Uncommon Reader:
Uncommonly good!
If you’re British, you already know all about Alan Bennett. Some lad mag (or is it lit mag?) publishes excerpts from his diary every year, right? Then he makes that Christmas broadcast on the BBC, and you see him when you’re punting the Thames. He shows up at your birthday parties, even, and brings you your lunch when you’ve forgotten it at home. I’m sure this is true. He’s the UK’s kindly gay uncle, beloved of all.
Here in Canada/the U.S., we barely know him. Sure, The Madness of King George played in art houses (fifteen years ago) and we’ve heard of The History Boys (but not seen it). Love of Alan Bennett is a love we’ve never known.
But I’m out to change all that because, dammit, on this side of the Atlantic we need a kindly gay uncle. Good god, who doesn’t? The whole damn world needs a kindly gay uncle. Alan has my vote and I want to get him yours.
Let’s start the conversion process with my favorite thing EVER: Alan Bennett’s novella The Uncommon Reader which was the first thing I bought on my beloved Kindle not long ago.
This novella stars the Queen of England (yes, that queen). One day she’s out walking the corgis and happens upon a City of Westminster Library van. Though uninterested in fiction, her own sense of noblesse oblige requires her to take out a book. Then her sense of duty requires her to read it, and the mischief is unleashed. She becomes a passionate reader, throwing the carefully scheduled royal train off the tracks and opening her dutiful, highly educated senior citizen mind to feelings, experiences and aspirations never felt before. It’s a liberation. Everyone else, especially the corgis, is not amused.
Everything about this novella is perfect. The language is brilliant, restrained, evocative and uproariously funny. When I read the first page I had to stop and start again, reading it out loud to Alyx, and then I didn’t stop again–except to laugh uncontrollably–until three hours later when I’d read the entire thing to her out loud. It’s that good. Alan Bennett is a master.
Alan Bennett for king of the world!
You have a limited amount of time, so why spend it reading about things that suck or are only kind of okay? Favorite thing EVER is not a review site. We're unrepentant fans, and this is the stuff we love. Hope you like gushing, because we're about to embarrass ourselves.
I saw the History Boys! And I liked it heaps! I am excited about this story, and maybe I will get it for Christmas!
I know you’ll love it. It’s delicious enough to re-read over and over.
Don’t think that I don’t see you dropping your HINTS.
Find his amazing TV monologues, performed by people like Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins, and other brilliant actors. They showed on PBS way back and I saw some of them, rented some, and read others. It’s called Talking Heads. Oh,such brilliance. And at least a little bit of him is on YouTube, going all the way back to when he was in Beyond the Fringe. Yumm!
Oh, oh, and find a DVD of A Question of Attribution. James Fox as spy Anthony Blunt in charge of the art at Buckingham Palace. How do you tell if something that has impeccable credentials is a fake.