Impossible Saints: Provocative Book Club Historical Fiction About Women, Faith, and the Church

by Michèle Roberts

What does it take for a woman to be judged saintly? In this wily, wonderfully original novel, Michèle Roberts tells the story of the fictional Saint Josephine: her life and death, her childhood and evolution from woman to nun to abbess, her unlikely canonization. The more we discover, the more incredible her sainthood seems. Who was Saint Josephine? Craven nun or fearless miracle worker? Pious role model or seductress? Illuminating Saint Josephine's story are the equally fantastical stories of eleven actual female saints: mad one-armed girls, beauties locked in towers, mothers who encourage their daughters' fatal anorexia, ingenues who seduce and dismember their fathers. Together the stories expose the historical conflict between female sexuality and religion, the roots of female roles in the church, and the troubled love between fathers and daughters. In original exploration of love, faith, and desire, Impossible Saints is a funny, disturbing, and utterly compelling novel about modern women who came before their time.

Genres: Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Michèle Brigitte Roberts is the author of fifteen novels, including Ignorance which was nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction and Daughters of the House which won the W.H. Smith Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her memoir Paper Houses was BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week in June 2007. She has also published poetry and short stories, most recently collected in Mud: Stories of Sex and Love. Half-English and half-French, Roberts lives in London and in the Mayenne, France. She is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

Reviews

[Sarah Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought Impossible Saints by Michele Roberts as a course book for my degree but never got round to reading it. It has sat on my book shelf for over 6 years now and I thought I need to either read it or give it away.

It is a very unusual novel, which reminded me of Angela Carter a little. This novel follows the life of Josephine, but is interspersed with 11 other short stories of other saints. Unsure most of the time of when any of these tales are set it is a thought provoking interesting read. These short stories are fairy tale like and have a grotesque quality to them. Roberts writes of the life and death of Saint Josephine. Holy woman or whore? Upholder of pious or pagan delights? Lowly nun or powerful miracle worker? Or both? Woven through her story are tales of the other female saints, one-armed mad girls, beauties locked in towers, seductive daughters - all women who didn't know their place. Written with a modern, feminist viewpoint, these are not ordinary tales of saints. Beautifully written by Roberts it looks at faith, sexuality, relationships, and love. A study in what is considered to be good or bad in a woman. Roberts rejects patriarchal Christianity and demythologises or re-writes the lives of female saints in order to challenge the Church’s construction of femininity as passive etc.

[Mew · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't get into this at all. The jumping around between narratives confused me and bored me. Some of the themes running through the book seemed to be there purely for the 'shock' factor. A miserable start to 2010!

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of the fictional St Josephine is interwoven with stories of other female saints (though not always told in the traditional version), exploring relationships between women, between women and men, between daughters and fathers, between sexuality and sainthood. Full of vibrant imagery, ranging widely in place and time, certainly thought-provoking.

[Sonia Gomes · Rating 3 out of 5]

The central story of St. Josephine is sad, funny and much more. You however do get confused, is St. Josephine a harlot or a miracle worker ?
I think the reader has to work it out for herself.
But Roberts does give us an insight into the strange lives of some women saints, some of these stories leave you open mouthed with the feeling
'Do such things really happen ?' or Do saints get canonised for stuff such as this"!
A good read if you want to know more about saints of middle ages and their strange lives.