Edward St. Aubyn | Raging Biblio-holism

Lost for Words

May 18, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Every year, the prestigious Elysian Prize committee must select a short list and winning novel from hundreds of submissions. Malcolm Craig, the chair of the 2013 committee, must wrangle his quirky group of judges into choosing a winning book while various hopeful novelists wait in anticipation and make a hash of their personal lives in the process. The Review: The cover for this book makes me laugh every time I look at it, because I always think, for […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Edward St. Aubyn, Fiction, Humor, Literature, Lost for Words, Prizes, Reviews

At Last (The Patrick Melrose Novels, Book 5)

December 28, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: Patrick Melrose, now middle-aged and sober and divorced, adds one more descriptor to his list: orphan. This novel takes place on the day of his mother’s funeral – and Patrick takes the day to reflect on, well, just about everything that’s happened to him and the people who’ve been around for it all. At last, he is terribly free. The Review: I once read a review of Sting’s Brand New Day album that described him as “comfortably ending […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: 6, At Last, Edward St. Aubyn, Fiction, Literature, Patrick Melrose, The Patrick Melrose Novels

Mother’s Milk (The Patrick Melrose Novels, Book 4)

June 29, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: Patrick Melrose, now in his early 40s with a wife and two children, is dealing with his rapidly deteriorating mother – who has given away the family home to a New Age Foundation – and his own mid-life crisis. The Review: This book, the fourth novel of the quintet and final in this collection, is the most stylistically unique of the four I’ve read so far. The first third is perhaps the most astonishing writing I’ve experienced […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: 6, Edward St. Aubyn, Fiction, Literature, Mother's Milk, Patrick Melrose, The Patrick Melrose Novels

Some Hope (The Patrick Melrose Novels, Book 3)

June 24, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: Crashing out of his twenties into a sober and vaguely respectable thirty, Patrick Melrose finds himself vaguely adrift at a party in the English countryside. He’s starting to get over the scars of his childhood and realizing that, perhaps, this world isn’t the one he necessarily wants to inhabit. The Review: Ah-ha. There it is. The first two novels were “the flailing British aristocracy” as seen through the microcosm of one man. This is the broader novel, […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: 6, Edward St. Aubyn, Fiction, Literature, Patrick Melrose, Some Hope, The Patrick Melrose Novels

Bad News (The Patrick Melrose Novels, Book 2)

June 23, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: Patrick Melrose’s father has died. The 22-year-old Patrick flies to New York to collect his ashes and embarks on an epic drug binge over the space of the 50 or so hours before he has to fly back to England. The Review: Where the first novel was a Pinterian sonata of menace, this is a Sebastian Horsley-ian aria of addiction. St. Aubyn has managed an impressive feat: the novel feels totally different and yet a logical progression. […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: 6, Bad News, Drugs, Edward St. Aubyn, Fiction, Literature, Patrick Melrose, The Patrick Melrose Novels

Never Mind (The Patrick Melrose Novels, Book 1)

June 19, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: The course of a single day in the South of France at the Melrose family ‘chateau’ as they prepare to host a small dinner party. The Review: I’m keeping the summary short because, really, that’s what the novel is ‘about’ – it’s a very simple story, novella-length really. Of course, it’s so much more than that. Much like with The Alexandria Quartet, I’m treating each of these novels as an individual despite reading them in a collected […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: 6, Edward St. Aubyn, Fiction, Literature, Never Mind, Patrick Melrose, The Patrick Melrose Novels

Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

Tag: Edward St. Aubyn