His back story unfolds slowly as you learn about the tragedy, the loss of a woman who didn’t really love him to begin with (a common theme in Son’s life.) He and Rose marry weeks before she’s due to give birth. Call my cynical, but this love at first site, especially when the woman is clearly not interested, bothers me. Again, this was another point of frustration for me. He falls in love with Rose early on in her stay, from the first night. He’s escaping a past of his own, living out his days keeping the old hotel in decent repair. The next narrator is Son, a man who’s been working at the home for twenty-some years. Even when you’re reading from her point of view, you rarely get inside her head. Her damage, for lack of a better word, is unexplained and I found that to be frustrating. She was raised by a caring mother who always put her first, she seems to have had a good life. There’s no explanation given for that though.

She’s so clinical, almost unable to love. Just takes off one day and heads to Kentucky from California. Rose, the not-so-unwed mother who leaves her husband when she finds out she’s pregnant. The narrative structure rotates through three main points of view. I didn’t know what to expect going in, other than the blurb about it taking place at a home for unwed mothers in the 60s and 70s. I’ve always told myself that one day I’ll get around to reading it and finally the time came. The Patron Saint of Liars is a book I’ve seen kicking around for years.

The patron saint of liars book review