Some Hope: A Trilogy [Paperback]

Edward St. Aubyn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2003

Some Hope marks the U.S. debut of Edward St. Aubyn, highly acclaimed in the United Kingdom as one of the most original, intelligent, and acerbically witty voices of our time. From Provence to New York to Gloucestershire, through the savageries of a childhood with a tyrannical father and an alcoholic mother, to a young adulthood fraught with dissolute behavior, we follow Patrick Melrose's search for redemption amid a crowd of glittering social dragonflies whose vapidity is the subject of his most stinging and memorable barbs. At once hilarious and deeply moving, Some Hope — originally published in England as three separate novels — is a stunningly authentic depiction of a man's journey to and from the farthest limits of the human gamut.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A gruesome, and often gruesomely funny, study of the minor aristocracy at play. -- The Literary Review

This is a beautifully written novel . . . whose harrowing but fiercely funny portrait of addiction is the best I’ve ever read. -- Time Out London

From the Publisher

This trilogy was originally published in the U.K. as three separate books: Never Mind, Bad News, and Some Hope; and as one volume entitled The Patrick Melrose Trilogy. For the U.S. edition, the entire trilogy has been titled Some Hope.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Open City Books (October 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890447366
• ISBN-13: 978-1890447366
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #151,998 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars don't read this unless you're highly literate, April 30, 2007

By 

moviegoer "Jumbo" (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Some Hope: A Trilogy (Paperback)

I truly don't understand the reviewers of this book who maunder on about how it was well written, but that they
couldn't really get into it because the characters weren't likable. My God, have they never read "Madame
Bovary"? I read a book for fascination, not necessarily to meet sweet people with darling personalities.

This book is harrowing and wildly funny. It is the single best descrption of drug addiction I've ever read. The
novel is beautifully structured. Yes, the main character (and others, too) are smart-mouthed and funny.
I liked this well enough that I followed up and read "Mother's Milk," which was good, but not as good as this
book. Read this is you are smart. Don't read it if you're looking to hang out with delicate, polite people.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Aristocrats Behaving Badly, February 19, 2004

By 

revilo456 "revilo456" (Hoboken, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Some Hope: A Trilogy (Paperback)

This fascinating but harrowing volume comprises three novellas about Patrick Melrose - as a young boy at his parents' French villa, as a drug-addled young man on the loose in Manhattan, and as sober guest at a British country-house party in honor of Princess Margaret. In economical and blackly humorous prose, St. Aubyn fleshes out a memorable cast of characters. The stand-out is Patrick's monstrous father, who practices snobbism, sarcasm, sadism, and worse crimes. These books are so brief that some characters remain ciphers (particularly Patrick's girlfriends). And the author's decision to abandon the protagonist's mother after the first book is a serious flaw. But the dialogue St. Aubyn puts in Princess Margaret's mouth is worth the price of admission. The situation the author sets up at the end involving the princess, the French ambassador, and a splash of venison sauce crystallizes the book's themes with great humor. On the whole, deeply rewarding if you have a strong stomach.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cold glimpse into British upper crust, February 13, 2004

By 

David B. Bedick (Brooklyn, N.Y. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Some Hope: A Trilogy (Paperback)

First third is not very good. Second third is riviting: a portait of an addicted young man on the prowl for drugs in Manhattan; final third is very good: deft, sketches of British aristos, at a country house party, with a very high wire act impersonation of a named Royal, Princess Margaret. I was surprised at how rivited I was by the book's middle passage. The author really makes you feel the dislocation and psychological suffering of his very damaged central character.