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Picador USA (2012), Edition: New edition
Original publication date
2006
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Description
Shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize, Mother's Milk is the fourth of the Melrose novels. Now a husband and a father - and irresistibly caught up in a wreckage of broken promises, child-rearing, adultery and assisted suicide - Patrick finds his wife Mary consumed by motherhood, his mother Eleanor consumed by a New Age foundation, and his five-year-old son understanding far more than he ought. Set between the south of France and the USA, Mother's Milk is a breathtaking exploration of the troubled allegiances between parents and children, husbands and wives.
User reviews
LibraryThing member TurboBookSnob
Mother's Milk features the same family that Edward St. Aubyn introduced in his acclaimed trilogy Some Hope. It is a hilarious satire on the family and human relationships.
The story opens with the older Melrose son, Robert, narrating his own birth. This is reminiscent of the opening pages of Kate
“…from the feverish grub of the old Marmaduke sprang a musclebound wunderkind, clear-eyed, pink-tongued, and (it transpired) infallibly vicious. The change was all very sudden. Guy and Hope went out one day, leaving the usual gastroenteritic nightmare slobbering on the kitchen floor; they returned after lunch to find Marmaduke strolling round the drawing room with his hands in his pockets…”
Robert's brother, Thomas, is younger and quite devoted to his mother Mary. He is also astonishingly self-aware, uttering comments such as “No Mama, don't pick me up, it's really unbearable.” He is extremely adept from a very early age at coming between his mother and father.
Mary, the mother, is exceptionally devoted to her two boys, to the complete physical and mental exclusion of her husband, Patrick. He has a volatile temper and a scathing tongue, and uses the distance that is steadily growing between his family to fuel his speeches about everything from marital relations to the war in Iraq .
The novel spans three years in the family's lives and moves from England to their ancestral home in France , where Patrick's mother is insisting on donating the heap to her pet New Age charity, to America , for a disastrous family holiday. The plot, though, is really secondary, and that is not to say that this novel isn't a page turner. It is. It is, however, the interpersonal relations of the family members that enables St. Aubyn to display his acerbic wit and biting satirical style. This is an amazing, inventive, hilarious novel – just don't take it as the final word on familial relations!
The story opens with the older Melrose son, Robert, narrating his own birth. This is reminiscent of the opening pages of Kate
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Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum, and it works equally as well, but in a different way. Robert is wise beyond his years, but pitiful as well as he bemoans the lack of closeness and comfort he so recently had in his mother's womb. As Robert grows older, he reminds one of the malevolently precocious Marmaduke from Martin Amis' London Fields, who goes from ailing helpless infant to an alarmingly knowing terror overnight (though Robert is less ill-willed): “…from the feverish grub of the old Marmaduke sprang a musclebound wunderkind, clear-eyed, pink-tongued, and (it transpired) infallibly vicious. The change was all very sudden. Guy and Hope went out one day, leaving the usual gastroenteritic nightmare slobbering on the kitchen floor; they returned after lunch to find Marmaduke strolling round the drawing room with his hands in his pockets…”
Robert's brother, Thomas, is younger and quite devoted to his mother Mary. He is also astonishingly self-aware, uttering comments such as “No Mama, don't pick me up, it's really unbearable.” He is extremely adept from a very early age at coming between his mother and father.
Mary, the mother, is exceptionally devoted to her two boys, to the complete physical and mental exclusion of her husband, Patrick. He has a volatile temper and a scathing tongue, and uses the distance that is steadily growing between his family to fuel his speeches about everything from marital relations to the war in Iraq .
The novel spans three years in the family's lives and moves from England to their ancestral home in France , where Patrick's mother is insisting on donating the heap to her pet New Age charity, to America , for a disastrous family holiday. The plot, though, is really secondary, and that is not to say that this novel isn't a page turner. It is. It is, however, the interpersonal relations of the family members that enables St. Aubyn to display his acerbic wit and biting satirical style. This is an amazing, inventive, hilarious novel – just don't take it as the final word on familial relations!
