At Last: The Final Patrick Melrose Novel
With this title, St. Aubyn caps his five-volume cycle of Melrose novels. Patrick Melrose, introduced as a five-year-old in Never Mind (originally published in Great Britain in 1992), is now a middle-aged divorced alcoholic barrister living in a bedsit. As in the previous books, events in At Last take place over the course of a single day; in this case, the day of Patrick’s mother’s funeral. Despite his loss and his reduced circumstances, and having survived a past marked by abuse and drug addiction, Patrick has “at last” found a measure of peace. With lacerating humor and razor-sharp imagery, St. Aubyn continues to work out his themes: the follies of the British upper class, “the psychological impact of inherited wealth,” the complex dynamics between parent and child. Picador has also brought out the four other Patrick Melrose novels (Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother’s Milk, in addition to At Last) in a single volume, a great favor to American readers. --Mary Ellen Quinn--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.