and ultimately very strange read.
(3.5 stars)
re-review 7/2/23:
I reread this after visiting New Orleans for the first time with my best friend, and I definitely understood some of the particulars of the geography and character of that bizarre and layered city much more this time around. at the same time, though, this book is still ~just okay~; something about it still doesn’t sit too right with me. It kind of reminded me of The Great Gatsby at the end, there, with the Good character devolving into shady business dealings and vice and dissipation, as Louise says in the quote above. the main point that I take away from this story is that you really cannot let someone else be the main character of your own life!!!!!
January 27, 2011
This novella is very much like New Orleans, filled with colorful characters who all are trying to suppress their darker side, yet ultimately failing and how they deal with the fall out of that. Beautifully written and it makes me want to hop on a plane south.
August 13, 2012
An old favorite. Quirky and tender. One of my favorite quotes: "Three-fourths of all sorrow is self-pity," from Mr. Collier's wise soliloquy.
December 8, 2013
This was and is and will be perfect. I'm lucky to have read it.
June 13, 2023
made me want to go down to a new orleans hotel and drink the night away
April 12, 2024
Sort of a quirky book with a host of silly characters overtly emphasized. I was reminded of my own thirty-one years living in Louisville, Kentucky and their vast contingents of Southern-made blue-bloods and wannabes. Of course, New Orleans is far more entrenched within the culture of the deep south. And Lemann celebrates these eccentricities with a deft hand and a cleverness that is surely a major element of her character and charming personality.
Please read my complete review here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/msarki/...
Please read my complete review here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/msarki/...
January 17, 2023
What a beautiful little book! This is now my favourite Southern novel. By turns funny, eccentric, and elegiac, this is a book narrated by a nutty girl whose heart keeps “breaking into a million pieces on the floor” due to her lackadaisical sometimes beau, the incomparably kind Claude Collier.
November 15, 2021
Didn’t realize it’s a Lost Cause narrative - there’s even a “Voices of the South” label my eyes were oblivious to! Hate all the characters but still guiltily enjoyed. Droll, spare but ethereal writing. The South in the 80s seem ancient. “He was made to scream wild declarations of love to women in dressing rooms and gardens, and then throw pots and pans on them.” “She could spend an entire afternoon talking about what hat she wore when she was fifteen.” “Mary Grace Stewart, the bride, sailed past the parents of a boy whose life she just ruined.” Aesthetic fetishizing of “southern gentility”: “…w vivid colors of black maids in white uniforms on the velvet green lawn.” Green. Bamboo grove. Majestic silence. Lonely Splendor. Wastrel Youth.
July 11, 2016
"'Now, come on, Tom,' I said, 'get ahold of yourself.'
He stared at me smolderingly.
'Where is Mary Grace?' I said.
'She's probably in the bamboo grove having sex.'
'The bamboo grove?'
'Well, you know, that's the type of person she is. She's the type of person who would just go out to the bamboo grove during the middle of a party or during her own wedding and have sex.'
'She is? What? But–but–why the bamboo grove, though?'
'It's racy out there, Louise. It's sexy. Out in the bamboo grove.'
'God,' I said, stunned, wishing I was that type of person."
"Things fade away from most people's hearts. What fades away from their hearts can be ardor, pain, or dignity, it doesn't matter, but it fades away, like the grip of a fist relaxing."
"'Louise!' Claude screamed from the bathroom. 'Okay, Louise come brush your teeth! I have your toothbrush ready! Come on, time to get up! I've been sitting in here for a half hour fixing everything up for you! Come on! Your toothbrush is ready, it's waiting for you!'
In the bathroom, two toothbrushes were lined up on the sink, each one piled about two inches high with toothpaste. I smiled politely at Claude, who was sitting on the rim of the bathtub trying to suppress hysterical mirth."
"I don't know why but I am the type of person who, I'll be minding my own business walking down the street, say, and suddenly I'll realize someone is following me at a discreet distance, like a grinning toothless man, or a gawking horn-rimmed law student, or a person named Caesar, who you can't tell is a man or a woman, or someone like that will corner me in a bar and start trying to tell me All Their Problems, or help me with mine. Actually it often adds a certain comic relief to my life, for which I am grateful–but, on the other hand, it kind of gets on my nerves."
He stared at me smolderingly.
'Where is Mary Grace?' I said.
'She's probably in the bamboo grove having sex.'