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LibraryThing member maritimer
Part way through this book I found myself no longer caring that the characters were so unremittingly dreadful and instead realizing that I was probably reading some of the best writing that I had ever encountered. And this writing in turn drew me back to the characters. The writing rendered them
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fascinating if no less repellant and no more likable. Usually I am trying to connect with character and story, to have them resonate in some transparent way with my own life or my understanding of life, and in finding this resonance, I apply the modern day "liked this, thumbs up" and move on. St. Aubyn asks more and gets more from the reader. I have no idea why he focuses on the tortuous and claustrophobic workings of these mostly irredeemable lives, but he succeeds marvelously in making me want to understand their stories. Show Less
LibraryThing member stillatim
Judging by the goodreads reviews (which are usually very reliable), this book seems to have been mis-marketed. Readers complain that the characters are unpleasant (which you should know going in, I admit) and that St. Aubyn is 'too much of a stylist,' which sounds to me like saying a composer is
So, prospective reader, know that St. Aubyn's work is a salad, and that the ingredients are:
* Proust's essayistic novel form. As with Proust, you have to read carefully.
* Wilde's utterly unrealistic, yet brilliant, dialogue. As with Wilde, he's sometimes too clever for his own good.
* Waugh's ambivalent upper class satire.
* Richard Yates' beautifully styled misanthropy. As with Yates, it can all get a little tiring.
This is not to say he's the next Proust or Wilde, of course. But he's at least on a level with Yates.
This novel is beautifully and intelligently crafted. The opening section - told through the eyes of a 5 year old - should be ridiculously quirky, but is one of the best thirty or so pages published so far this century in English. St Aubyn clearly knows that the whole thing could be disastrous, and plays around with this fact. The shifting points of view throughout the novel are quite knowing, as well; St Aubyn refuses to insult his readers' intelligence by dumbing his work down and using old moves from the realism rulebook. At the same time, he holds on to what is valuable in the realistic tradition: a respect for the world outside of literature, the great potential of ironic narration, and the ability to put his readers into perspectives they ordinarily would not take up.
In short: an almost ideal blend of self-reflection, social thought and artistry.
The prose is so clear that it's often too easy to read: take your time, and try to understand exactly what's going on. It helps to have read the other books in the series, but it's probably not necessary. If you know this stuff going in, you'll hopefully get more out of the book than some reviewers seem to have done.
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'too musical' or a basketball player is 'too athletic.' From a straight description, you might think this is akin to, say Gerard Woodward's semi-autobiographical trilogy: addiction, family issues, well-written etc. From the blurbs, you might think it's a soap opera (Sam Lipsyte couldn't do better than 'harrowing entertainment'? I guess it's 'entertainment' if you assume that serious art is only produced in American MFA programs). So, prospective reader, know that St. Aubyn's work is a salad, and that the ingredients are:
* Proust's essayistic novel form. As with Proust, you have to read carefully.
* Wilde's utterly unrealistic, yet brilliant, dialogue. As with Wilde, he's sometimes too clever for his own good.
* Waugh's ambivalent upper class satire.
* Richard Yates' beautifully styled misanthropy. As with Yates, it can all get a little tiring.
This is not to say he's the next Proust or Wilde, of course. But he's at least on a level with Yates.
This novel is beautifully and intelligently crafted. The opening section - told through the eyes of a 5 year old - should be ridiculously quirky, but is one of the best thirty or so pages published so far this century in English. St Aubyn clearly knows that the whole thing could be disastrous, and plays around with this fact. The shifting points of view throughout the novel are quite knowing, as well; St Aubyn refuses to insult his readers' intelligence by dumbing his work down and using old moves from the realism rulebook. At the same time, he holds on to what is valuable in the realistic tradition: a respect for the world outside of literature, the great potential of ironic narration, and the ability to put his readers into perspectives they ordinarily would not take up.
In short: an almost ideal blend of self-reflection, social thought and artistry.
The prose is so clear that it's often too easy to read: take your time, and try to understand exactly what's going on. It helps to have read the other books in the series, but it's probably not necessary. If you know this stuff going in, you'll hopefully get more out of the book than some reviewers seem to have done.
