Forget the placid, prude nobles of "Downton Abbey". The nowadays English aristocracy is a repository of drug addicts, alchoolics, fatuous intellectuals and sex maniacs in different shades. A croud of useless human beings, staying together for the pleasure of insulting each other. The source is P. St Aubyn. Who? A descendant of one of the most blasoned British families, he has transferred into his pages chunks of a life spent mostly in debauchery. In the world according to St Aubyn a typical day in the life of an English nobleman is marked by: abuse of various substances, promiscuous sex and undesired dinners full of cruelty and bitterness with his own peers. Ah, in the middle there is also the rape of the under age protagonist. Just for the sake of it.Witty dialogues, irony and an elegant prose are not enough to redeem this harmless sketch, often as shallow as the characters it puts on stage. Yet, despite its many faults, you can't avoid getting interested in the continuation of this blaspheme and degenerate bildungsroman the main character goes through. "Never Mind" is likely the less disturbing stage of an insane trip.Guilty pleasure. This is the first in a series of five books about a wealthy, upper class Englishman called Patrick Melrose. In this book we meet Patrick at age 5 and discover some facts about his abusive father, his alcoholic mother and his generally unhappy start in life. It sounds awful but St Aubyn writes so beautifully and is often very humourous. I enjoyed it very much and intend to move straight on to book two.
What do You think about Never Mind (2000)?
I have to admit I didn't like this very much or get the point. A bunch of thoroughly awful people.
—angie
Great writing. But the characters are all so unpleasant it's hard to say I enjoyed it.
—Darlene
Wow. Excoriatingly funny; such prose. Black, black, black humour.
—jgonzalez78
I don't mind dark, but good lord. So depressing and bleak.
—lovelovelove22