'The bamboo grove?'
'Well, you know, that's the type of person she is. She's the type of person who would just go out to the bamboo grove during the middle of a party or during her own wedding and have sex.'
'She is? What? But–but–why the bamboo grove, though?'
'It's racy out there, Louise. It's sexy. Out in the bamboo grove.'
'God,' I said, stunned, wishing I was that type of person."
"Things fade away from most people's hearts. What fades away from their hearts can be ardor, pain, or dignity, it doesn't matter, but it fades away, like the grip of a fist relaxing."
"'Louise!' Claude screamed from the bathroom. 'Okay, Louise come brush your teeth! I have your toothbrush ready! Come on, time to get up! I've been sitting in here for a half hour fixing everything up for you! Come on! Your toothbrush is ready, it's waiting for you!'
In the bathroom, two toothbrushes were lined up on the sink, each one piled about two inches high with toothpaste. I smiled politely at Claude, who was sitting on the rim of the bathtub trying to suppress hysterical mirth."
"I don't know why but I am the type of person who, I'll be minding my own business walking down the street, say, and suddenly I'll realize someone is following me at a discreet distance, like a grinning toothless man, or a gawking horn-rimmed law student, or a person named Caesar, who you can't tell is a man or a woman, or someone like that will corner me in a bar and start trying to tell me All Their Problems, or help me with mine. Actually it often adds a certain comic relief to my life, for which I am grateful–but, on the other hand, it kind of gets on my nerves."
June 1, 2017
What a remarkable writer! Her short sentences contain odd combinations that jolt the reader into seeing everything in a fashion slightly askew: In a garden, there is a "violently pretty spot," and at parties, "groups of debauchees sit in corners near the bar with napkins tied on their heads and loaves of French great stuck in their great pockets." Women remember their outfits from debutante balls decades before, and people "fall apart," and hearts "break into a thousand pieces on the floor."
She also is one of the few writers I have read who somehow uses capital letters to her advantage: a man passes out, not realizing, perhaps, the Profound Truth of his remark. Felonious Drunkness abounds. People present unrequested lectures at parties on The Woman Question. People regularly have Breakdowns, and young people suffer from Wastral Youth.
This is a book about almost nothing. The characters, indulged and indulgent of drunkenness, superficial relationships, and interminable Idleness have no focus and no inspiration. Life is dealt with by choosing hobbies: choosing clothes, designing gadgets, studying ancient Greek, quoting poetry. Otherwise, it's just too boring.
Tragedies are Spectacles, deeply debilitating and endlessly dramatic.
At its heart, this is a love story told by a woman about the man she's imagined, the man that wears the right clothes, drinks the right drinks, and, she thinks, cares deeply about the world. This is a view into New Orleans Society rife with insight, hilarity, and pathos.
She also is one of the few writers I have read who somehow uses capital letters to her advantage: a man passes out, not realizing, perhaps, the Profound Truth of his remark. Felonious Drunkness abounds. People present unrequested lectures at parties on The Woman Question. People regularly have Breakdowns, and young people suffer from Wastral Youth.
This is a book about almost nothing. The characters, indulged and indulgent of drunkenness, superficial relationships, and interminable Idleness have no focus and no inspiration. Life is dealt with by choosing hobbies: choosing clothes, designing gadgets, studying ancient Greek, quoting poetry. Otherwise, it's just too boring.
Tragedies are Spectacles, deeply debilitating and endlessly dramatic.
At its heart, this is a love story told by a woman about the man she's imagined, the man that wears the right clothes, drinks the right drinks, and, she thinks, cares deeply about the world. This is a view into New Orleans Society rife with insight, hilarity, and pathos.
April 26, 2017
Lemann's subtle but expert management of pacing, tone, and form is the core content of this astonishing novel: writing in the voice of narrator Louise Brown, Lemann explains, "In this atmosphere you may understandably complain of a lack of plot or design, but that is the plot, that is the crisis-- the crisis of youth and aimlessness" (80). Reviewers here fault the book's excessive length (@ 145 pages!?) and criticize it for dragging, but such responses betray their less than diligent reading.
Lives of the Saints delivers a homily on youngish romantic love and the "Gulf South," particularly New Orleans and its peoples. The novel at once cherishes its subjects with immense heart and is utterly devoid of romanticization and idealism. As such, I find it hysterical, devastating, and real.