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LibraryThing member miss_read
Because I'll be hearing St. Aubyn speak at the Hay Festival next weekend, I thought I should read this book which has been languishing on my TBR pile for months. And now I'm not even sure if I want to hear the man speak. I suppose he is a sort of "character" and will be interesting to hear, but
I understand what St. Aubyn is trying to do here. It's the story of Patrick, a 40-ish man who has been abandoned sexually by his wife Mary to their two infant sons. Patrick's own mother, Eleanor, is leaving her estate to a bogus New Age foundation, and later winds up helpless in a nursing home bed. Patrick starts drinking, has a brief and unfulfilling affair ... the usual midlife crisis stuff. So it's this idea of a man being abandoned by two mothers which, I think, is at the heart of the story. But I can't imagine many readers having sympathy for Patrick who just comes off as a lazy, ungrateful, self-absorbed whiner.
Sometimes St. Aubyn's prose shines through, and it's really brilliant - the first chapter, written from Robert's point of view was, in particular, beautiful and moving. But most of the time, it's camouflaged by a thick sticky layer of psychobabble. The novel reads like one written by a clever, witty author whose gift has been diluted by far too many years in psychoanalysis.
Being a complete masochist, I may still take a stab at Some Hope, the first book about the characters who appear in Mother's Milk, but a nagging voice in my head is telling me not to bother and to read something more enjoyable instead. How in the world did this piece of self-indulgent bilge get shortlisted for the Booker?
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this book turned me right off. I understand what St. Aubyn is trying to do here. It's the story of Patrick, a 40-ish man who has been abandoned sexually by his wife Mary to their two infant sons. Patrick's own mother, Eleanor, is leaving her estate to a bogus New Age foundation, and later winds up helpless in a nursing home bed. Patrick starts drinking, has a brief and unfulfilling affair ... the usual midlife crisis stuff. So it's this idea of a man being abandoned by two mothers which, I think, is at the heart of the story. But I can't imagine many readers having sympathy for Patrick who just comes off as a lazy, ungrateful, self-absorbed whiner.
Sometimes St. Aubyn's prose shines through, and it's really brilliant - the first chapter, written from Robert's point of view was, in particular, beautiful and moving. But most of the time, it's camouflaged by a thick sticky layer of psychobabble. The novel reads like one written by a clever, witty author whose gift has been diluted by far too many years in psychoanalysis.
Being a complete masochist, I may still take a stab at Some Hope, the first book about the characters who appear in Mother's Milk, but a nagging voice in my head is telling me not to bother and to read something more enjoyable instead. How in the world did this piece of self-indulgent bilge get shortlisted for the Booker?
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LibraryThing member bibliobibuli
Mother's Milk by Edward St. Aubyn picks up characters from his earlier trilogy collectively titled Some Hope, something I didn't realise until after I'd finished it and began reading some of the reviews.
Mother's Milk stands alone perfectly well, but there did seem to be too heavy a burden of
The pleasure of the book lies in its sharp depictions of family life as seen through the eyes of the members of the Melrose family, Patrick, his wife Mary and young sons Robert over four successive August holidays.
The first three holidays are spent in Provence, in the house where Patrick, grew up. But the house is soon to be transfered to a flaky new age charity and a charlatan of a shaman called Seamus Dourke, while Patrick is effectively disinherited. His mother, Eleanor, meanwhile, is on her last legs and in a nursing home. But inheritance is about more than property - it's also about venemous anger and sense of betrayal passed on from one generation to the next, and both parents realise that they must break the chain with their own children.
I wasn't interested so much in the midlife angst of London lawyer Patrick, which has him seeking solace in the bottle and in an affair with an old girlfriend. But I had more sympathy for Mary, so absorbed into motherhood and its demands that she has nothing of herself to give anyone else.
I loved the parts of the book narrated from the viewpoint of the boys. St. Aubyn writes childhood wonderfully, and the opening pages, where the precocious and terrifying observant Robert describes his birth is for me one of the best parts of the novel. (And you can read it here.)
