Judith Drainger wasn’t the perfect mother. She spent years volunteering in African refugee camps, leaving her own family to fend for themselves for months at a time. Now that her abusive mother has passed away and she’s divorced her unappreciative husband, Judith moves to Australia—hoping to help her daughter raise her baby. Showing up, however, can’t easily heal the wounds of a lifetime.

Deeply honest and often uncomfortable, Alexandra Addams’s THE SELF-MADE SAINT begins as a family drama, but opens quickly into a broader reflection on the challenges of modern adulthood. Judith is a recognizable type: rail-thin and tightly controlled from her own mother’s strict tutelage, she’s now divorced, friendless, and estranged from her daughter. Judith’s story isn’t just about reconnecting with her daughter; it’s about healing herself, and allowing herself to connect with other people at all. This often appears in subtle, satisfying ways. Judith, for instance, is irritated by Martha, the overly helpful neighbor who barges in unannounced and does unwanted (but necessary) favors. Judith herself, however, begins doing the same to her neighbor Gladys, an elderly woman living alone in poverty and squalor. Judith struggles with socializing, but when she can justify herself with a kind of Protestant work ethic—“Bev needed a helping hand, not a friend,” she rationalizes in one case—she can ease herself into it. Adult survivors of trauma will see their own struggles frankly and compassionately portrayed here.

THE SELF-MADE SAINT manages this with a strong, conversational prose style that sticks closely to Judith’s perspective. The text knows how to turn a phrase, sometimes for scenic or dramatic effect (“cathedral-tall eucalyptus trees”) and sometimes in a burst of humor (“a face like a withered potato”). It also knows how to gently shift focus in ways that the protagonist will miss but the reader won’t. “Bev needed a helping hand, not a friend. Why didn’t she just say so?” rides a fine, meaningful line between mismatched social expectations and the suggestion that Judith, who consistently struggles with social cues and understanding others’ emotional responses, might be neurodivergent—a thematic layer that remains unstated but present throughout. This kind of clear vision and light touch characterizes THE SELF-MADE SAINT from start to finish.

Thick on character and theme, the story has a plot that is enough to keep things moving. Though the final chapters are the weakest section, THE SELF-MADE SAINT leaves readers with a tangible emotional satisfaction by the end.

Tense, funny, and relatable, Alexandra Addams’s THE SELF-MADE SAINT is a closely observed tale about negotiating adulthood.

~Dan Accardi for IndieReader