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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Opening with a wedding and ending with a funeral, Liars and Saints is stuffed to bursting point, yet manages to maintain a cool, elegant prose style throughout. Liars and Saints, Meloy's debut novel, following her story collection Half in Love, chronicles the life of the Santerre family, who sin with the gusto of true Catholics. Written in a series of short story-like vignettes, the family's saga is told in turn by every member, from Yvette the matriarch down to TJ, her great-grandson. We start out with a relatively run of the mill family secret, when in the 1950s Yvette sends daughter Margot off to a French convent for the duration of her teenage pregnancy. As the decades pass, the transgressions become wilder and more melodramatic, as if the Santerres are trying to keep up with the times by way of their naughty acts. What makes the novel work is that, all the while, Meloy maintains a quiet, slightly wry tone: illicit lovemaking and Bloody Mary mixing are recounted with the same equanimity. She also gets just right the tone of each era. When Yvette's other daughter Clarissa marries a jolly lawyer in the early 60s, he sends a telegram to Yvette: "HITCHED. THANKS FOR BEAUTIFUL DAUGHER. PROGENY PROMISED TO POPE." Similarly, in the 1970s the characters talk just groovily enough, and those of the 80s have a wised-up ring to their conversation. Most multi-generational sagas are dull forays into sentimentalism, but in the aptly titled Liars and Saints, Meloy has written a corker. --Claire Dederer, Amazon.com
Review
'This remarkably assured debut novel ! succeeds in being both intimate in feel and broad in outlook ! moving, compassionate and amusing' -- Daily Mail 20040604 'A tale worthy of the Greeks ... While there is plenty of feeling its pages, none of it crystallises into sentimentality ... spare, sturdy prose' -- Observer 20040627 'Wise, witty, and beautifully written, Liars and Saints is that rare and wondrous thing: a literary novel you don't want to put down' -- Helen Fielding 20040627 'A spectacular first novel' -- New York Times 20040627 'Quiet, unastonished precision ! an impressive achievement' -- Philip Roth 20040627 'All the outrageous twists ! of a soap opera. But Meloy writes with such delicate insight that somehow you believe in it, even as you race to the last page.' -- Marie Claire 20040701 'Sparse, gentle prose ... a lovely debut, treading a delicate balance between epic family saga and minutely observed literary portrait' -- Spectator 20040828 'Meloy gives her story shape and depth by writing from each character's point of view ... there is something refreshingly conservative about the design of this novel' -- Independent 20050519
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this after seeing it reviewed in the Daily Mail and am pleased it was selected by Richard and Judy because it's the sort of unshowy book which might have fallen through the cracks otherwise. It's misleading to call it a family saga because although it covers 50 years in the history of a family it is a fairly slim volume without a great panoramic sweep. It's beautifully written and the characters are completely convincing, from Yvette and Teddy down through the subsequent generations. Liars and Saints is about the confusions and turbulence and complications of family life, what a mess we often make of it but how we muddle through anyway. It reminded me a little of Alice Hoffman's books although the writing is not nearly so flowery. In short, I enjoyed it very much and look forward to reading more by this author.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is a 'nice read'. I found myself wanting to know what would happen, sympathising (or disliking where appropriate) with the characters, and generally doing everything one should with a good book. It's not ground-breaking, or heart-wrenching, it's sad at times, happy at others and, I found, a nice little book to read on holiday.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of the finest and most compelling books I've read in a long time. I bought it due to the Richard & Judy recommendation and when I read the first chapter I wasn't sure if I was going to like it, fearing it might be an old-fashioned saga. But, 50 taut pages later, I realised there was a lot more to 'Liars and Saints' than just a saga. I was reminded a little of John Irving; the book explores a family that seems ordinary on the outside but is teaming with dysfunctional secrets that passes on its problems from one generation to the next. The writing is pared down, spare and beautiful. The way that the author shifts points of view and demonstrates the characters misunderstandings of each other is brilliant, and results in some of the deepest characterisation I've enjoyed in a long time.
Puzzlingly enough, when this book was picked for R&J it was described in the Guardian as being firmly 'lightweight entertainment' and a love story - perhaps because it was written by a woman. Nothing could be further from the truth; calling this 'light entertainment' is rather like calling Jonathan Franzen's 'The Correction' lad-lit. This is a finely crafted literary novel, and love is just one of many themes that it dissects in a detached but compassionate way. All in all, an excellent novel, and much better than Cecilia's Ahern's offering.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Enjoyable read
I bought this as a present as part of a box set for my mother-in-law who as any good reader does, past it back when she was finished. Read more
Published 8 months ago by SJSmith
Touching and emotional
An amazing book. I really cared about the characters. It's the mark of a good read to me when I can't put it down but I don't want it to end!!! Read more
Published 18 months ago by L. Simmons
A good read
Liars and Saints is a good yarn to read on your holiday. Slightly daft in parts but engaging none the less. I enjoyed the book and developed an interest in all the characters.
Published 20 months ago by Rusholme Ruffian
Fast-moving saga about a rather weird family
According to Helen Fielding, quoted on the front cover, this book is 'wise, witty and beautifully written,' and for once I see no reason to disagree, though that doesn't mean it's... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Phil O'Sofa
Disappointing
People were born, grew up and died. Women who wanted children couldn't and those that didn't got pregnant the first time they had sex. Read more
Published on 5 April 2010 by Mme C. Monks
Domestic in focus and emphasis
This is a novel about three generations of an American/French Canadian family - Yvette, her husband Teddy and their two daughters Margot and Clarissa. Read more
Published on 16 Sep 2009 by Eileen Shaw
A very good read
I read the first chapter and thought this books not for me, however i am so glad i carried on.... what a very good read, you feel for the characters they all feel real not... Read more
Published on 3 Sep 2009 by KD
A lean and fresh novel.
I picked this book up just because I liked the look of it with no real expectations and I am so glad that I did. Read more
Published on 7 Feb 2009 by Helenbookworm
Where's the ending?
I have never been so dissappointed by a book in my life! It started so well, and had so much promise, I would even say that I was totally gripped in the middle, but the ending was... Read more
Published on 18 April 2006 by K. Prescod
complex characters but you never get much depth with them
The book although compelling in an "I've started so I'll finish way" for me never really went in very deep with any of the characters, for example the books lets you know that the... Read more
Published on 19 Aug 2005
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