Lives of the Saints delivers a homily on youngish romantic love and the "Gulf South," particularly New Orleans and its peoples. The novel at once cherishes its subjects with immense heart and is utterly devoid of romanticization and idealism. As such, I find it hysterical, devastating, and real.
June 22, 2017
This is my absolute most favorite book of all time. My copy has belovedly traveled with me from high school in New Orleans, through college in New England, where I read it when I was homesick, through adulthood and marriage and parenthood in different cities. I've read it probably 50 times; it's stained and dog-eared and worn with adoration.
This book is brilliant, hilarious and gorgeous. I love every single character, especially Claude. I love the unique style of repetition and capitalization, I love the impossibility, I love our straight woman, Louise, who always remarkably finds herself in the middle of the adventure, inexplicably.
Read this book.
This book is brilliant, hilarious and gorgeous. I love every single character, especially Claude. I love the unique style of repetition and capitalization, I love the impossibility, I love our straight woman, Louise, who always remarkably finds herself in the middle of the adventure, inexplicably.
Read this book.
December 20, 2015
The author comes up with some great descriptions, such as ". . . even at eighty-four years old. She had a streak of native, wrathful intelligence which she cleverly disguised with coquetry. It was a curious but spellbinding mixture." And "The decor was red plush and cobwebs, with grandiose marble domes and fixtures." However it does drag sometimes.
May 25, 2011
This would have been so much better as a short story. The eccentricity got old and the story just rambled along. She did do a great job with her New Orleans stereotyping. I know some of these people!!!
September 9, 2012
I enjoyed this highly absorbing and humorous book, and was checking to see if the author ever wrote anything else. I thought maybe this was her only book but now I see there are others.
July 7, 2021
Lush, chaotic, charming and funny. It has no plot and it doesn’t need one.
June 8, 2023
For me, as a middle-aged male reader, Louise's sympathetic depictions of both Claude Collier and his father, Mr. Collier, are the resonating qualities of this book. Both men are suffering, and she loves both: Claude she loves romantically, despite (or because of?) his ongoing self-destruction, his recurring "explosions into a million pieces," and Mr. Collier she loves avuncularly, because of his eccentricities. She sees the kindness in both men, in a world where that quality is rare.
Meanwhile, the fractured nature of the narrative, via short snippets of prose, creates a sense of honesty and vulnerability about Louise, this modern, mid-'80's woman who is navigating the male-dominated world of law and the post-modern landscape of romance. I will confess that I read this book -- deliberately short and digestible -- over too many weeks and that I lost some of its thread because of that deliberation. I was satisfied to finish it last night, yet now I hear its questions and themes humming through my mind.
Approachable and enjoyable, rich and lingering.
Meanwhile, the fractured nature of the narrative, via short snippets of prose, creates a sense of honesty and vulnerability about Louise, this modern, mid-'80's woman who is navigating the male-dominated world of law and the post-modern landscape of romance. I will confess that I read this book -- deliberately short and digestible -- over too many weeks and that I lost some of its thread because of that deliberation. I was satisfied to finish it last night, yet now I hear its questions and themes humming through my mind.
Approachable and enjoyable, rich and lingering.
October 23, 2022
This book makes it feel like most things I read are Basic™️. While the plot itself is of the mundane, the narrator conducts funny and beautiful riffs as we travel through this novella about people who are Going Through It.
Set decades ago in New Orleans but relatable to anyone who has dawdled in a Scene in their youth.
Set decades ago in New Orleans but relatable to anyone who has dawdled in a Scene in their youth.
December 4, 2024
It was so beautiful that I had to put it down sometimes and stare into the ceiling. It's not a story, as it goes nowhere, it's a green garden in which you can hide and drink champagne whenever you want, and get your heart broken in a million pieces on the floor.
September 25, 2025
Realized I had read this before when I saw the cover, but enjoyed the re-read. I can see that her current book descended from this one. Identified heavily with the narrator, for some strange reason.
January 28, 2020
A perfect comic novel set in New Orleans.
April 18, 2020
One of my favorite books of all time. Lemann transports you to a world that most don't know exists but is in quite common and possible in New Orleans.
May 17, 2021
The blurbs say it's hilarious. I didn't laugh once or even smile really. White New Orleans weirdos are not really interesting in 2021.
April 1, 2022
Reread better the first time but still really good.
September 19, 2022
Odd love story
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews