Never Mind - Book Group discussion thread - Nov 2019

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LindsD
LindsD
Dec 2019
5:42pm, 12 Dec 2019
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LindsD
Totally agree. I'm on book four now and loving it. Book three is particularly brilliant.
McGoohan
McGoohan
Dec 2019
5:58pm, 12 Dec 2019
42,487 posts
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McGoohan
Probably my next read after I've done ploughing* through TDIR

*Possible spoiler there for how much I'm enjoying it
Columba
Columba
Dec 2019
6:41pm, 12 Dec 2019
18,877 posts
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Columba
McG, I gave up the ploughing about half-way through the field.
Serendippily
Serendippily
Jan 2020
9:02pm, 11 Jan 2020
15,668 posts
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Serendippily
Finished never mind: it’s bound together with bad news and some hope. I found it grimly clever: the chapter on Vincent struggling to write echo how adult lives go on while Patrick is just barely noticed collateral. Not sure whether I’ll be able to last through bad news as there may not be enough hope at the end of it: it is so brutal and brutalised. I don’t enjoy seeing even book characters damaged and immobilised by cruelty. But I appreciate it’s searing unflinching depiction
Serendippily
Serendippily
Jan 2020
9:07pm, 11 Jan 2020
15,669 posts
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Serendippily
Reading back: still not sure whether I’ll read the sequels. It’s made me feel quite grim
Diogenes
Diogenes
Jan 2020
9:11pm, 11 Jan 2020
44,214 posts
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Diogenes
You really should persevere, Seren, maybe after a little break.
LindsD
LindsD
Jan 2020
11:11pm, 11 Jan 2020
32,674 posts
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LindsD
There's a lot of hope and a lot of humour. I think you'd like them. Never Mind is the bleakest. Although the next one is quite bleak too. They are really worth it.
Serendippily
Serendippily
Jan 2020
1:23am, 12 Jan 2020
15,672 posts
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Serendippily
Yes I carried on with them and I can see what you mean: they work better as a trilogy than single novels. And they do have an emotional energy. Cumberbatch is on the front cover of my library book and I could imagine him declaiming his way through book 2 which put me off a bit but they were still a good read
LindsD
LindsD
Jan 2020
7:06am, 12 Jan 2020
32,675 posts
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LindsD
Four and five are also good if you can get them.
Serendippily
Serendippily
Jan 2020
9:13am, 12 Jan 2020
15,673 posts
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Serendippily
Maybe. The bits he writes most powerfully about: David’s cruelty, Eleanor’s drinking, the anticipation and reaction to various drugs, Johnny - are not just well crafted, they ring true. A lot of the rest of the social commentary overused certain dialogue rags: there was a lot of gasping and screaming, and I had no particular investment in Davids friends all of whom seemed largely interchangeable. I can love a social commentary book - I loved Vanity Fair and Brideshead Revisited - but I like an engagement with whoever is speaking. I still have it an 8 though and the character of Patrick was largely excellent

About This Thread

Maintained by McGoohan
Are you feeling stupid? Are you feeling contagious?

Then you need the first novel in the Patrick Melrose series by Edward St Aubyn. Discuss it below. Go on. Discuss.

I found it hard, it's hard to find, oh well, whatever, never mind.

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