Liars and Saints: A Novel

Maile Meloy's Liars and Saints snuck up on me. It's not a brash book. It does not force you to love it. It sits quietly with its hands folded in contemplation and waits for you to find what it is within it that moves you. And when you are moved by this book,you are most certainly moved. Told in three parts (Part I about temptation--both resisting and giving in to it, Part II about an attempt at redemption through service or sacrifice and Part III about homecoming), Liars and Saints follows the Santerre family through several generations--each of them liars and saints, keeping secrets, making sacrifices, acting out of love. It is not a book that rests on plot but more on moments--little epiphanies that each of the characters experience, revealing to each his special purpose or understanding, providing grace. In the beginning we see this with fighter-pilot Teddy revealing his understanding in that moment before he is launched. The moments are few--as they are in life--but when they come they bring clarity to the reader as well. There is Yvette's out of body experience, Clarissa's fear that God is calling her to be a nun after she weans her baby, Abby's decision to keep the baby even though it will kill her to do so. In the end, we have a family, torn apart and cobbled back together, revealing the truth, seeking, once again, redemption and compassion from the only people who matter, each other.

As a devout Catholic, I was afraid I might be offended by this book. Let me say up front, I was not. There were one or two passages that could be offensive, but they were totally in character, so I was not offended. I found the book to be complex, engaging, entertaining and gratifying. I hope Malie Meloy will write another novel, because I will definitely be reading it. The writing is intelligent and interesting, but not so lofty and cerebral that you have to "work" to get to the end of the story. The characters were so interesting and so real, that I could completely understand their motivations. Though, the story covers fifty years in the life of one family, it goes by far too quickly.

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!

Although I'd read and enjoyed Maile Meloy's short story collection, Half in Love, I was skeptical that her first novel would live up to the praise lavished on it by reviewers. I was delighted to discover that the reviewers were right. This is a remarkable book. In clear, unadorned prose Meloy offers a compelling family saga that spans more than four generations, three continents and almost sixty years. And she does it all in barely more than 250 pages. If you don't read this book you will say it's impossible, but she pulls it off with grace, empathy for every one of her flawed characters and powerful insight into the human mind and heart. As a writer of fiction myself I am in awe of her talent. Like all great novels, this one has the power to transform the way you look at the world.

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.