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    At Last: A Novel
    At Last: A Novel
    At Last: A Novel
    Audiobook5 hours

    At Last: A Novel

    Written by Edward St. Aubyn

    Narrated by Alex Jennings

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    About this audiobook

    Now a 5-Part Limited Event Series on Showtime, Starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Blythe Danner

    A New York Times Notable Book of the Year • One of TIME's Top 10 Fiction Books of the Year • Named One of the best books of the Year by The Telegraph and Esquire

    Here, from the writer described by The Guardian as "our purest living prose stylist" and whom Alan Hollinghurst has called "the most brilliant English novelist of his generation," is a work of glittering social comedy, profound emotional truth, and acute verbal wit. At Last is also the stunning culmination of one of the great fiction enterprises of the past two decades in the life of the English novel.

    As readers of Edward St. Aubyn's extraordinary earlier works—Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and the Man Booker Prize finalist Mother's Milk—are well aware, for Patrick Melrose, "family" has always been a double-edged sword. At Last begins as friends, relatives, and foes trickle in to pay final respects to his mother, Eleanor. An American heiress, Eleanor married into the British aristocracy, giving up the grandeur of her upbringing for "good works" freely bestowed on everyone but her own son, who finds himself questioning whether his transition to a life without parents will indeed be the liberation he had so long imagined.

    The service ends, and family and friends gather for a final party. Amid the social niceties and social horrors, Patrick begins to sense the prospect of release from the extremes of his childhood, and at the end of the day, alone in his room, the promise some form of safety...at last.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateDec 10, 2013
    ISBN9781427244116
    Author

    Edward St. Aubyn

    Edward St Aubyn's superbly acclaimed Melrose novels are Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, Mother's Milk (shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2006) and At Last. He is also the author of the novels A Clue to the Exit, On the Edge, Lost for Words and Dunbar.

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    Reviews for At Last

    4/5

    139 ratings15 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Patrick's mother has finally died and, at the funeral, he struggles to make sense of all his conflicting emotions. We also get some glimpse into the internal ramblings of others at the funeral service. St. Aubyn seems to have some inkling of the redemptive power implicit in these final goodbyes.
    • 4/5
      The last time we saw the dysfunctional Melrose family was at the end of Mother's Milk when Eleanor, in severe mental and physical decline, played with the idea of leaving the world via suicide but just as in any other case (except for her divorce), she changed her mind at the very last moment. A year and a half later, she finally dies and the novel, the last of the series, is set in a single day - her funeral.The novel is not dated but Nancy provides the exact date (Prince Charles' second wedding) and Mary mentions that Eleanor died on Easter Sunday so here we are on 9 April 2005, assembling for the last time to see how Patrick had managed to mess up his life again (and to attend the funeral of course).As usual in these novels, the time between the previous book and this one is mentioned in memories and conversations (and this time we get even more history both about David (making him even more horrendous than he already was) and about the Jonson sisters (Eleanor's part of the family). I really like how that last part was handled - while Nancy kept complaining about the lack of funds and how she was swindled out of her money, Patrick gets to learn that his mother has more secrets than one expected and that even if the house in France is truly lost, his mother's family still had another card to play in the game that is Patrick's life.Almost everyone we met at the first books is dead now except for Nicholas Pratt - the man who always found excuses for David. The marriage between Mary and Patrick is also dead although after him spending some time in a mental hospital and finally kicking off all addictions, he is a functional co-parent and human being for probably the first time in his life.Most of the novel deals with the past and with how people perceive other people - everyone in the room has their memories of Eleanor and none of them really match with each other - everyone saw what they wanted and needed in her (or what they were forced to). Listening to them gets Patrick that additional nudge towards sanity that had eluded him even after all the substances were gone from his bloodstream. And as usual, there are enough moments which make you at least smile - sometimes because you are happy that did not happen to you, sometimes because St. Aubyn really knows how to be funny even in the middle of a serious novel.The book can be read as a standalone but I suspect that it will appear either shocking for the sake of being shocking in some places or its characters would just appear as first drafts of people. The previous 4 novels give this one the background - even with its dead people - Victor may be gone but Erasmus is here to provide the philosophy; Anne being dead is almost expected now with Eleanor being dead (she was always the one which almost highlighted what a miserable woman Eleanor was by just being there and being herself). And then there is Nick...If there is one part which was a bit weak, that was the very end. Not because Patrick's acceptance and almost understanding of the abuse he grew up with (if you did not see that one coming, you were not paying attention) but with the very convenient penultimate act which made sure that the last connection was severed (not that it could have happened to a better man but still). Added to the earlier news from the States, it felt too forced. It fits the story, it was needed for the story to end but... real life rarely works that way and it felt almost like a fairy tale ending - all the villains get their justice.And yet, it works because it allows for hope to finally shine into Patrick's life and the novel ends on a high end - with a door opening towards a new happier life. Too bad we won't hear of it -- happy Patrick is probably not as interesting as the one we met in these 5 novels but I will miss him.If you had read the first 4 novels, you really should read this one. If you had not, the series is worth reading - even if it is not always an easy read.
    • 5/5
      Fitting end to a wonderful series about the least likeable characters you will ever meet. But Patrick comes through in the end.
    • 5/5
      What a thoroughly gorgeous and brilliant ending to the saga of Patrick Melrose, finally free of his parents to become his own man.

