AT LAST: EDWARD ST. AUBYN

I thought I was  reading the first book in a trilogy by St. Aubyn only to discover it' the last book, mostly taking place at the funeral for Patrick Melrose's mother, an American heiress and aristocrat who married  a sadistic brute of an Englishmen.  It's a highly acclaimed and advertised novel, I found, as the latest edition of The New Yorker magazine has quoted various writers as saying: "One of the most amazing reading experiences I've had in a decade," and "Some of the most perceptive, elegantly written, and hilarious novels of our era," and finally one I mostly agree with, "Vicious, brilliant little books."  As Patrick winds his way through the day of his mother's funeral, we meet most of the cast from early books, I think, just older, his fop of older friend, Nicholas Pratt, disdainfully critical of anything new.  He dies of a heart attack at the end, fulminating at an insult, well deserved after reading about him.  We meet Patrick's ex wife, who arranges the funeral because Patrick couldn't, he's too inept and depressed to do it himself.   We meet Aunt Nancy, who covets all, mostly because her father loss most of his fortune in the Great Depression, leaving her with only millions, which she spent and spent and spent.  Patrick's only solace, his redeeming humanity, is his love for his children.  There's not much of a plot, just meeting various odd people who have come to know Patrick's mother, who have had some part in her life, who no doubt appeared in earlier novels.  I don't think you needed to have read the other novels first though it would have been nice.  I would be happy to go back and read them even though I know enough now of Patrick's early years to know I am not sure I want to read them.  St. Aubyn certainly can write, with a often dark, witty sense of humor.  He reminded me of another English writer, John Lanchester, also a brilliant stylist and immensely erudite and interesting.  Both writers demand that you go back and read back over certain passages because they are difficult, but also because they are perceptive and original in thought.  I will go back and read the earlier novels, for the language alone, but also the deft and brilliant characterizations.