With At Last, Edward St Aubyn ends his semi-autobiographical series featuring the upper-class Melrose family.
The first of five novels began with Never Mind (1992), and dramatised Patrick Melrose's horrifying rape at the hands of his father, aged five.
This final installment offers Patrick – now a flawed husband and father whose life has been pockmarked by the fall-out of abuse and drug addiction – a final release. His mother, Eleanor, who he feels colluded in his early abuse if only through her blindness to it, has died.
Written as a set-piece extending across her four-hour funeral, it is as satirical as it is profound. Patrick's inner voice might still echo with dark hilarity and rage, but the final few pages suggest a shift in his being. At last, he may be ready to move on.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies