A FAMILY DAUGHTER

A thoroughly original and undeniably brilliant companion piece to Meloy’s debut novel, Saints and Liars (2003).

Meloy returns to the Senterres, the Catholic California family full of piety, passion and secrets at the center of the earlier novel. This go-’round, the family’s passion and piety remain in place, but the secrets, and facts, have changed. The central character is now Yvette and Teddy Senterre’s granddaughter Abby. When Abby is barely seven, her self-centered, irresponsible mother Clarissa leaves Abby and Abby’s loving father Henry. Abby develops a crush on Uncle Jamie, Clarissa’s charming, much younger brother. After Henry dies unexpectedly while in college, Abby falls apart emotionally. She and Jamie, a semi-ne’er-do-well, have a brief incestuous affair. Afterwards, Jamie takes up with Saffron, a neurotic heiress with commitment issues. Abby becomes involved with a teaching assistant, Peter, and begins writing a novel. Meanwhile, she accompanies Jamie and Saffron to Argentina, where Saffron’s mother has adopted a Romanian orphan, T.J. When Saffron’s mother dies, T.J. turns out to have a mother still very much alive. Jamie then adopts T.J., marries his mother and brings them to California, and when T.J.’s mother disappears for good, Jamie becomes a devoted single father. Abby moves back with Peter and publishes a highly autobiographical novel. Because Abby has changed crucial factual information about who did what to whom, the Santerres tell themselves she has not exposed their secrets, but the book forces them to face deeper truths. Meloy juxtaposes Abby's fictionalized account (Liars and Saints, described in enough detail for readers who have not read it) with the “reality” of this novel.

And each novel stands alone; together they pack a seismic wallop.