“He was finished as a man.”
I do so love the Patrick Melrose novels and appear to be
flying through them. Why only yesterday, it seems Patrick was a small boy with
a horrendous family life and now he has two boys of his own dealing with birth,
a loss of inheritance and two strange beings known as their parents. Here we are with the 4th novel, nominated for a Man Booker Prize in 2006 and the times, well they appear to be changing.
Beginning with Robert’s rude awakening into the world, the
entire novel serves as a sort of rude awakening of its own, but served up in a delectable
fashion. Patrick seems a little adrift, he has lost his wife to full time
motherhood and his family holiday home to a cult.
The steady decline of his mother brings its own wealth of
black comedy. I felt guilty for laughing about the euthanasia suggestions – “signing
and swallowing, those were the keys to the kingdom”. This fourth novel is
somewhat of a trial to see how the torments of Patrick’s life will visit
themselves upon his children and in many ways, Robert appears to bear the brunt
of this responsibility. His all knowing abilities and position as narrator are
an artifice that is nevertheless, employed to great effect.
I do so love a dysfunctional literary clan and can’t wait to
read the final instalment. I will miss
the upheaval and beautiful prose.
5 out of 5 first
children carry the heavy emotional loads.
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