The Maker of Saints

By Thulani Davis

Book Overview

A QPB and BOMC selection. The author's previous novel, 1959, was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award. Bird Kinkaid is an African-American woman who has recently been plagued by nightmares: It is a month after she witnessed Alex, her closest friend, plunge eight stories to her death on the sidewalk below?and her grief has turned into obsession. Was Alex killed or was it a suicide? Was it an accident or did the white art critic and sometimes lover Frank Burton push her to her death? The two women had an intense friendship, their lives intertwined by shared space, history, friends (and occasionally lovers), and a passion for art. Alex's death shatters Bird, compelling her to search for answers to her friend's death amidst the disparate strands of Alex's quixotic life. When she locates a series of bizarre video tapes among Alex's belongings, in which she discusses her friends, her artwork, and her turbulent love life, Bird has the key to solving both the mystery of her friend's death and her own long-hidden demons.Alive with wit and sensibility, Maker of Saints is a fascinating and provocative novel about love, art, jealousy, and friendship in a funky, glitzy, New York demimonde.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140267352
• ISBN13: 9780140267358
• Release Date: December 1997
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

Davis does it again

Thulani Davis captures the heart of independent-thinking black women in America from "1959" and now "Maker of Saints." This story is told through the eyes of a struggling artist in our society. I connected with everything about Bird and her struggles -- both with her own lot in life and the murder of her best friend. The book went from being and insiders look at the visual arts, jazz, media and urban life to a thriller of the highest order. The edges are singed with race, anger and fear while the core is focused by a driven women. By tracking the murderer of her freind she manages to get back on track with her own life work and reason for being.The story seems to parallel the tragic death of Anna Mendietta. I couldn't put it down and couldn't stop thinking of all these elements. What a great movie it would make but read it first!

a jewel

1959 was a rich, and haunting book, and this second novel by this author is as well, I think it just wasn't reviewed or it would be hard to keep on the shelves. I rather expect to see it made into a movie...it's that kind of story. Some of the images from this work will stay with me always - and it's a book I could read again. It's about a complicated friendship, a loss, New York City, and a resonant time that's just past.