The writing is wonderfully witty and sharply observed. There are some wonderfully grotesque small part characters from an utterly incomptent Nanny to rich cousin Henry who turns out to have more extreme views on foreign policy than Rumsfeld and Bush.
Another joy is the many memorably acerbic one-liners. (The blurb on the back has a quote from the Sunday Telegraph describing St. Aubyn's "mocking aphoristic style", which says it nicely.) He writes, for example, about obese passengers on the flight, who had:
... the apprehensive fat of people who had decided to become their own airbag systems in a dangerous world.
Mother's Milk stands alone perfectly well, but there did seem to be too heavy a burden of
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backstory (all that history of the loss of family fortunes!) for such a slim volume. Ahah, now I know why.The pleasure of the book lies in its sharp depictions of family life as seen through the eyes of the members of the Melrose family, Patrick, his wife Mary and young sons Robert over four successive August holidays.
The first three holidays are spent in Provence, in the house where Patrick, grew up. But the house is soon to be transfered to a flaky new age charity and a charlatan of a shaman called Seamus Dourke, while Patrick is effectively disinherited. His mother, Eleanor, meanwhile, is on her last legs and in a nursing home. But inheritance is about more than property - it's also about venemous anger and sense of betrayal passed on from one generation to the next, and both parents realise that they must break the chain with their own children.
I wasn't interested so much in the midlife angst of London lawyer Patrick, which has him seeking solace in the bottle and in an affair with an old girlfriend. But I had more sympathy for Mary, so absorbed into motherhood and its demands that she has nothing of herself to give anyone else.
I loved the parts of the book narrated from the viewpoint of the boys. St. Aubyn writes childhood wonderfully, and the opening pages, where the precocious and terrifying observant Robert describes his birth is for me one of the best parts of the novel. (And you can read it here.)
The writing is wonderfully witty and sharply observed. There are some wonderfully grotesque small part characters from an utterly incomptent Nanny to rich cousin Henry who turns out to have more extreme views on foreign policy than Rumsfeld and Bush.
Another joy is the many memorably acerbic one-liners. (The blurb on the back has a quote from the Sunday Telegraph describing St. Aubyn's "mocking aphoristic style", which says it nicely.) He writes, for example, about obese passengers on the flight, who had:
... the apprehensive fat of people who had decided to become their own airbag systems in a dangerous world.
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LibraryThing member sredni
Interesting read, based around families, generations, babies and parenthood. I thought the pointless envy of a family's squandered wealth quite convincing. Consumption of mother by baby to the neglect of all else, especially the father, was carried to an extreme. The mother's voice was not so well
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developed as the father's, I found her personality was not there in the same way his was. Show Less
LibraryThing member gwendolyndawson
This novel centers on Patrick Melrose, a London barrister, with a wife and two young sons. Patrick remains subject to the whims of his senile mother, who has converted Patrick's childhood home into a New Age retreat. Narrated by turns from the perspectives of Patrick, his wife, and their elder son,
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the novel vividly captures how the family members' roles shift with the birth of the second son and the deterioration of Patrick's mother. The book starts strong but devolves to be unbelievable and tedious by the end. Show Less
LibraryThing member CatieN
Starts out being narrated by a very precocious five-year-old named Robert whose position in the house has just been supplanted by a new baby brother. The plot was weird and disjointed. Maybe things get better as you go along, but I just couldn't hang in there to finish it.
LibraryThing member michaelbartley
the story of an english dyfunctional family told by at one year time intervals by different members of the family. the writing is very good, the characters even the small by are very bright, intellegence and have some insight. i like the writer it is a dark view of family
LibraryThing member wendyrey
Enjoyable book about a dysfuctional upper middle class family in meltdown. Patrick , the father is bitter, unsurprisingly, as his mother has given and will leave the rest, of her not inconsiderable assets, to a new age (possibly fraudulent) foundation leaving him relativly impoverished. Why doesn't
I am not convinced that the child narration works - the child's thought patterns are just too adult for even the most intelligent six year old, and I cannot see anyone disinheriting himself so complteley when he knows his mother has a dementing illness.
