Opinions ranged from {paraphrased despite the quotation marks}:
--"I savored each part of the book wanting to enjoy every moment. I felt the way that I did when I first discovered Jane Austin." to...
--"I did not want to read the book...it was too awful, too dark." prefaced by: "Your reactions to a book are always determined by where you are in your life emotionally and could change if you picked up the book at another time." In fact that has happened to the member expressing this opinion more than once. But from the look of sheer disgust on her face, I doubt that she will ever pick this book up again.
"How can you want to read a book when you care for none of the characters?" To many in the group, not even the child victim Patrick is sympathetic. So they are certainly not going to find the grown-up Patrick appealing. After all, he looks at the world through nearly the same distorted lens as his father did--although on the surface he is kinder. And he has a profound understanding of his behavior.
In Never Mind -- no one never ever minded small Patrick?--one parents' neglect and the others' abuse are truly horrifying. But for some the dark humor, the marvelous insights into the British upper class society, the punishment of the abuser...make it all bearable and more than that --even eminently readable.
We meet the characters one by one and then watch the strong eviscerate the weak at a formal dinner. Parallels to Downton Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, Upstairs Downstairs with just a dark, dark, dark slant.
In Bad News--not clear that a single human feels that the news is bad--we are caught up in Patricks' s search for oblivion through drugs as a way of getting beyond the bad news that has filled his life up until then.
A few members had read beyond the first two novellas and onto Some Hope and Mother's Milk. They report that Patrick's struggles do become a little wearying by book four.
It's clear that some of us will not be continuing on (maybe even placing their copy of the book on the stoop? or the recycling bin?) and a few others (about 25%?) will gladly continue to immerse themselves in the Patrick Melrose saga. Even purchasing the latest novella: At Last. .
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