Liars and Saints : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Lots of Promise But No Substance
Review: I truly WANTED to like this novel more. The idea was compelling: several generations of Catholic guilt and a snapshot of the changing times. But I felt as if I were quickly turning the pages of a photo album without lingering too long on any one photo. Here's Abby: she's born, she's pregnant, she dies. But who IS Abby? What is her essence? Just when I began to become acquainted with a character, he or she was thrust into the background as another one appeared. The result: I never became emotionally invested in any of them. There's promise here, but not enough substance.

Rating:
Summary: great read!
Review: Liars and Saints is one of the best books I've read in a long time. With spare prose, Meloy beautifully tells the story of the multigenerational Santerre family. So much family drama is packed into a short, but hard-to-put-down book. Meloy characters are lovable and the drama is told without the angst of many other (slightly dysfunctional) family sagas. I'm almost finished with it and wish it was another 100 pages! I adore it and have recommended it to everyone this summer!!

Rating:
Summary: Highly unusual
Review: What struck me first about this riveting novel was its form. Few will notice or care about this, simply looking for a "good story." But Maile Meloy has really done something remarkable with regards to the "layout" of the book. Starting with a wedding, and ending with a funeral, the tone is set for . . . well . . . life--everything in between. The sheer beauty of this idea reminded me of a book by J.T. McCrae--The Bark of the Dogwood--where form is also a key to the progression of events and characters. More attention should be paid to this sort of thing, for it really separates the men from the boys when it comes to building a great work of fiction such as "Liars and Saints."

Writing about family sagas and family secrets is nothing new, but the masterful telling and again "form" of this book really made it stand out for me from the other mediocre reads that pepper the lists. With each new decade, Meloy manages to paint a different portrait of the family, building to a wonderful crescendo and satisfying conclusion. And if you think that's par for the course, you haven't read much, for many authors today simply ingore the rules of good writing. Meloy is, in a sense, old-fashioned in that the treatment of the plot, characters, and settings, is all interwoven. And while this may sound academic, it's not. Few authors, whether trained or not, achieve this level of reader satisfaction.

With its rich textures of myriad lives over vast periods of time and the excellent writing, this book will surely become one of the bestsellers.