well written, intelligent and thought prevoking
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he fight this? well he is a lawyer and was manipulated into making the arrangements watertight. His elder son is a precocious 6 year old who narrates much of the book .He has been displaced by his younger brother in the affections of his motherhood obsessed mother.I am not convinced that the child narration works - the child's thought patterns are just too adult for even the most intelligent six year old, and I cannot see anyone disinheriting himself so complteley when he knows his mother has a dementing illness.
well written, intelligent and thought prevoking
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LibraryThing member edwinbcn
Perhaps I don’t like books which are praised for being humourous. For sure, I don’t like books which are told from the perspective of children. This book is, at least partly, told from the perspective of a baby, but apparently the baby speaks to us in an adult voice (does that make it funny?).
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I think it isn’t even that original to describe your own birth. Show Less
LibraryThing member nivramkoorb
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I thought St. Aubyn displayed a very creative narrative. I appreciated his humor and I definitely want to read the earlier books about the Melrose family. As always, I find the comments of the other reviewers very entertaining. I especially like the comments from
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those that couldn't finish the book but felt compelled to write a review. A review of what, Chapter 1? Show Less
LibraryThing member kirstiecat
This book is at times rather wickedly funny in its derision towards upper class parents and their cluelessness. At the same time, there's a bit too much self pitying amongst the middle class who don't seem to realize how well off they still are in comparison to most of the parents in the world at
Some favorite quotes:
pg. 33 "Well," said Seamus, "I trained as a nurse with the Irish National Health."
"I'm sure that was an adequate substitute for being buried alive," said his father.
pg. 45 "When you're a child, nobody leaves you alone. If he ran away now, they would send out a search party, round him up, and entertain him to death."
pg 76 "Who was that dreadful child?" said Patrick. "I don't think I've ever seen such a sinister face. He looks like Chairman Mao on steroids."
pg. 93 "God," said Patrick. "If we got together, there would be a terrifying amount of boredom and loneliness in the room."
"Or maybe they have opposite electrical charges and they'd cancel each other out."
"Are you positively or negatively bored?"
"Positively," said Julia. "And I'm absolutely and positively lonely."
"You may have a point then," smiled Patrick. "There's something very negative about my boredom. We're going to have to conduct an experiment under strictly controlled conditions to see whether we achieve a perfect elimination of boredom or an overload of loneliness"
pg. 95 "That was the trouble with not being a psychopath. Every avenue was blocked."
pg. 111 "Exactly. Everyone thinks they're on the Earth, even when they're on somebody else's moon."
"But the Earth goes around the sun," said Robert. "Who's on the sun?"
"The sun is uninhabitable," said Patrick, relieved that they had traveled so far from the original motive of his comment. "It's only plot is to keep us going around and round."
pg. 219 "Listen," said Patrick, trying to recover as unobtrusively as possible from finding the Devil on the guest list, "When you can't move, can't speak, can't read, and know that you're losing control of your mind, depression is not a disease, it's the only reasonable response. It's cheerfulness that would require a glandular dysfunction or a supernatural force to explain it."
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large. It's a rather sad statement on inheritance and euthanasia as well. The relationships are all strained and the plot events are at times a little too predictable. Still, there are some really funny moments in this one that make it an interesting read, though it is far from life changing. The dialogue is the best part usually as well as the perspective of the eldest son which is revisited every summer. In addition, the characters are written rather well and the writing style is quite engaging. Some favorite quotes:
pg. 33 "Well," said Seamus, "I trained as a nurse with the Irish National Health."
"I'm sure that was an adequate substitute for being buried alive," said his father.
pg. 45 "When you're a child, nobody leaves you alone. If he ran away now, they would send out a search party, round him up, and entertain him to death."
pg 76 "Who was that dreadful child?" said Patrick. "I don't think I've ever seen such a sinister face. He looks like Chairman Mao on steroids."
pg. 93 "God," said Patrick. "If we got together, there would be a terrifying amount of boredom and loneliness in the room."
"Or maybe they have opposite electrical charges and they'd cancel each other out."
"Are you positively or negatively bored?"
"Positively," said Julia. "And I'm absolutely and positively lonely."
