Wayward Saints

Suppose your daughter Mary is a semi-famous rock singer. Suppose you've never been able to listen past the first few bars of her--to you--ear-assaulting recordings. Suppose that, despite your love for her, you've harbored the fear for years that in addition to being substance-addled and profane, she may well be insane. And suppose that before you quite realize it, you yourself have arranged for this prodigal daughter to return for a concert at her hometown high school for $850 plus airfare ("I must really be a has-been") to caterwaul God-knows-what before God and everybody--everybody you might run into at the market, the town cafe, or (God forbid) church on Sunday.

Time to meet present-day Mary, veteran of a thousand filthy backstage show more scenes, a rock and roll tragedy and "home plate--the rehab," quaking in her combat boots at the thought of her hometown gymnasium star-turn. By now, there's no stopping this novel's rollicking, effortless, page-turning prose from sucking the reader in to its end.

Suzzy Roche of the brilliant songwriting, bell-voiced Roche Sisters trio makes her fiction debut with a savvy, surprising and funny novel about family and borderline fame suffused with you'd-know-it-anywhere Roche Sisters wit, whimsy and been-there sensibility.

"Wayward Saints" is a novel for anybody who's ever wondered what the folks back home might be thinking about the latest sort-of celebrity (surely even Marilyn Manson has a mother...), or what becomes of those survivors on the borderlands of post-fame in the wake of their intimate inspirations and cries de coeur. show less

I really was surprised at the talent of Roche in this book but ultimately it left a lot of promise on the table. Roche the author was in a band which I never heard of but that isn’t remarkable. Wayward Saints is about family healing, reconciliation with a misunderstood mother and living down past events that formerly had been left ignored. I hope she writes another book which will be more ambitious. Roche seems happy enough here with describing feelings and penning descriptions about everyday observations. I am sure Roche is happy with the book. I liked it too, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone else unless they were still interested in fictional post-Punk bands. Roche may have had a spiritual experience which is touched on here, show more and I appreciated the intertwining of popular Roman Catholicism with the heartwarming ending. But that is part of a style which probably is not to everyone’s taste. A priest is depicted with questionable counseling skills, sadly. show less

Suzzy Roche does a fine job in writing her first novel. Wayward Saints is funny, entertaining, thoughtful, irreverent and heartwarming. I read this book in one day, staying up late to finish it. While some books are more character driven, others are definitely all about the plot. This one is about the characters. They are both interesting and diverse. The author takes the time to develop characters that are not all good or bad, who are complex, flawed and thus human. The ending put a smile on my face, and for me that is always a plus!

A very good book. I searched out WAYWARD SAINTS because I had recently read Suzzy Roche's new novel, THE TOWN CRAZY, and enjoyed it immensely. This one is about ten years old, and I guess it came and went without much fanfare. But yeah, it's a very good read, all about Mary Saint, a girl who didn't fit in growing up in a small town in upstate New York and was abused by her blue collar father. She escaped into the alt-rock, grunge music scene, touring for several years with her band, Sliced Ham, across America and the UK until she inevitably crashed from drugs and alcohol, following the accidental death of her musician lover. There is much here too about Mary's childhood and adolescence in tiny Swallow, NY, including a mystical encounter show more with the Blessed Mother - "the Other Mary" - which leaves a lasting impression. After hitting bottom and rehab, Mary lives a quiet, anonymous life in San Francisco, and becomes part of an odd quasi-religious congregation that faintly echoed the church group that Anne LaMotte has written so eloquently about. The story centers around a "comeback concert" in Mary's hometown after several years of quiet obscurity , as well as an intimate look into the life of Mary's mother, Jean, a devout Catholic and a battered wife.

Suzzy Roche is, of course, a singer-songwriter herself, one of the Roches, along with her two sisters, so she writes knowledgeably about the music biz and life on the road. She is a rarity, I think, as a musician who also is a talented writer of fiction. I thought of a gem-like story collection, BODIES OF WATER, that I read more than twenty years ago by Rosanne Cash. This book compared well, measures up. Good book. Very highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

Mary Saint was once an underground rock star, singer of songs such as "You're a Pig" and "I Can't Swallow You No More," but after the death of her lover and fellow band member Garbagio, her manager declares her a has-been and she gives up on music. Now she's living in San Francisco with a "chocolate tranny" named Thaddeus, learning to make mochaccinos at the Crumb Bunny coffee house.

But then she gets called to the stage one last time. A teacher at her old high school invites her to give a concert in her former hometown. If nothing else, it'll give her a chance to see her mother Jean.

With its cast of quirky characters, and small town setting, this novel reminded me of the recent movie "Young Adult" starring Charlize Theron. It's got that show more same indie feel, and smart detail.

Some favorite lines:

"...to be the priest's secretary was the middle-aged woman's equivalent of dating the captain of the football team."

"The sun slipped down in slendor, and now it was as if mischievous angels had thrown buckets of red wine at the sky."

Dread feels like "a sky full of knives."

Full of warmth, wit, and wisdom, this is a terrific debut. show less

As a long time fan of the Roches in general and Suzzy Roche in particular, I was eager to get my hands on this book, and I wasn't disappointed. A novel about the music world, which Roche must know well, this is the story of relationships among relatives, friends, and musicians. Readers of Anne Tyler's work will appreciate the quirkiness of Roche's characters. These are people we care about, even if we don't recognize them in our own lives, and their situations may make us weep and laugh out loud. The backdrops of the music scene and Catholicism provide ample fodder for conflict and redemption. The pacing of this novel was a bit uneven, but once I sorted out the different voices and their connections I was ready to immerse myself.

This was a really lovely story about Jean and Mary Saint, mother and daughter, who survived the brutality of domestic violence by Jean's husband, Bub. After runnning away as a teenager, Mary became the lead singer of an edgy alternative band called "Sliced Ham", which achieved a moderate level of success until Mary's lover and bandmate fell to his death from a balcony, effectively ending her musical career. After rehab and years of inactivity, Mary is ready to get on with her life, around the same time that her mother begins to move on with hers, back in their hometown of Swollow, NY. When a high school teacher approaches Jean in the hopes that Mary will come back to perform for a fund raiser at Swollow's high school, events are set show more into motion which change both Mary and Jean and set them on a course to reconnect. Mary's best friend Thaddeus plays a role in helping her to pull her life together as Mary tries to understand how a childhood experience she had with the Virgin Mary may have set her life and career in motion.

I thought this was a wonderful story, which was both heartwarming and tragic. As the writer was also a famous singer of a legendary folk band, her story appeared to be insightful into the glories and humiliations of the music industry. It was hard to believe this was the writer's first novel, as it was tight and well written. I highly recommend it! show less