The Patron Saint of Liars
By Ann Patchett
Published 1992
Read April 2022
Run
By Ann Patchett
Published 2007
Read May 2022
This reader is putting comments on these two books together as the comments are quite overdue.
This reader is a fan of Ann Patchett. Each novel tells a unique and interesting story. Each novel provides the reader interesting characters. Often the story is told through the perspective of one or more characters, but only some of the character is revealed through this approach, much is left unsaid and untold. That makes the novel both engaging and rich for this reader.
The Patron Saint of Liars, Patchett’s first novel, tells pieces of the overall story through four sections, each focused on one of the characters, human and otherwise. The first section is about the origins of Hotel Louisa in the small town of Habit, Kentucky. By the time this story starts in 1968, the hotel has become a home for unmarried pregnant women, run by a Catholic order of nuns. Rose’s section is second and tells us about a woman who leaves her husband (with only a note saying she is leaving and he shouldn’t try to find her) when she discovers she is pregnant and decides she can’t go through with the pregnancy. She winds up at the home for unwed mothers in Habit, KY, installs herself as an unpaid member of the staff, keeps her child, marries Son, another person who ended up a member of the staff, and raises daughter Cecilia in a non-standard way. The third section is told through Son’s perspective which gives some background regarding why he is there and why he didn’t want “their” daughter to be named Cecilia. The last section is told through Sissy/Cecilia’s perspective. Some things are explained, much isn’t. This reader found the balance perfect.
Run tells a story about an unusual family. Bernadette Doyle expected to have a large Irish family like her own but she and husband Bernard succeed in having only one biological child, Sullivan. They adopt a pair of brothers forming a biracial family (the twins are black). Bernadette dies when the “little boys” are 4 and Sullivan is 17. The story is focused on a time 17 years later when the little boys are in college (remaining in Boston per their ex-Boston Mayor father’s wishes) and Sullivan only occasionally interacts with the family. The boys (once again) reluctantly accompany their father to a lecture on campus that their father wants them to attend. An incident that occurs after the lecture sets into motion a more complicated story about their family than they could have imagined (and which won’t be divulged here). As usual Patchett slowly develops the characters but leaves some things unexplained. Once again, the balance was fine for this reader. This reader will continue seeking and reading Patchett novels and hopes she has a very long run of writing.
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