Mother's Milk Book

The next instalment of the story of Patrick Melrose. After learning about his childhood and his appalling father in the first book we now see him as a married man. Though he makes a concerted effort to be a good father he's, not surprisingly, a pretty awful husband and soon falls prey to adultery and alcoholism. He's also constantly indulging a tendency towards self-pity which was the subject of a fair bit of the overwriting in this novel - extravagant firework displays commemorating unworthy emotional milestones. His mother has left the family house in France to a cult of new age happy clappers - no surprise that St Aubyn has nothing but scorn for these people and dishes out to them some of his most acerbic wit. The best character for me is the precocious youngest son, Thomas - one of the best portraits of a child I've ever read. On the whole tremendously engaging and sometimes very funny. 4+ stars.