Without giving too much away (because it is a really great book), you should know that something sinister lurks beneath the history of the Keating and Cousins families. In a good way, I felt unsettled after just a few pages. So, when I tearfully reached the final page of Patron Saint, I was overjoyed to see that my mom had come back from the book store with Commonwealth, spending the full retail price to feed our new Patchett addiction.Ĭommonwealth was, in a word, creepy. I popped out of my room after the first five pages and said “mom, she’s having the lady run away from her family again?” I felt gypped, like Dutch House had been cheapened by its precursor’s similarities, but I hung in there and was pleasantly surprised by the many ways in which Patchett can show us that our parents are people, too.

Reading Patron Saint of Liarsimmediately following Dutch House felt slightly on the nose with the runaway mother theme. Truant mothers, I came to learn, is a running theme with Patchett. They’re abandoned by their mother before the novel begins. In The Dutch House, we’re treated to an intensely complicated family history, focusing on two siblings, Danny and Maeve Conroy. I ended up reading four Patchett novels over the course of the month: The Dutch House, Commonwealth, Patron Saint of Liars, and Bel Canto (read Joli’s review of Bel Canto here). It’s Patchett’s newest novel, so I assumed since this was my first time hearing about her that she would be a one hit wonder. I wanted something light and easy, something that would give me the rewards of a Jane Austen novel without the effort. The heavy literary works I’d read as a fourth year English major had depleted my desire for the meaty greats. My mom introduced me to Ann Patchett when I was desperately hunting for new reading material after I graduated from college last spring.

Commonwealth novel