"You may have a point then," smiled Patrick. "There's something very negative about my boredom. We're going to have to conduct an experiment under strictly controlled conditions to see whether we achieve a perfect elimination of boredom or an overload of loneliness"
pg. 95 "That was the trouble with not being a psychopath. Every avenue was blocked."
pg. 111 "Exactly. Everyone thinks they're on the Earth, even when they're on somebody else's moon."
"But the Earth goes around the sun," said Robert. "Who's on the sun?"
"The sun is uninhabitable," said Patrick, relieved that they had traveled so far from the original motive of his comment. "It's only plot is to keep us going around and round."
pg. 219 "Listen," said Patrick, trying to recover as unobtrusively as possible from finding the Devil on the guest list, "When you can't move, can't speak, can't read, and know that you're losing control of your mind, depression is not a disease, it's the only reasonable response. It's cheerfulness that would require a glandular dysfunction or a supernatural force to explain it."
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LibraryThing member bobbieharv
Finally made it to the last book in his collected novels. This was so much better than the last one, "Some Hope," which was just not as well-written or as interesting as the first two. Mother's Milk is by far the best of them all: beautiful evocative writing, compelling explorations of the way
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language shapes (and distorts) our perceptions and of the difference between self and non-self. Beginning with Robert, and his acute description of being born, being torn away from the mother, and continuing from the perspectives of his brother, mother, and father - the latter the one who was so horribly abused in the first novel, and such an addict in the next two. Show Less
LibraryThing member florasuncle
Oh, my. Powerful stuff. Such obnoxious mothers (and some obnoxious others too). Don’t think my mid-life crisis was anything like as hellish as this. My only problem is the surreal preciousness of the two children.
LibraryThing member Kristelh
2005 book by British author, Edward St. Aubyn is a humorous and sad story of the Melrose family. As the title hints, it really looks at family relationships; sons to mothers, mothers to sons and wives and husbands all set in the beginning of the 2000s. I really enjoyed Robert's first chapter where
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he tells the reader his experience of being born. Really, these two children Robert and his younger brother Thomas are really too much. Their language and thoughts are quite beyond belief but very funny and a look at the effects of family on the children. Patrick, father and husband is the most unlikable character but really is kind of the character everyone else revolves around. Towards the end of the book, it came to me that Patrick reminds me of Harry Angstrom (Rabbitt of Updike creation) and Harry's struggles. The final sections, has the family traveling to America to visit the relatives and spend their vacation. The author depicts Americans as fat people living off industrialized food. I guess that means they don't eat industrialized food in Europe. Here's a quote "Factory farming doesn't stop in the slaughterhouse, it stops in our bloodstreams, after the Henry Ford food missiles have hurtled out of their cages into our open mouths and dissolved their growth hormones and their genetically modified feed into our increasingly wobbly bodies. Even when the food isn't 'fast', the bill is instantaneous, dumping an idle eater back on the snack crowded streets. In the end, we're on the same conveyor belt as the featherless, electrocuted chickens."and "The rest of country is just people in huge cars wondering what to eat next." Patrick battles alcohol, drugs, adultery throughout the story. I liked this statement on alcoholism; "Practically anything was less complicated than being a successful alcoholic." So true. And finally another line that I really loved just because we people in Minnesota like to complain of the weather "The climate here is impossible: we're up to our waists in snow until the middle of May, and two weeks later we're living in Vietnam." Anyway, this was well written, funny yet very insightful and sad in many ways story of family relationships in contemporary times. Show Less
LibraryThing member kmstock
Certainly well written, and a good story, but a little too introspective for my taste. I liked the parts that the children narrate, but I got a bit tired of the self indulgent stream of consiousness commentary by Patrick. Not sure if i will read the rest of the series. Probably not.
LibraryThing member dbsovereign
Patrick Melrose novel four shows Patrick as a father and in competition with his youngest son (Thomas) for the affection of his wife Mary. We also spend considerable time getting the point of view of things from the perspective of his eldest son Robert (who is remarkably intelligent). Parenting,
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adultery and sibling rivalry figure prominently. Of the four [novels], I've enjoyed this one the most. Robert's take on being born is priceless! Show Less
LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
This is another book I read because it was on the 1001 list. It was also short-listed for the Booker. While it's a somewhat enjoyable book, and competently written, I'm not sure why it deserves either of those honors.