      There's really nothing more to say.
    • 5/5
      This last book was so beautifully done. Full of endings and a final letting go. A wonderful finish to the series.
    • 5/5
      The last of the Patrick Melrose novels, in which we find our hero at his mother's funeral. Finally. He's come through some more self inflicted damage, this time alcohol related, and spent a while in rehab. We see the action from the point of view of various characters and there's more action than you'd expect at a funeral, but it's all satisfying and a lot of it's funny. Underlying it all is seems to be the point that a parent's cruelty, or love, is the thing that lasts forever.
    • 4/5
      The five Patrick Melrose Novels are semi-autobiographical works beginning with Never Mind (1992) and ending with At Last (2012). I read the first four back-to-back and was impressed, but overwhelmed by some of the themes. It’s taken me two years to get to At Last, but I’m glad I did.The entire novel takes place at Patrick’s mother’s funeral. Patrick abdicated planning the service to his wife Mary, and her inspired choices for readings and music paint a portrait of the woman, and prompt silent reflection among those in attendance. The service is also a vehicle for St Aubyn to take shots at those with inherited wealth, and the pain they inflict on others in the name of either preserving or burning through their inheritance.For those meeting Patrick Melrose for the first time, St Aubyn takes care to provide just enough context by referencing major events in Patrick’s life which are central to the previous novels. This means you aren’t required to read all of the earlier books, but I think At Last is a richer experience for those who have.
    • 5/5
      Just to be clear, I'm not giving this book 5 stars, I'm giving the whole Patrick Melrose series 5 stars. You can read 'Mother's Milk' without reading the 'Some Hope' trilogy, but 'At Last' will make no sense whatsoever unless you've read MM, and probably only about 80% sense unless you've read the others too. Despite which this has become a 'national bestseller!', has been reviewed ravingly, and seems to have attracted goodreads readers who hadn't read any of the other novels.

      So veteran readers will know, at least in part, what to expect: gorgeous prose, Wildean wit, a host of ridiculous characters, and a fixation on what it's like to become a person when surrounded by tremendous wealth and trauma. But here, Patrick actually becomes a person, rather than falling back onto a raft of different 'substitutions for substitutions' for personhood (love, sex, drugs, mental health problems etc etc). That doesn't make it a 'happy' ending, but at least it's not distressing.

      Like Foster Wallace's 'Infinite Jest,' 'At Last' sees the hero coming to accept the wisdom of addiction program cliches. Obviously the two works are very different, but I think reading them side by side could be very fruitful, particularly the different way they treat the problem of mental stability (in St Aubyn it's the intellectual sophisticate who comes to some kind of individuality, while the less intelligent wallow in the substitutions for it; in Wallace the sophisticate goes crazy, while the adorable but thuggish Don Gately is the one who finds piece), and the way they treat the problem of other people (in St Aubyn, they're necessary for stability; in DFW, they seem to be mostly obstacles to it). Also, St Aubyn is funnier.

