Reviews

A Clue to the Exit by Edward St Aubyn

bernard_black's review against another edition

challenging dark

• Loveable characters? No

3.5

katrinky's review against another edition

3.0

sometimes reading St. aubyn's books stresses me out because I don't feel smart enough to follow every word or train of thought. but then I remember that I don't have to, that I just swim through them and chuckle when I do grasp something, or when the long paragraphs in the nature of consciousness give way to descriptions of yachtbound lunch parties that read aristocracy for filth.

this one flew by, which is surprising given that there were some sentences I re-read or couldn't get past for half a day.

here was my favorite paragraph:

well, those of us who are dying -- as opposed to those who are lounging around in their studies making dinner engagements, and then reluctantly disconnecting the phone for twenty minutes in order to browse through a medical textbook and look up some realistic details -- those of us who are really dying haven't got time to ponder the past. the present is scintillating with horror and precision. the past is a luxury for people who think they have a future. does my life have subtle connecting threads, strange coincidences, uniting themselves? you'd better believe it. things can't help repeating themselves, can't help colliding. that's not meaning, that's where the search for meaning begins.

micki1961's review against another edition

2.0

About a screenwriter who has 6 months to live. Kind of pretentious. Starts out pretty funny then peters out. 

liisae's review

4.0

I love the way this complements Patrick Melrose without actually being part of that series. It's such an interesting investigation into writing, consciousness, and St. Aubyn's own life/demons. I thought it was really self-reflexive and the first person narration by character who is also an author gave it a really interesting perspective (not dissimilar to the feeling you get with Italo Calvino's If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, just with more philosophical debates).

aanchi3's review against another edition

3.0

It was a great book in the beginning. The writing was nice and the reading was smooth and insightful. But things started changing from the middle of the book. It became tedious to read the book without feeling bore. The novel that the protagonist was written became a burden on the reader.

emily1602's review against another edition

Read this in about a day while on vacation. Read a good bit of it in a place where lots of people were having loud conversations around me, so it was hard to concentrate, might have to re-read it. About a man who gets a terminal diagnosis and starts thinking about consciousness/perspective. He keeps having break throughs and then time passes and he gets hungry or cold or tired or just simply because time passes, and he loses them. In the end, his life is saved and he decides to live in the inessential world trying for transcendence as often as he can (kind of like his lapsing and recommitting Buddhist ex-wife who is lightly mocked throughout the book)

cath7472's review against another edition

1.0

Pretentious and not funny.

paigeforster's review against another edition

dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

librarimans's review

I just could not get into this book at all. The main character was fairly unlikable and the story within the story did nothing for me

macrimrim's review

challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0