Book note

Some years ago I read the first three novels in English writer Edward St. Aubyn's Patrick Melrose series (collected under the name of the third, "Some Hope"), and thought they were - the first two in particular - astonishingly good. A more descriptive set of adjectives might include: savage, witty, brutal, painful, and sharp. With the recent flurry of highly favorable reviews of the fifth novel in the series, At Last (I had missed the publication of the fourth), I decided to start re-reading the earlier ones even though I have a large backlog of other books (mainly fiction) that I want to read.

Forty pages into the first one, Never Mind, I must say that my earlier impressions are wholly confirmed.