I keep reading about authors saying this is the book they're currently reading. This isn't an exaggeration. Jeffrey Eugenides noticed the same thing in his interview with the New York Times Book Review. This book, actually four books in one, is the story of the life and times, character flaws and dysfunctions, of Patrick Melrose. With it's upper crust setting, the Flyte family in Brideshead Revisited might be faintly reminiscent. Always on the lookout for the next Evelyn Waugh, I was intrigued at first, but the lush language of St. Aubyn, which everyone praises, just seemed prolix to me. There is also some excessive and disturbing imagery that seems straight out of a Bret Easton Ellis novel. I like the idea of following the lives of characters over the course of several novels, but when you've experienced The Palliser series and how masterfully it was designed and written, it might be hard to lower your expectations and stick it out with Patrick Melrose. It is shorter than Trollope though. These are not newly published novels, but their packaging together in one volume is, and anticipates St. Aubyn's fifth and final Melrose book, At Last, which is also currently out.
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