Once you start reading the Patrick Melrose novels you’ll want to
read them all. We loved the jacketed glossy cover and the rough cut
pages which give a satisfying squeak when you open the book.
Patrick Melrose Novels 5 Books Set Collection is masterwork for the twenty-first century by Edward St Aubyn. Books include Bad News, At last, Some Hope, Never Mind, Mother’s Milk. St. Aubyn follows a particular boy born in a particular time (60s) among the British gentry as he grows up and moves through London, the south of France New York. From the ramifications of a particularly loathsome form of child abuse, Patrick essentially spends his life trying to transcend the experience, becoming a mega drug addict (as vivid a description of an addiction as you may ever read), a lawyer, a husband and father and finally, a son to the parents who don’t deserve him.
Bad News is about Twenty-two years old and in the grip of a massive addiction, Patrick Melrose is forced to fly to New York to collect his father’s ashes. Over the course of a weekend, Patrick’s remorseless search for drugs on the avenues of Manhattan, haunted by old acquaintances and insistent inner voices, sends him into a nightmarish spiral. Alone in his room at the Pierre Hotel, he pushes body and mind to the very edge — desperate always to stay one step ahead of his rapidly encroaching past. This title was originally published, along with Never Mind and Some Hope, as part of a 3-book package, also called Some Hope.
Some Hope includes Patrick is now a recovering addict and trying to make sense of his life. Many of the characters from the previous books reappear – usually with different partners. Just as in Never Mind and Bad News this is packed with interesting observations and wry comments. Having checked into a hotel Patrick reads a notice at his bedside. To avoid disappointment, residents are advised to book in the restaurant in advance.’ Patrick, who had been trying to avoid disappointment all his life, cursed himself for not discovering this formula earlier.
“Never Mind“ is the first book in the Patrick Melrose Trilogy. When we first meet Patrick, he is only five years old and is living in the South of France with his father, David, and his mother Eleanor. David Melrose is a vicious, cruel man, a bully and an utter snob. Having married Eleanor for her money, he reduces her to a drunken wreck. Into this unhappy house a group of people are converging for a dinner party and some of these characters appear in other books. Although this is a fairly short novel, it is apparent that Patrick really stands very little chance of emerging unscathed from the brutal neglect he encounters, either emotionally or physically, from the adults around him. As a portrait of the minor aristocracy, it does not paint a pretty picture, and their self belief that they are so superior clashes with their truly awful behaviour. Edward St Aubyn is a masterful author and I doubt that anybody could read this book and not wish to know what happens next.
Mother’s Milk book is a great choice it merged the depths of cruelty to human consciousness with the perfect blue sky and paradise of the beach, a perfect Dante heaven and hell yet it is a story of triumph over adversity, the oldest story of man. Really enjoyed it, beautifully written in a careful elegant style much missed in modern literature.
Compulsively readable. Title “At Last“–the latest “installment.” The hero’s journey from abused child through self-abusing youth to brutally self-knowing survivor would be excruciating if it weren’t for St. Aubyn’s lapidary prose and lacerating wit. Fully captures the terror of being a small child at the mercy of ruthlessly self-absorbed adults and the resulting life-long confusion of having one’s deepest emotional attachments warped by parental damage. But also provides hilarious portraits of clueless aristocrats, deranged addicts, deluded do-gooders and unapologetic snobs. I can’t think of another author who alternates between breathtaking satire and profound insight as deftly as St. Aubyn. The effect is devastating in both senses of the word.
Patrick Melrose Novels 5 Books Set Collection is masterwork for the twenty-first century by Edward St Aubyn. Books include Bad News, At last, Some Hope, Never Mind, Mother’s Milk. St. Aubyn follows a particular boy born in a particular time (60s) among the British gentry as he grows up and moves through London, the south of France New York. From the ramifications of a particularly loathsome form of child abuse, Patrick essentially spends his life trying to transcend the experience, becoming a mega drug addict (as vivid a description of an addiction as you may ever read), a lawyer, a husband and father and finally, a son to the parents who don’t deserve him.
Bad News is about Twenty-two years old and in the grip of a massive addiction, Patrick Melrose is forced to fly to New York to collect his father’s ashes. Over the course of a weekend, Patrick’s remorseless search for drugs on the avenues of Manhattan, haunted by old acquaintances and insistent inner voices, sends him into a nightmarish spiral. Alone in his room at the Pierre Hotel, he pushes body and mind to the very edge — desperate always to stay one step ahead of his rapidly encroaching past. This title was originally published, along with Never Mind and Some Hope, as part of a 3-book package, also called Some Hope.
Some Hope includes Patrick is now a recovering addict and trying to make sense of his life. Many of the characters from the previous books reappear – usually with different partners. Just as in Never Mind and Bad News this is packed with interesting observations and wry comments. Having checked into a hotel Patrick reads a notice at his bedside. To avoid disappointment, residents are advised to book in the restaurant in advance.’ Patrick, who had been trying to avoid disappointment all his life, cursed himself for not discovering this formula earlier.
“Never Mind“ is the first book in the Patrick Melrose Trilogy. When we first meet Patrick, he is only five years old and is living in the South of France with his father, David, and his mother Eleanor. David Melrose is a vicious, cruel man, a bully and an utter snob. Having married Eleanor for her money, he reduces her to a drunken wreck. Into this unhappy house a group of people are converging for a dinner party and some of these characters appear in other books. Although this is a fairly short novel, it is apparent that Patrick really stands very little chance of emerging unscathed from the brutal neglect he encounters, either emotionally or physically, from the adults around him. As a portrait of the minor aristocracy, it does not paint a pretty picture, and their self belief that they are so superior clashes with their truly awful behaviour. Edward St Aubyn is a masterful author and I doubt that anybody could read this book and not wish to know what happens next.
Mother’s Milk book is a great choice it merged the depths of cruelty to human consciousness with the perfect blue sky and paradise of the beach, a perfect Dante heaven and hell yet it is a story of triumph over adversity, the oldest story of man. Really enjoyed it, beautifully written in a careful elegant style much missed in modern literature.
Compulsively readable. Title “At Last“–the latest “installment.” The hero’s journey from abused child through self-abusing youth to brutally self-knowing survivor would be excruciating if it weren’t for St. Aubyn’s lapidary prose and lacerating wit. Fully captures the terror of being a small child at the mercy of ruthlessly self-absorbed adults and the resulting life-long confusion of having one’s deepest emotional attachments warped by parental damage. But also provides hilarious portraits of clueless aristocrats, deranged addicts, deluded do-gooders and unapologetic snobs. I can’t think of another author who alternates between breathtaking satire and profound insight as deftly as St. Aubyn. The effect is devastating in both senses of the word.
