Double Blind

Author:

Edward St. Aubyn is most known for his Patrick Melrose series, which was adapted into a TV series and is said to be based on his own life, but he has several other successful works. He was raised in both London and France, but describes his childhood us unhappy due to his father’s sexual abuse. He attended schools in London before studying at Oxford and graduating in 1979 with the lowest possible degree available, mostly due to his addiction to heroin at the time.

Learn More about Edward St. Aubyn

Three words to describe this read:

Routine- The characters went about their lives doing normal, day-to-day things, but the reader starts to notice the impact of these somewhat meaningless events and how they add up to create more substantial changes in their lives.

Scientific- Most of the characters were involved in psychiatry, technology, naturalism, or some other science which made the language very dense and hard to follow, but that didn’t get in the way of the plot and the feelings the reader develops for the characters.

Questionable- None of the characters’ plots seemed resolved by the end of the story which left me questioning the purpose of the book, but after some time to reflect, I realized that there are very subtle hints about the characters’ futures toward the end and that the author likely intended the resolution to remain open for interpretation.

Quote:

“And yet, despite this over-attainment of his teenage grandiosity, he still didn’t feel as if he had arrived at his destination.”

I like this admission that just because you attain your childhood goals doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve attained happiness or no longer have goals to achieve. I relate to this having "checked off" a lot of what I set out to do when I moved out of my parents’ house and started college. I’m lucky to have had goals to aspire to during those years and I’m even luckier now to have new goals to strive toward.