What better start to a story than, Joseph Santangelo, the butcher, wins his bride, Catherine Falconetti, in a pinochle game with her father and brother. During a heat wave, Joseph bets a walk into the meat freezer and Lino bets his daughter's hand. A bet is bet in the close knit Italian neighborhood in New York City. The next day Catherine is told to buy the best cut of meat and cook a meal for Joseph and his mother, an introduction of sorts. A cook, she was not, the meal a disaster, and Mrs. Santangelo leaves dismayed by the whole idea of this girl becoming her daughter-in-law. And so their married life began as an unlikely pair. They became the butcher who puts his finger on the scale for a few extra pennies and his wife, who spends her days under the watchful eye of her mother-in-law learning the fine art of sausage making. Soon, a daughter, Theresa, comes along and everything they thought they knew, changes. Theresa felt very early on that her calling was to the convent and to God and nothing her parents did could change her.I love Francine Prose for her beautiful writing and her quirky stories. I'm a big fan of Blue Angel, another novel by Prose which I've also written a review. The thing that always strikes me is her ability to write male characters so realistically. Joseph and Catherine's father, Lino pop off the page as if I was sitting beside them eaves dropping on their conversations. Catherine, Mrs. Santangelo and Theresa are equally as interesting but Ms. Prose is one of the few writers I know who can give each of the sexes equal footing as characters. What I learned from Household Saints is that all of us may feel we are living an ordinary life, but within each of us lives a little piece of God. Never underestimate the power of a good gossiping grapevine. And under every roof lives a saint. Who is the saint in your household?
I loved the first 2/3 of this book and only liked that last 1/3. It's well-written, and I enjoyed the characters a lot, especially at the beginning. I loved how Joseph "won" Catherine in a card game (funny side note... my own NYC-born and raised, Italian Catholic grandfather supposedly won a bet from a card game and had to take my grandmother on a date...) and while she didn't want to get married to him, it turned out to be a happy and successful marriage. I cried at the still-born birth and cried as I read of her obvious PPD. I really loved all the stories of this couple, but once we started learning about their daughter, Theresa, I got frustrated. It's so hard to watch someone go absolutely crazy and there is nothing you can do. Even when it's a fictional character. Heart-wrenching for me. Anyway, I honestly didn't expect it all to end the way it did. So yes, it was enjoyable (mostly) and well-written and actually a pretty quick read.
Do You like book Household Saints (2003)?
A great story, and the prose is lovely, sentences flow with a consistent cadence. The style reminds me of a fable or a parable, and maybe that's the point, but I felt so held at arms' length from the characters that the unusual story and nice prose wasn't enough to keep me invested in the characters' tale. I never got to the point where I truly cared. I really wanted to, and hoped to know them better. Although, it was unfortunate that Nicky never found his Madame Butterfly, but became her. I liked the truth there. That was all that could have happened to this lost soul. The novel doesn't promise anything it doesn't deliver, I just wish it had promised more. For me, it could have been longer, the characters fleshed out, and it would have felt more dimensional.
—Tamara
Pure storytelling. It deals with the mundane - work, love, family, religion - but never bogs down. Written in a style so clean and effortless you don't even notice it, and moving at breakneck pace, it careens through these things as though they're the stuff of adventure. And, of course, they are, to the extent that any of us ordinary folks have adventure in our lives. While the characters see miracles everywhere, this book pulls off a minor miracle of its own, which is to avoid being predictable, maudlin, or boring. It absorbs you in the lives of the Santangelos and then sends you on your way.
—Ben
This was a book group book. It took me two days to read and although at first I didn't like it, I did get pulled in after two of the main characters got married and had a happy sex life. I'd been steeling myself for their marriage to be awful and when it was beautiful, that made me happy, even when their daughter turned out to be a better saint than a human being. There was a good amount of description of Italian-American life, which reminded me of my own heritage and the stories my mother told about her childhood in an Italian-American section of the Bronx.
—Zoe
