A review by caroparr
Mother's Milk by Edward St Aubyn

4.0

Patrick is married with two young children, and we see the world very clearly through the eyes of Robert, who's about six here:

Thomas [his infant brother] still knew how to understand the silent language which Robert had almost lost as the wild margins of his mind fell under the sway of the verbal empire. He was standing on a ridge, about to surge downhill, getting faster, getting taller, getting more words, getting bigger and bigger explanations, cheering all the way. Now Thomas had made him glance backwards and lower his sword for a moment while he noticed everything that he had lost as well. He head become so caught up in building sentences that he had almmost forgotten the barbaric days when thinking was like a splash of colour landing on a page. Looking back, he could still see it: living in what would now feel like pauses: when you first open the curtains and see the whole landscape covered in snow and you catch your breath and pause before breathing out again. He couldn't get the whole thing back, but maybe he wouldn't rush down the slope quite yet, maybe he would sit down and look at the view.

In fact, all the books are about consciousness, especially Patrick's relentless self-consciousness and inability to be his genuine self, whatever that may be. Lots here too about marriage, adultery, aging parents, injustice, and old friends. One more and I can be done with this amazing and harrowing character!