Lies of the Saints

Look, the world is full of writers or people who write. Erin McGraw is a notch above this fray. She is plain spoken in her style. She is sharp in her delivery. Her stories are great moments. You could learn a lot by reading her stories. The first thing you'd learn is what great writing looks like in book form.It's dumb, base and so very Hemingway of me, but; when reading her stuff, I think about bullfighting. What's up with that? Read this book and tell me. I want to know.

I randomly picked up this short story collection while browsing the "M"'s in the Fiction section of my local library. The title sounded intrigueing (I grew up Catholic) and I decided to give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself laughing and smiling through the first few stories, and before I knew it, I was drawn into the characters and Erin McGraw's sardonic and honest prose style. Then the last few stories--the title tryptich--nearly broke my heart. (I actually had to skim "Saint Tracy" and "Russ" for fear that I would start crying--I was on public transport at the time.) Although I didn't feel that all the stories were equally strong, the ones that I liked I really loved. The collection is well worth a read, and one hopes that Erin McGraw continues her unique brand of story-telling.

Lies of the Saints is a rich, wonderful collection of stories! Erin McGraw is a well published story writer. Several of the stories here first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly and for good reason. Each story is a separate gem, finely tuned, always surprising, and often very funny as well. Erin McGraw has deep affection for her characters, who range from a radio talk show host beseiged on air by the attentions of her ex-husband to a surburban housewife who inexplicably begins to perform miracles (to the dismay of her family) to a much misused divorcee who returns home to her drunken, unwelcoming father only to find personal freedom in a most unlikely place. Three of the stories are interlinked, relating a family history of sorts. These are highly readable, literary stories in which not one word is wasted.