Ian Parker’s “Inheritance”

From The New Yorker's archive: Ian Parker chronicles the difficult life of the novelist Edward St. Aubyn.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   View in browser | Update your preferences     Profiles The Real Life of Edward St. Aubyn Writing saved St. Aubyn's life. Years of psychoanalysis, and the controlled fiction that followed, deferred the threat of suicide. By Ian Parker Since 1992, the journalist Ian Parker has contributed more than a hundred pieces to The New Yorker. He has written about a wide variety of subjects, including the melancholia of the actor Alec Baldwin; the innovative industrial designs of the former Apple vice-president Jony Ive; the edgy political satire of Armando Iannucci, the creator of "Veep"; and the anti-poverty work of the economist Esther Duflo. Parker is a masterly diagnostician of his subject's inner disturbances and emotional vicissitudes. In 2004, he published "The Gift," about a wealthy philanthropist who decided to donate one of his kidneys to a complete stranger. The article went on to win the National Magazine Award for Profile Writing, in 2005. One of my favorite pieces by Parker is "Inheritance," which was published in 2014. Parker's tale chronicles the difficult life of the novelist Edward St. Aubyn and delves into the creation of his semi-autobiographical Melrose novels, about an upper-class but deeply troubled British family. Parker writes about St. Aubyn's early childhood abuse at the hands of his father and how he is able to transform his personal pain into literature. "But the stability that St. Aubyn has achieved isn't quite calm. The novels can feel like heavy fabric that has been pulled beautifully taut by sweating effort that's just out of frame, and there's some of that in St. Aubyn's wary charm," Parker writes. At the center of the piece is a profound moral question: How does one transfigure trauma from the past? Parker reveals the murky recesses of St. Aubyn's inner turmoil and explores how the novelist is able to write so skillfully about the unspeakable. At one point, St. Aubyn remarks that "this whole journey is toward the truth." As Parker expertly unspools the multilayered strands of St. Aubyn's life, he shows us what it means to gaze unflinchingly at one's own past—and, consequently, to transform it into art.   —Erin Overbey, archive editor More from the Archive     Profiles Why Me? Alec Baldwin's disappointment, undimmed by success. By Ian Parker     Letter from London Living Through the Blitz A 1940 report on the fortitude of Londoners during German air raids. By Mollie Panter-Downes This e-mail was sent to you by The New Yorker. To ensure delivery, we recommend adding newyorker@newsletters.newyorker.com to your contacts, while noting that it is a no-reply address. Please send all newsletter feedback to tnyinbox@newyorker.com.    For more from The New Yorker, sign up for our newsletters, shop the store, and sign in to newyorker.com, where subscribers always have unlimited access. Contact us with questions.   View our Privacy Policy. Unsubscribe.   Copyright © Condé Nast 2020. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.