A saint from Texas : a novel

Title:

Author:

White, Edmund, 1940- author.

Personal Author:

White, Edmund, 1940- author.

ISBN:

9781635572551

Physical Description:

288 pages ; 24 cm

Abstract:

"Yvette and Yvonne Crawford are twin sisters, born on a humble patch of East Texas prairie but bound for far grander fates. Just as an untold fortune of oil lies beneath their daddy's land, both girls harbor their own secrets and dreams-ones that will carry them far from Texas and from each other. As the decades unfold, Yvonne will ascend the highest ranks of Parisian society as Yvette gives herself to a lifetime of worship and service in the streets of Jericó, Colombia. And yet, even as they remake themselves in their radically different lives, the twins find that the bonds of family and the past are unbreakable. Spanning the 1950s to the recent past, Edmund White's marvelous novel serves up an immensely pleasurable epic of two Texas women as their lives traverse varied worlds: the swaggering opulence of the Dallas nouveau riche, the airless pretention of the Paris gratin, and the strict piety of a Colombian convent."--Provided by publisher.

Subject Term:

Twin sisters -- Fiction.

Interpersonal relations -- Fiction.

Families -- Texas -- Fiction.

Nuns -- Fiction.

Lesbianism -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Texas, East -- Fiction.

Genre:

Domestic fiction.

Historical fiction.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Belmont	Book	FICTION WHITE	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Broad Rock	Book	FICTION WHITE	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Ginter Park	Book	FICTION WHITE	Searching... Unknown
Searching... West End	Book	FICTION WHITE	Searching... Unknown

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On Order

Summary

From Edmund White, a bold and sweeping new novel that traces the extraordinary fates of twin sisters, one destined for Parisian nobility and the other for Catholic sainthood.

Yvette and Yvonne Crawford are twin sisters, born on a humble patch of East Texas prairie but bound for far more dramatic and tragic fates. Just as an untold fortune of oil lies beneath their daddy's land, both girls harbor their own secrets and dreams-ones that will carry them far from Texas and from each other. As the decades unfold, Yvonne will ascend the highest ranks of Parisian society as Yvette gives herself to a lifetime of worship and service in the streets of Jericó, Colombia. And yet, even as they remake themselves in their radically different lives, the twins find that the bonds of family and the past are unbreakable.

Spanning the 1950s to the recent past, Edmund White's marvelous novel serves up an immensely pleasurable epic of two Texas women as their lives traverse varied worlds: the swaggering opulence of the Dallas nouveau riche, the airless pretension of the Paris gratin, and the strict piety of a Colombian convent. For nearly half a century, Edmund White's work has revitalized American literature, blithely breaking down boundaries of class and sexuality, and A Saint From Texas is one of his most joyous, gorgeously written, and piercing works to date.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

Twin girls from Texas oil money go on to fabulous destinies. "We moved as far away from Daddy as we could get--to Colombia in my case, to Paris in yours. Neither of us lives in our native language. I'm called Sister and you're called Baroness. We never returned to Texas." The National Book Foundation gave White a lifetime achievement award in 2019 and his latest book might be seen as a fun thank-you gift to readers. Though this high-spirited confection is something of a departure for an author known as a cultural critic and chronicler of contemporary gay culture, it's steeped in White's ironic worldview and mines both his well-known obsessions (France, the French, their language) and lesser-known ones (Catholicism, convent life, the path to sainthood). And, come to think of it, there are plenty of gay and bi characters, and really eloquent descriptions of genitalia. "Our mother had named us out of a movie fan magazine, Yvonne and Yvette, but she was so ignorant she said our names "Why-Von" and "Why-Vet"…We were 14 and real Texas beauties with our blond hair, tiny ears, long legs, and high breasts, though our...mother made us cover them up with extra-large blouses." After their mother died and their father remarried, "All that changed under Bobbie Jean. She made us say our names in the proper French way and corrected our old relatives who mispronounced them--'I'm sorry,' Bobbie Jean said, 'but we're not that country.' " By the time the girls' story ends in far-flung corners of the globe with both high crimes and miracles to their names, they are certainly not country anymore. Narrated by Yvonne with long letters from Yvette, including cameos by Givenchy, Audrey Hepburn, and Jacqueline Bouvier, the novel brims with wit and style. Proust meets John Irving in this grand and delightful comedy of manners. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.