Truly Madly

It's no Ethan Frome,and although it tries, it's no House of Mirth. Most of the characters seem lightly sketched in, the eponymous children drive me crazy, and Boyne! Insert head- exploding emoji here.I just never bought the story that a fairly sophisticated middle-aged man,who has at long last the chance to be with his rather more sophisticated female counterpart, would look at,and think about the hot mess that is Judith for more than a moment. This book irritated the hell out of me, and I found myself flipping rapidly through the last third of it. Not a keeper; donation bin,here I come.

I love the Patrick Melrose novels, and was excited to begin this one. It should be better. The humour and satire that hit the mark is wonderful, but sadly, there is not enough of it, and the rest is almost farcical. It made me think of Saturday Night Live,which should not be the case when reading St.Aubyn. Guess I'll reread Mother's Milk.

Seems written for YA readers,it reminds of the writing in books that I read when I was around 9 years old. The modern storyline kept my attention much more than did the back-in-the-day story- it just seemed very jejune. I skipped through quite a lot of it, there was nothing new,the writing is meh,and the characters didn't really interest me. It probably didn't help this book that I had just finished reading two Kate Atkinson novels, and I suggest that you do the same!

Brings Tudor England to life and much to my astonishment, humanity to Wolsey and Cromwell in a gossipy, fly- on-the-wall sort of way. If Thomas Cromwell was indeed as slyly witty as this portrayal shows him to be, well, he's invited to my fantasy dinner party.