57 pages • 1 hour read
Ann PatchettThe Patron Saint of Liars
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1992A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Ann Patchett’s Career as a Novelist
Patchett was born in Los Angeles but was raised in Nashville, Tennessee, where she still lives. She owns and operates Parnassus Books, an independent bookstore that is a literary hub for authors in the South. Patchett is a fierce advocate for books and was listed as one of the Most Influential People of 2012 by Time magazine. Her most famous novel is Bel Canto, which was published in 2001 and won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Many of Patchett’s novels use both California and the American South as settings. She is best known for her ability to create dynamic and multi-dimensional characters. Patchett has been “lauded for her skillful use of multiple narrative voices and points of view within her novels” (“Ann Patchett.” Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Jeffrey W. Hunter, Gale, 2008). The Patron Saint of Liars utilizes this form of narration, allowing Patchett to explore a messy family history through different points of view.
Patchett often writes about “unconventional love and personal transformation […] [often], the stories seem to unfold in a romanticized space devoid of a larger social, political, or historical context” (“Ann Patchett”). As a result, many of Patchett’s novels take on a timeless quality. In The Patron Saint of Liars, Saint Elizabeth’s becomes this kind of magical, timeless place where the characters’ lives can play out without the interruptions of the outside world. However, some critics have criticized Patchett for not delving into important political topics in her work. In particular, some have thought that The Patron Saint of Liars should have taken a harder stance regarding the Catholic Church’s ideas on pregnancy and abortion.
In 2024, the novel made the news because it was banned from schools in Orange County, Florida, for its sexual content. Patchett publicly countered this claim by stating, “We don’t get to see the girls having sex. They just show up pregnant at a home for unwed mothers, because they choose not to have an abortion” (Tolin, Lisa. “Nearly 700 Books, Including Celebrity Bestsellers, Banned in Orange County, Florida.” Pen America, 2 Jan. 2024).
Historical Context: Homes for Unwed Mothers in the 1960s in the United States
Saint Elizabeth’s is a Catholic home for unwed mothers who intend to place their children for adoption. These types of homes were more popular during the 1960s because pregnancy outside of marriage was stigmatized and abortion was not legal, leaving women with few options. Many of the women who went to these homes “received better treatment than those who didn’t. Most of the women planned to return to their communities without revealing the existence of the child” (Blakemore, Erin. “Inside a Home for Unwed Mothers.” JSTOR Daily, 7 Apr. 2021). Women of the time felt that if they became mothers outside of marriage, this would taint their reputations as well as the reputations of their families. Most of these women’s families, too, shamed them for their pregnancies, leaving them with nowhere to turn but these homes.
Many of these women spent their time in these homes wracked with guilt and shame, and afterward, they carried the trauma and grief of placing their children up for adoption and likely never seeing them again. These mothers’ complicated feelings—grief, shame, and guilt—are explored throughout A Patron Saint of Liars. Angie, Rose’s roommate at Saint Elizabeth’s, wishes she could raise her daughter. Additionally, when her daughter dies during childbirth, she is wracked with guilt and grief and never seems to overcome either of these feelings. As societal norms regarding unwed mothers changed and loosened, these types of institutions became less popular.
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