It's the story of a British family, father Patrick, mother Mary, their two young
The book is told in four parts, one for each summer. The first is narrated by the older child, who is 5 or 6 at the time. Ensuing narrations are from the pov of Patrick and of Mary.
The book is satirical--particularly of America and Americans and New Age adherents. It's sometimes funny, but I felt a lot of anger and bitterness underneath the humor. As one reviewer on Amazon said, "If you dislike your spouse and regret having children and really hate your mother, you might enjoy it."
It's the story of a British family, father Patrick, mother Mary, their two young
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sons, and Patrick's mother. Each August, Patrick, Mary and their sons spend August at Patrick's mother's villa in the south of France. Unfortunately for them, his mother is in the process of donating the villa (and indeed almost all of her fortune) to a New Age guru to use as a spiritual retreat. As a barrister, Patrick carries out his mother's request to effect the transfers. His actions are against his better judgment, and against his own self-interest as her son. We follow the family through three summers in the south of France, and a fourth summer in America.The book is told in four parts, one for each summer. The first is narrated by the older child, who is 5 or 6 at the time. Ensuing narrations are from the pov of Patrick and of Mary.
The book is satirical--particularly of America and Americans and New Age adherents. It's sometimes funny, but I felt a lot of anger and bitterness underneath the humor. As one reviewer on Amazon said, "If you dislike your spouse and regret having children and really hate your mother, you might enjoy it."
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LibraryThing member stef7sa
Big disappointment! Lost completely the drive that made the first three novels such an enjoyable read. Starts with the boring telling by Patrick's son, only to continue with Patrick's which also lost the power it had before. Superfluous novel.
LibraryThing member Elizabeth_Foster
I've been impressed throughout by the honesty of these stories. They go places you wouldn't expect. The world in Mother's Milk is rather bleak, with each adult caught up in their own dramas and old patterns of behaviour, or else getting worn down by the dramas of others. I could see little bits of
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myself in each character, which gave pause for thought. The portrayal of the various mothers in the story was brilliant, giving rise to a number of achingly sad moments. Show Less
LibraryThing member tippycanoegal
I heard an interview with St. Aubyn and wondered how I had somehow missed his books completely. Well-written and clever, this novel is rough going at times as main character struggles with his rage at his mother, who has decided to leave her estate to a charismatic Irish leader and his new-age
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organization. We move from the point of view of the children to the adults. The kids are lovely and well-defined, the adults...not so much. The wife is a cypher and fairly one-dimensional and I was disappointed with her utter helplessness. While admiring the structure, the sardonic wit and the language, I was glad to leave the claustrophobic mindset of the main character as he drinks himself into forgetfulness and oblivion. Show Less
LibraryThing member TobinElliott
This fourth volume in the Patrick Melrose quintology (or as Douglas Adams used to say, "a trilogy in five parts") seemed a bit more directionless than the previous three installments.
That, and the hyper-intelligent children who speak like 40-year-old men lessened the enjoyment of this one for me,
But then, in the last quarter, the book fell into its true purpose—Patrick's relationship with his ailing mother—and the book slapped me hard right between the eyes, likely because I'm in a very similar situation with my own mother.
I truly believe some books find you when you need them, and this was the book I needed to find right now.
For that, it earns 4-stars.
That, and the hyper-intelligent children who speak like 40-year-old men lessened the enjoyment of this one for me,
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as well as the affair that went nowhere.But then, in the last quarter, the book fell into its true purpose—Patrick's relationship with his ailing mother—and the book slapped me hard right between the eyes, likely because I'm in a very similar situation with my own mother.
I truly believe some books find you when you need them, and this was the book I needed to find right now.
For that, it earns 4-stars.
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Language
Original language
English
ISBN
144720302X / 9781447203025
Physical description
288 p.; 5.08 inches
Pages
288