This is my first Ann Patchett, recommended by my voracious but well-informed neighbor. I was swept away by Patchett's prose, her constant, pitch-perfect ability to highlight the telling detail. The characters were infuriating, dear, and captivating by turns.

Enjoyed seeing a true artist shining in her writing craft, and very glad I read it, although the NYT blurb on the cover calling it "A fairy tale. A delight," was very misleading.

I did not find it to be that at all. ( )

I usually don't read the same author back to back like this but I just love her writing style and can't seem to get enough. ( )

61. The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett
reader: Julia Gibson
OPD: 1992
format: 14:10 audible audiobook (352 pages in print)
acquired: October 27 listened: Oct 27 – Nov 10
rating: 3½
genre/style: Novel theme: random audio
locations: centered on 1968 San Diego & Kentucky, and 1983 Kentucky
about the author: American author born in Los Angeles in 1963, who grew up mainly in Nashville.

Ann Patchett's first novel. After an opening with a touch of Catholic-like mythology, Rose narrates her leaving her husband in 1968, without telling him she's pregnant. She doesn't give a reason, and he hasn't done anything wrong other then be really dull. But Rose takes the car, leaves San Diego and drives east for Habit, Kentucky and a Catholic home for unmarried pregnant women. That's part one. Son Abbott narrates part 2 and Rose's daughter narrates part 3.

Rose is the subject of this book. She is somehow mysterious without really being mysterious. Her voice is strong, showing Patchett's power of clarity (for the first time). That makes Part one really good. There is psychological drama, literary games, Catholic themes and subversive themes. There's a lot going on. When the narrator switches, the book loses much of this dynamic, becomes just a story. It's not bad, and I wasn't tempted to bail. But the remaining 2/3 of the book felt a lot like a very very long epilogue.

A few extra notes. Patchett has some significant autographical elements here. She herself did runoff from a marriage. As did her mother, in a way, leaving southern California for Nashville, TN somewhere in the vicinity of 1968, when Patchett was young (but very much born).
I'm glad I read Patchett's first novel. I enjoyed it and I like having had a chance to get this window into her early writing.

2023
https://www.librarything.com/topic/354226#8281332 ( )

When Rose discovers she’s pregnant, she knows that she needs to get out of her marriage. She doesn’t love her husband or want to be married anymore and she doesn’t want to be a mother either. She sets off from California to Kentucky for a home for unwed mothers. She doesn’t tell her husband or her mother she’s pregnant or where she’s going – lies. She tells the nuns at the home that her husband died – a lie. Soon the lies are piling up.

I dug deep into my TBR shelves for this book. I loved Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House and have been meaning to read more of her books. The Patron Saint of Liars, which is her first book, did not disappoint. Patchett is a master of character development. I liked how each of the main characters had their own section in the book and their own unique voice. I felt like I knew them inside and out. ( )

Well written but just ok
How we are all untrue to ourselves and others ( )