I just realised that telling you about each of the novels in the series can be a spoiler on its own. I mean, this way you learn that Patrick, a survivor of a horrible childhood and a person with a history of drug addiction, doesn’t die and continues to grow older. Thus, if you want to dive into the novels completely unaware of the story’s direction, you might want to ignore my reviews of the novels completely. I still give out no spoilers in each review, so decide for yourself. Here’s my review of Some Hope, the third novel about Patrick Melrose.

What is it like?

First of all, it’s easier to read. At some point I even checked if I was really reading a Melrose novel because the sentences of the first two books took much longer to unravel. The hallmark sharp writing that reveals people’s essence in just one sentence is still here.

Bridget seldom found the time to see her daughter. She could not forgive her for being a girl…

Johny looked at Amanda and marvelled again at the phenomenon of pretty girls who were not at all sexy.

Obeying the law that people always loathe those they have wronged, Sonny found himself especially allergic to Bridget…

Alexander Politsky, whose extreme Englishness derived from his being Russian, was perhaps the last man in England to use the term ‘old bean’ sincerely.

The humour is still here too.

‘Do you know where we are?’ asked Tom.

‘Sure,’ said Anne. ‘We’re out of our minds.’

Patrick is as quotable as ever.

‘One seldom knows whether perseverance is noble or stupid until it’s too late.’

‘It was a terrible shock to me when I realized I was getting too old to die young anymore.’

‘There’s no point in staying stuck,’ Patrick agreed. ‘But there’s even less point in pretending to be free.’

I could probably quote the whole book to you. I had to restrain myself from sharing all of the quotes so that you can discover the gems for yourself.

What’s wrong with the book, then?

Have you seen all those people in the quotes? There are actually even more of them. They all keep talking all the time! Do you see how awesome Patrick is, how interesting it is to listen to him? Well, there isn’t enough of him in this book. All those strangers keep philosophising at a dinner party, but with all due respect to them, I’m in this for Patrick not for them. That’s why I’m giving the book 3.5 stars. The lack of any action played its role too. One single step that Patrick takes towards hope is really meaningful but not enough for a reader who’s been dragging through tons of strangers’ conversations!

So, is there any hope?

Yes, there definitely is, but don’t hold your breath, it’s just a glimmer of hope.

Will I continue with the series?

I’m already continuing. I’m reading the fourth novel at the moment. I can’t let go of the writing that is so perfect. In his novels Edward St. Aubyn is doing the main thing that I love about literature. He’s cutting to the core with just a few phrases. He’s giving names to the things that you feel were always there but you become fully aware of them only when they acquire form. Edward St. Aubyn achieves this in all the three Patrick Melrose novels that I’ve read so far.

Here are the reviews of the previous novels in the series: Never Mind, Patrick Melrose novel #1 and Bad News, Patrick Melrose novel #2.

About the book

Never Mind is a book about several people from high society, some of whom are dysfunctional and some are pure evil, and a child who has to live among them.

There are five novels about Patrick Melrose. This first one tells about a single day from Patrick’s childhood. The novel was published in 1992. Patrick is just five years old in the story (so the photo of Cumberbatch on the cover is quite misleading even though he played grown-up Patrick in the series based on the novels). The last novel, called At Last, was published in 2011. Which means that, theoretically, Patrick had time to grow up and look more like Cumberbatch in the later books. I’m being that careful in my predictions because of what I now know about Patrick’s childhood. I’m absolutely not sure what his future might be like.

The novel is very short, there are only 181 pages in it. It feels more like a first act of a theatrical performance. The amount of action would fit into a mid-sized short story. The action, though is not the main treasure of the book. It’s the writing and the way it reveals the characters that make this book very special.

What I liked in this book

Humour

For the fist several pages I was sure the whole book would be hilarious. I had no idea about the horrors that were coming so I was just laughing out loud at phrases like these:

Patrick’s own nanny was dead. A friend of his mother’s said she had gone to heaven, but Patrick had been there and knew perfectly well that they had put her in a wooden box and dropped her in a hole. Heaven was the other direction…

… a civil servant who was widely thought to be a spy because his job sounded too dull to exist.

The writing

It’s not about how the writing sounds, it’s about the things it exposes. It’s sharp, witty and ironical.

They turned into self-parodies without going to the trouble of acquiring a self first.

He was one of those Englishmen who was always saying silly things to sound less pompous, and pompous things to sound less silly.

The characters are created in the same way. Most of them are despicable but you can see each layer of their corrupted souls, and that’s why they draw your attention.

Diagnosis had been his most intoxicating skill as a doctor and after exhibiting it he had often lost interest in his patients, unless something about their suffering intrigued him.

A dark red and heavily gilded chair that Eleanor’s American grandmother had prised from an old Venetian family on one of her acquisitive sweeps through Europe gleamed against the opposite wall of the room. He enjoyed the scandal connected with its acquisition and, knowing that it should be carefully preserved in a museum, he made a point of sitting on it as often as possible.

‘D’you believe in capital punishment?’ piped up Bridget.

‘Not since it ceased to be a public occasion’, said David.

A few warnings about the book

Even though the book is short I wouldn’t say it’s a fast read. The writing is not that transparent. You have to slow down and focus on each phrase to grasp the full meaning of what’s going on.

The novel doesn’t feel like a completed story. You will have to read the next books in the series to learn what eventually happens to Patrick Melrose.

Another, and much more serious warning is about violence and abuse, portrayed so skilfully that you can imagine all omitted details even better than those that are shown.

Final thoughts

I will definitely continue with Patrick Melrose novels, even though now I’m not sure I would be able to stomach the TV show. I would recommend this book very carefully, in the same way that I would recommend Nabokov’s Lolita. I personally think it’s a true work of art but I’m not sure what effect such art can have on others.