The Patrick
Melrose novels are a very hard work to top. Through five books, all of which
are available in one set at the affordable price of $30 (trust me, it is one of
the best near 900 pages books you will ever read), Edward St. Aubyn gave the
public what is easily the best set of British novels of the last quarter
century. A bold statement but one I stand by. No one has comes close, not
McEwan, not Barnes, nobody. It is such a masterpiece that it helplessly
overshadows the other books Aubyn have produced, from the disappointing (On the
Edge) to the middling (A Clue to the Exit), to the almost good (Lost For
Words), and with Dunbar, his newest book published, a reworking of
Shakespeare’s King Lear, his non- Melrose novels have reached good, far from
perfect, but really, really good. Full disclosure, I have not read King Lear
and have not seen it performed nor seen any adaptions of it, so the plot was
new to me. It takes Shakespeare’s play and puts in into modern times, replacing
Lear with Dunbar, an aging tyrant and world famous business mogul who has been
ousted from his company by his cruel daughters Megan and Abby, and admitted to
an insane asylum, where his only company is Peter, a washed up comedian who
drowns his sorrows in booze and impressions, rarely talking in his own voice.
The novel follows his escape, the twin duties of his two daughters to secure
his removal from the company so they can gain his fortune and find him so the
plan goes through and the reemergence of Florence, his kind hearted daughter whom
he cruelly cast out and who reminds him of his long dead love Catherine. I won’t
talk about the motives so much (I’ll leave that to the snobby scholars), which
kind of work against this book and Aubyn’s flair for the original, but as
always, he fills every page with prose that can cute you sharply and comfort
you gently in a single phrase. It is a sight to behold and honor, and what
makes me him one of the 10 or 20 best prose stylist living today.
Rating: 4/5
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