To recap; The Patrick Melrose-novel are much hyped and have recently been turned into a miniseries with Benedict Cumberbatch as Patrick Melrose. There are five novels in the suite; the first came out in 1992 (Never mind), Mother’s Milk was shortlisted for the Man Booker in 2006 and it ends with At last.
I read Mother’s Milk first because someone had told me that they were “independent of each other “. No, they are not. I didn’t think much of it at the time, so didn’t bother. Then I read Dunbar (also by St Aubyn) and was dazzled, for a lack of a better word, by the language. It is also the case, as it often is that I see the Patrick Melrose-novels all over Instagram and so many whose taste in books I admire, adore these books. So here we are; I’ve read the first one, about an afternoon in the life of your Patrick and I am reeling I tell you.
The people around that dinner table are horrid. I couldn’t stop reading but I also had a lump in my throat the whole time. The language, the phrases, the words;they are all brilliant but they really are as daggers in my heart because there is no getting away from what is going on in the book, there really isn’t. They are so mean to each other which is one thing, but to the defenseless and the young?
What St Aubyn does in almost 200 pages is describe an afternoon at a house in the south of France, where the Melroses are staying; David, Eleanor and five-year old Patrick. Guests are coming; old friends supposedly but old enemies is closer to the truth. And Bridget, who is the young girlfriend of one visitor.
Through stories about them all, what happens between the meeting’s and in the run up to dinner we learn more about them all, which you kind of wish you hadn’t. David Melrose is a cruel man, and if you are sensitive then don’t read this book.
I have only read on book so we’ll see how it all plays out in the end. But read on I shall.
-Suss
Advertisements Like this:Like Loading... Related
