Maker of Saints

Author: Thulani Davis

Publisher: Penguin Random House (1997) 

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.