LIVING WITH SAINTS

In this wickedly clever debut collection, O'Connell places female saints in contemporary settings and reinterprets their stories. Sassy in tone from the opening sentence of the first story, "Saint Dymphna" ("Holy shit, thought Dymphna, The Women's Center has hired a moonie"), the collection is full of saints who are just as likely to offer up smart-mouthed remarks as they are to provide comfort. Dymphna, a Catholic school girl who has an abortion, later experiences the "true heart of another" in a surprising modern twist on her namesake saint's martyrdom. In "The Patron Saint of Girls," Saint Agnes hovers over a high school biology class and tries to explain how even in her moment of martyrdom, she was most worried about impressing a boy. Saint Catherine Laboure is a tattoo artist, and Veronica is a 34-year-old singleton in New York City. But O'Connell isn't interested in easy irreverent swipes at Catholicism; serious topics are addressed in every story—teenage pregnancy and abortion, sexual abuse, debilitating illness, losing a loved one—and the links between myth and life are tight and always unexpected. O'Connell has an uncanny ear for dialogue and an otherworldly communion with the hearts and minds of adolescent girls in particular. Whether offering a new version of the Immaculate Conception, testing the influence of St. Christopher on two young female travelers in 1980s London or depicting a cigarette-smoking Saint Anne offering bedside counsel to a single mother who is trying to make ends meet by sleeping with her loathsome boss, the bottom line here is an examination of faith. Traditionalists may be shocked, but everyone else (nonreligious readers included) will be delighted with these well-crafted, inventive and highly original modern-day visitations. (Oct.)

Forecast:Strong reviews should move this charmer. The saint-worshiping market probably won't cross over, but those with a yen for Catholic kitsch will be delighted.