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Title: Liars and Saints by Maile Meloy ISBN: 0743244354 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.83
Rating: 5
Summary: Liars and Saints
Comment: With a matter-of-fact, curt style of writing, Maile Meloy succintly tells the story of four generations of a catholic family from California. Despite the brevity with which she writes the novel, Meloy still manages to explore the fears, thoughts, and emotions of her characters in an insightful and intelligent manner. By covering so many generations and telling the story from each person's perspective, she allows for the reader to gain an understanding of the overall dynamic between the characters. It is an extremely engaging, easy to read story that thoughtfully explores the lives of a superficially normal but deeply complex family.
Rating: 4
Summary: Secrets and lies affect a family's history...
Comment: First time novelist Meloy portrays five generations and the damage wrought by too many secrets, ultimately threatening the foundation of the family itself. Yvette Grenier marries Teddy Santerre, a Marine, during World War II and the young couple anticipate their future with enthusiasm, too much in love to notice the pitfalls that await the careless. They have two daughters, Margot and Clarissa and are content in the life they have fashioned, although Teddy struggles with unfounded jealousy of his beautiful wife.
As devout Roman Catholics, the Santerres are deeply committed to the ritual and tradition of their faith, raising their girls with devotion and an awareness of moral obligation. Margot has almost graduated high school when the Santerre's are suddenly parents again, this new baby a boy. Yvette adapts quickly to new motherhood, but Teddy and Jamie's relationship is always strained, never quite comfortable. Jamie often seems at a loss for direction, his one unremitting passion his guitar and a close connection with sister, Clarissa.
From the 1950's to the upheavals of the 60' and 70's, like most families, the Santerre's are affected by the changing landscape of social mores. Children break away from the traditional values of the parents, experimenting with a variety of lifestyles, and by the 80's and 90's, must deal with the consequences of their actions. Like most families in America, the parents feel disconnected, unable to control their children. In turn, the children are frustrated by their parents' lack of understanding. Over time, both girls marry, although Clarissa eventually divorces, asking Jamie to come to California to stay with her and her daughter, Abby. For a while, Jamie knows contentment with Abby and Clarissa, but soon drifts back into his nomadic ways.
To acknowledge a milestone anniversary, Teddy and Yvette celebrate by renewing their vows at the Mission where they married, in Santa Barbara, California. The special occasion allows the family to reunite after years of geographic and emotional distance. Soon after, they are challenged by tragedy, tested by an unfathomable loss and their inability to make the emotional connections they so desperately need. Long hidden family secrets surface, allowing some family members a measure of relief and the opportunity to heal old wounds.
The strength of Meloy's novel is her characters, all of them as familiar as a pair of favorite slippers. The plot is carefully structured, yet never interferes with the flow of the story, where the people dominate the action, their personal struggles defined against a changing world. Yet, in the end, each person's capacity for forgiveness and understanding is enlarged by personal experience, allowing them to reach out to comfort each other and embrace their differences. Once exposed, secrets no longer retain the power to destroy. Luan Gaines/2003.
Rating: 5
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Comment: I devoured this book. Maile Meloy writes the best kind of domestic fiction -- an emotional page-turner in clean, unobtrusive prose. Very very well-written, with a completely compelling plot. I laughed and I cried. And I mean cried! Don't miss this novel. It's one people are going to be talking about for a long time. I'd been waiting for it ever since reading Meloy's short story collection a year ago, and some of the stories she's had in The New Yorker since then -- which I LOVED! -- but LIARS AND even surpassed my expectations. Trust me: read this book!
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Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon ISBN: 0385509456 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 17 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Half in Love : Stories by Maile Meloy ISBN: 0743216474 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 08 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: Gilgamesh: A Novel by Joan London ISBN: 0802117414 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: 2003 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: Three Junes by Julia Glass ISBN: 0375422412 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 2002 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Child of My Heart by Alice McDermott ISBN: 0374121230 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 12 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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