Members, please login. Not a member? Create a login & Join us! Membership is free & gives you access to book giveaways, author chats & your private, free book club page.
Since her first publication in 1992, celebrated novelist Ann Patchett has crafted a number of elegant novels, garnering accolades and awards along the way. Now comes a beautiful reissue of the best-selling debut novel that launched her remarkable career.
Since her first publication in 1992, celebrated novelist Ann Patchett has crafted a number of elegant novels, garnering accolades and awards along the way. Now comes a beautiful reissue of the best-selling debut novel that launched her remarkable career.
St. Elizabeth's, a home for unwed mothers in Habit, Kentucky, usually harbors its residents for only a little while. Not so Rose Clinton, a beautiful, mysterious woman who comes to the home pregnant but not unwed, and stays. She plans to give up her child, thinking she cannot be the mother it needs. But when Cecilia is born, Rose makes a place for herself and her daughter amid St. Elizabeth's extended family of nuns and an ever-changing collection of pregnant teenage girls. Rose's past won't be kept away, though, even by St. Elizabeth's; she cannot remain untouched by what she has left behind, even as she cannot change who she has become in the leaving.
I think the host/hostess should have information on the meanings of Rose of Sharon, stigmata, rosaries, Mary and Martha, habit, etc., for the non-Catholic other readers in the group.
Since we had a gal in our book club who had been through a similar situation we had an interesting discussion about this book. Rose's motive and past were not really explained in the book however we had our own idea about her.
"allegory abundance"by Carol A. (see profile)08/19/16
Ann Patchett's THE PATRON SAINT OF LIARS abounds in allegorical references, from the names of the characters to their physical traits. The main character, Rose, frustrates the reader with her closed,... (read more)
The characters were not fully developed and the reader is left wondering what the reason was for all the choices that were made by the main characters with no real explanation. The author left too much... (read more)