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A review by nick_jenkins
Never Mind by Edward St Aubyn
4.0
"'You'll find in the course of your life,' boomed Nicholas, and then, realizing that he sounded pompous, he put on his funny pompous voice, 'as I have found in the course of mine, that such people, though perhaps destructive and cruel towards those who are closest to them, often possess a vitality that makes other people seem dull by comparison.'"
The Melrose novels, I suspect, are attempts to put this judgment to the test--at least this first volume seems to attempt to do so. The conclusions so far are mixed: is it vitality that the cruel figures in the novel possess? Perhaps. But are they really so much more interesting than other, more neutral or more innocent or even more benevolent people? St. Aubyn appears to me to be trying to affirm that the answer to that question turns out to be--or ought to be--no. Making nice people interesting has long been one of the novel's great challenges, a challenge that some of its greatest novelists have undertaken. Perhaps it is the quest of these novels as well.
The Melrose novels, I suspect, are attempts to put this judgment to the test--at least this first volume seems to attempt to do so. The conclusions so far are mixed: is it vitality that the cruel figures in the novel possess? Perhaps. But are they really so much more interesting than other, more neutral or more innocent or even more benevolent people? St. Aubyn appears to me to be trying to affirm that the answer to that question turns out to be--or ought to be--no. Making nice people interesting has long been one of the novel's great challenges, a challenge that some of its greatest novelists have undertaken. Perhaps it is the quest of these novels as well.