This review isn’t going to do the book justice since I finished it over a month ago. Probably more. I don’t even want to look. One thing I will say right away is that this is one of the few instances where I actually enjoyed the filmed version better than the book. I don’t have any real evidence to back this up since my memory is crap, but all I remember is a feeling that I liked the slight tilt the show put on this episode in Patrick’s life just a little bit better than the book version.
This is the one with his mother’s funeral in it. There’s a lot in here about the dying off of Patrick’s demons, made literal in the slow, ugly death of his mother, and the surprising quick one of the last of his father’s friends, Nick, a character who’s been around since the first book, being a giant prick. It’s probably the most comical of the books, with Patrick being in a relatively healthy place emotionally for the first time. The scene where Nicholas keels over at the wake is funny in a terrible way.
Not surprisingly, though, Patrick’s problems don’t just disappear when his mother dies. He still has to deal with them.
The book ends on a hopeful note, with Patrick seemingly on track to reunite with his family and achieve some form of peace at last, and I appreciated that, though again, I thought the show handled it a little bit better, made it a bit more clearer that Patrick was at last (heh) in a good place.
Overall, glad I got out of my comfort zone and read this series.
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