“The Complete Patrick Melrose Novels” by Edward St. Aubyn

This is a collection of five short novels, “Never Mind”, “Bad News”, “Some Hope”, “Mother’s Milk”, and “At Last”, which together span about 860 pages. Fictionally, the books span most of the protagonist’s, Patrick Melrose’s, life. The novels track specific momentous events in Patrick’s life, each proceeding after long biographical gaps, giving vignettes of the aristocratic life of the Melrose clan, beginning when Patrick is five and ending when he buries his mother, as an adult, with two young boys of his own. In fact, each novel takes place over a single day in Patrick’s life, albeit interspersed with flashbacks. His life might be considered the focus, but the drama is seen through the eyes of multiple characters. In the meantime, there are vast sums of money spent, inheritances and disinheritances galore, bitterness, rape, pedophilia, heroin addiction, philosophy, snobbery, erudition, cults, affairs, deaths, Freudian analysis, and plenty of British humor. These books combine all I like best as an Anglophile. The humor is ironic and perverse, in a naturally British way. The character development is supreme. The characters are both relatable and so distant all at once. The plot is serious at times, but always on the threat of facetiousness. The story is gripping, but at the same time, incidental to the hilarity and morbidity of the characters. The novels were all breezy reads, but perfect little books.