      I could go into ever greater depth on this (e.g., what's expected of 'the best writer of his generation' in England vs in the U.S.; the different treatment of different philosophical traditions; the silly/quirky nature of DFW's humor vs the biting, satirical nature of EStA's), but really, you should be out there reading all of the Melrose novels, not reading my review.
    • 4/5
      At Last is the final book in the Patrick Melrose series and this is one fine writer. You might not like the characters or the constant introspection but there is no denying the satirical skill of the author. If you like great prose and a detailed observation of the British upper class then you will like this book. I do recommend that you read the entire series starting from the beginning. Although the book drags a little with some of the narrative, it redeems itself with the acerbic wit and quirky characters. A great series.
    • 5/5
      Like Stieg Larsons famous Trilogy I wish I had the commonsense to know I should have read Melrose Novels before this last one, but still. A first class author who knows how to write who investigates the psyche with consume skill of those broken on the margins, the alcoholics, the mentally ill, especially the addicted of whom one or two I hope to understand.
    • 4/5
      What I enjoyed most about this novel was the author's unblinking and satirical view of the assorted upper-crust assembled for the funeral of Eleanor, Patrick Melrose's mother. There was some very sharp writing, some of its withering and some of it very comic.
    • 1/5
      terrible read
    • 4/5
      Edward St. Aubyn's Patrick Melrose series is basically the literary equivalent of the "7-Up" films for horrible wealthy -- or at least formerly wealthy --people, so readers who've already bored their way through the preceding four acidly entertaining volumes will know exactly what to expect. Patrick's mother has died years after strokes rendered her bed-ridden and more-or-less mute. He's living apart from his wife, working, and a little healthier, at least compared to his highly-strung, hopelessly addicted, unstoppably self-destructive former self. Like the other books in the series, "At Last" is long on interior monologue and digression and fairly short on action: the novel takes place entirely at Elanor's funeral and funeral reception, and most of its characters spend a good deal of time thinking or debating about the past. Still, St. Aubyn hasn't lost his razor-edged sense of humor or his gift for apt characterization: while many of his characters are fundamentally unlikable, most are rendered with remarkable skill and precision. He also hasn't run out of things to talk about: the book contains numerous meditations, many of them both interesting and heartfelt, on the meaning of "home," the psychological motivations of even our most selfless actions, and the continual struggle to overcome, or at least come to terms with, with the past. While it's true that some of this novel's characters are hopelessly overeducated -- one of them is a working philosopher -- St. Aubyn's writing is at once so polished and so naturally flowing that these arguments don't come off as scholarly digressions or intellectual exercises. Instead, they seem like the sound of socially privileged but damaged people trying hard to rebuild their lives one assertion at a time.In this volume, Patrick is in his mid-forties and more-or-less drug-free, so I'm pleased to think that it's not unreasonable to expect another book from the author describing Patrick Melrose's progress. If St. Aubyn tires of him, though, I'm sure that Patrick's two sons will have enough problems of their own to keep him occupied well into his golden years.
    • 4/5
      AT LAST is the fifth and final volume in St. Aubyn's series of books about Patrick Melrose (all of which I have read in the last month). Patrick's abusive childhood is based, at least in part, on St. Aubyn's own upbringing, which is chilling. "The slashing intelligence of Patrick's analysis of himself and his upper-crust world, combined with the epigrammatic wit of the dialogue, gave what might have been a narrow confessional exercise the reach and resonance of tragedy," wrote James Lasdun in his Guardian review, acclaiming the final act in a "terrifying, spectacularly entertaining saga". At his mother's funeral, Patrick comes up against the aging monsters of his childhood for one last time, thinking back to maternal betrayals and forward to the redemptive possibilities of his own sons' future. ***SPOILER ALERT HERE *** I almost agree with Lasdun, and would have given this book the same five stars I unreservedly gave the rest of the series, had it not been for an oddly unsatisfying last few pages. I found the leap into the sort of 'even our abusers were abused children once' pop psychology so strange, given the tone and perspective of the rest of the work that I read it twice to make sure I wasn't missing something. I rather hope I was missing something. Although I earnestly wish a better future for this damaged man, I couldn't help but feel this rending of the veil a little too abrupt, as though the author needed to tie up the ends quickly. I needed more subtly, some symbolic hint at future grace perhaps, but this felt too heavy handed and too simple. Having said that (and I regret my feelings on the matter), I HIGHLY recommend the entire series. I've never read anything which manages to marry scathing wit with pathos quite so well. And I may be entirely wrong about the ending.
