"If the talk cure is our modern religion then narrative fatigue must be its apotheosis"
Pour me another Pimms cup, it is time to settle down for another run in with Patrick Melrose. Leaving behind his entertaining drug fuelled binge days, Patrick is in his thirties and looking for a reason to live post narcotics haze. He's studying to be a lawyer- well he's thinking about it at any rate.
He has also cut back on his habit of replacing drugs with sex. Has the man gone a little too zen and quiet?Fear not, he is on his way to a country party with honoured guests including Princess Margaret - apparently she is rather partial to Venison.
Facing his demons as he returns to the surrounds of his youth, the reader finally gets Some Hope that perhaps Patrick is going to sort his issues out and be okay. It has taken him more than 20 years to admit, out loud, the source of his trials and tribulations. Admittedly the response is a little understated from his friend, but the reader almost lets out a giant sigh, as if we too have got something really heavy off our chest.
The dramas of the party guests and goings on will have you flying through the pages and tittering like, hmm, what does one titter like? Laughing like a hyena sounds a little too vulgar - the description of the Barrier Reef certainly made me guffaw.
5 out of 5, to be savoured like a vintage Penfolds Grange.
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