Last year, I read and reviewed the first four novels in The Patrick Melrose series, and it was, without a doubt, some of the most eye-opening books I read last year. At Last is the final book of the series, and finishing it makes me so sad. My friend who introduced these books to me once said, “I am so jealous that you are getting to read these for the first time,” and I understand now what she means because I feel so sad that I can never re-read these books for the first time again.
The series chart the life of Patrick Melrose, who starts on in Never Mind as a child who worships his parents but are later disappointed by them. By Mother’s Milk, Melrose is married with children and struggling to come to terms his relationship with mother, who has been so absent in his life.
At Last reverts back to the same format that the first three books took (and that Mother’s Milk departed from) — spanning only a short period of time in a pivotal moment of Patrick’s life. His mother, a woman who he has an intensely complex feelings towards, had passed away, and the book centers on her funeral and all the people who attend it. It shows how fractured so much of Patrick’s life is, how his family is seen, and how he is seen, and the person that he has eventually become.
To read more, go to my blog. Or you should just definitely read The Patrick Melrose series because they are awesome.