    • 4/5
      At Last: A Novel by Edward St. Aubyn (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2011. 266pp) Originally posted at wherepenmeetspaper.blogspot.comEdward St. Aubyn is a British author and journalist. Educated at Westminster school and Keble College at Oxford University, he is the author of five novels on the Melrose family, one of which was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize. Dysfunction and AbuseLast in the series of novels based on protagonist, Patrick Melrose, At Last finds Patrick broke, divorced, suicidal, and about to bury his mother. Appropriately named, At Last is a sigh of sweet relief that the life of Patrick Melrose might be getting better. Upon starting the novel I realized with some disdain that I had missed a large portion of Patrick Melrose’s life. Overlooking the previous novels, Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and the award-winning Mother's Milk, I, at first, thought the novel left something to be desired. But, then I researched Melrose’s sordid fictional past, and the novel became much more interesting. To give a brief synopsis, Patrick’s life has been wrought with misfortune and despair. At five years of age, in the novel Never Mind, Patrick was raped by his father, which, sad to say was a self-portrait of the author himself. In Bad News, Patrick enters his twenties and gets addicted to every substance imaginable, while trotting down the all-too-familiar patch of narcissism and overall bleakness, much like the author in real life. In Some Hope, Patrick finally tells someone what his father did to him as a child, and Mother’s Milk chronicles the life of Patrick as a family man, and the disinheritance of his mother’s estate. The Burial of the Matriarch At Last finally begins (pun intended), and Patrick buries his mother. “Patrick had little idea what to expect from the ceremony. He had been on a business trip to America at the time of his mother’s death and pleaded the impossibility of preparing anything to say or read, leaving Mary to take over the arrangements. He had only arrived back from New York yesterday, just in time to go to Bunyon’s funeral parlour, and now that he was sitting in a pew next to Mary, picking up the order of service for the first time, he realized how unready he was for this exploration of his mother’s confusing life” (112).With the matriarch of the Melrose family now out of the picture, Patrick is forced to suffer through some unpleasant family members. In particular, his aunt Nancy is voraciously avaricious and predatory. With sharp wit, St. Aubyn writes, “Oh Jesus, thought Patrick, let me out of here. He imagined himself disappearing through the floor with a shovel and some bunk-bed slats, the theme music of The Great Escape humming in the air. He was crawling under the crematorium through fragile tunnels, when he felt himself being dragged backwards by Annette’s maddening voice” (136).Foibles for AllI submit that St. Aubyn is perhaps the newest in a long line of authors who comment on elite society. Patrick is well-off, an aristocrat by any standard, and those who he surrounds himself with in the novel (mainly his family) are just as messed up as he. Even minor characters in the novel surge with foibles, from extreme narcissism to crudeness and hypocrisy, the novel ends up being a commentary on higher society overall. With his delicate prose, St. Aubyn tells the story that the demons of one’s past are forever present, and that redemption may not always happen. The novel is one not of hope, but of reluctant acceptance. “What exactly had he been mourning? Not his mother’s death—that was mainly a relief. Not her life—he had mourned her suffering and frustration years ago when she started her decline into dementia. Nor was it his relationship with her, which he had long regarded as an effect on his personality rather than transaction with another person. The pressure he had felt today was something like the presence of infancy, something far deeper and more helpless than his murderous relationship with his farther...mourning was not the word for this experience. He felt frightened buy also excited” (260).Though this novel has some high prose, wit, intellect, and compassion, I think it would have been much better for me to start at the beginning of the series. Truthfully, after this novel I think I will go back and start from the beginning to better understand the life of St. Aubyn mirrored in his character Patrick Melrose. The layers of life are too great to just stick in one novel, and the strata should be unveiled one layer at a time. Unfortunately I started at the bottom, where I should have begun at the top. I think this piece rather reminds me of Jane Eyre or something the Bronté sisters would write. Should you like their commentary of high society, At Last is assuredly for you.Originally posted at wherepenmeetspaper.blogspot.com