Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience

Great story, I really enjoyed the pace and found it easy to read. Thank you for the advanced copy. I look forward to reading more from this author

I've enjoyed books by Edmund White before but I felt this was a bit too whimsical and I lost interest soon after one of the sisters arrived in Paris (I can't offhand remember which was which, why give them such similar names?). Sorry DNF.

A gripping historical fiction that had these twin sisters at the heart in Texas.
I really enjoyed the historical setting, it was very vivid and enjoyable to read about. Loved the plot and the characters too.
I enjoyed my time a lot.

Thanks a lot to the publisher and NG for this copy.

In my review of Edmund White’s memoir “City Boy” (2009) I wrote “I haven’t yet read anything by him which has really blown me away”. I did really enjoy that book and also highlighted his 2000 novel “A Married Man” as my favourite of his fiction. I appreciated that he has made an enormous contribution to gay-themed literature but also wrote “he can come across as a little too academic in his writing and lacking warmth, perhaps investing his novels with a richness of technical skills rather than empathy.” I did qualify this by saying I had not read everything by him but that was how I was feeling back in 2018 when I read “City Boy”.

That does not mean I was not excited by the prospect of a new novel, his 14th, published in the year he turned 80. It was a surprise and not what I was expecting from him at all.

Last time out I complained he was too academic and technical and yet the reason I struggled to engage with this novel was because it felt trivial and slight. There’s just no pleasing some people! I also had my ongoing issue with empathy and really only one of the characters came alive for me.

This is the tale of identical Texan twin sisters Yvonne and Yvette (called Why-vonne and Why-vette by their family). Born in 1938 and brought up by their recently rich father (Texan oil wells) and money-grasping stepmother the girls go in very separate directions- Yvonne to a life of prestige in Paris where she marries a Baron and Yvette to a convent in Colombia. From here we encounter Yvette mainly through the letters to her sister (whose first-person narration we are reading) yet it is the nun whose character seems the most richly drawn to me. A “miracle” in her youth and her piety promotes her as a potential candidate for a sainthood yet she struggles with denying her physical longings. There’s no self-denial for Yvonne and she is soon taking a lover capitalising on the unlikelihood of divorce amongst the notable families of France.
My main issue is that Yvonne’s narration feels very much on one level. Reading on a Kindle at one point I accidentally jumped a considerable distance in the book and it was quite some time before I noticed and returned to my original place.

I had hoped that this was the great Edmund White novel which I have been expecting, especially through reading his non-fiction. I’m sure he has a truly great novel in him but this is not it. I’m beginning to think that maybe I have missed it, that this greatness is contained in one of the earlier novels I have not got round to yet. I do have his 1973 debut “Forgetting Elena” on my shelves- I recently bought a copy after hearing very good things about it. I will let you know….

A Saint From Texas is published in the UK on August 4th 2020. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

Gripping story of identical twin sisters, born in the late 1930s in a dried-up oil town in East Texas, who are separated and find themselves at the age of 22 in completely differ EI got worlds — one in a Colombian convent and on her way to sainthood, the other wedded to a French baron and installed in a palatial apartment on Paris’s Avenue Foch. Edmund White, a master story teller traces the girls’ stories with consummate care and panache. Wonderful details. Sharp observations. Highly recommend

I have loved Edmund White ever since I read Inside The Pearl. He has a great eye for social satire, mainly because he has known such outrageous and hilarious characters in life. More please!

A fantastic read, great characters and I liked the parallel stories of twins. Really funny, rude and compelling.

A fascinating and enthralling story that kept me hooked till the last page. The story of the two sisters is a great saga and their characters are well written and fascinating.
The background, the setting are vivid and realistic, the plot is well developed and I loved the storytelling.
It's the first book I read by this author and won't surely be the last.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Before I begin this one, I must preface that this book isn’t for everybody and should be cloaked in trigger warnings. I didn’t expect this one to be so explicit in content and, even now, I’m not certain whether it was needed and how much it helped to characterise the plot. That being said, I unexpectedly really enjoyed A Saint from Texas and I’m glad I picked it up. The novel stories the journeys of Yvette and Yvonne, twin sisters born and raised in an East Texas prairie, but who choose and take very different paths in life. Yvonne will chase the grandeur of Parisian society lifestyle, whilst Yvette devotes her life to worship, and this novel notes how their familial bonds are truly unbreakable.

What piqued my interest in this title was the family saga element of the plot, and that I got. White tells it in a hopping sort of way, highlighting the parallels and differences in the twins’ lives and it makes for great storytelling. As a reader, I followed, captivated, as Yvette and Yvonne’s lives traversed the world over, and White’s poetic turn of phrase cemented this one as a winner for me.

I had to pick this one up as a native to the state and I immediately felt a kinship with Yvonne the expat. This book is filled with stories, any number of which could make an excellent book themselves. We are treated to a host of strange and sensual characters, not all of them likeable, in the form of letters and remiscing from two very different but identical twin sisters. I think that what I enjoyed most was each sister looking for their own idea of perfection- Yvette driven by faith and Yvonne by status- and the growing up that occurs when both find there is no such thing. I did find the constant French asides to be a little tedious, as the author then has to spend a lot of time translating when it doesn't really add anything to the book. I also felt that almost everyone turns every conversation into an erudite discussion, brimming with poetry and prose. This makes the dialogue again feel very forced, and only a tool to cram in tidbits that on the whole are unnecessary. Still a very good read overall and I would recommend it.