This was our August book group book picked by Nicole. I had never heard of Maile Meloy so I was excited to explore a new author.
Liars & Saints is the story of three generations of the Santerre Family. The story begins with Yvonne & Teddy who get married during WWII. Before Teddy ships off for war Yvonne is pregnant with their oldest daughter Margot. Then comes Clarissa. Then the web of lies begins as Margot and Clarissa begin their teenage years. In the end there are so many family secrets that come to light that all lead back to that very first lie.
Essentially the family are Italian Catholic and there are a lot of underlying themes of religion, guilt, conscience, right vs. wrong, when is OK to lie or rather is it OK to lie, what does family mean, etc, etc.
I really enjoyed this book (even though part of the storyline is pretty messed up). I thought Maile Meloy did a great job writing it. She was very concise with her words and packed a lot into less than 300 pages. This is definitely a character driven book. The chapters alternate being narrated by all of the different characters so you really understand the story from every perspective, which we all agreed in my book group that we loved.
It definitely provided great fodder for our book group discussion! Overall, I wouldn't classify this as a must read but it was definitely enjoyable.
4 stars
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Have you ever read anything by Maile Meloy?
1 comment:
I think we should call our book club, "the WWI book club"...
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