 First edition cover |
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| Author | Anne Tyler |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Knopf |
| Publication date | 1991 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 337 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0679403612 |
Saint Maybe is a 1991 novel by American author Anne Tyler.
Plot summary
Tyler's plot explores the ways ordinary people react to disastrous events with quietly heroic behavior. When seventeen-year-old Ian Bedloe confronts his older brother Dan with his belief that the latter's wife is having an affair, Dan commits suicide. Shortly after, his sister-in-law dies of an overdose of sleeping pills, and responsibility for the care of the deceased couple's three children (two from their mother's previous marriage) falls to their grandparents. A profoundly guilty Ian receives spiritual guidance from Reverend Emmett of the storefront Church of the Second Chance, and decides to drop out of college to become a carpenter and help his ailing parents with the children, until he eventually becomes their primary caretaker, sacrificing his own life to fulfill what he perceives to be a lifelong moral obligation. In 1998, the novel was adapted for a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation starring Thomas McCarthy, Mary-Louise Parker, Blythe Danner, Edward Herrmann, Melina Kanakaredes, Glynnis O'Connor, and Denis O'Hare.
