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A Life Like Other People's
Alan Bennett's A Life Like Other People's is a poignant family memoir offering a portrait of his parents' marriage and recalling his Leeds childhood, Christmases with Grandma Peel, and the lives, loves and deaths of his unforgettable aunties Kathleen and Myra. Bennett's powerful account of his mother's descent into depression and later dementia comes hand in hand with the uncovering of a long-held tragic secret. A heartrending and at times irresistibly funny work of autobiography by one of the best-loved English writers alive today.
243 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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About the author
Alan Bennett
274 books1,117 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Alan Bennett is an English author and Tony Award-winning playwright. Bennett's first stage play, Forty Years On, was produced in 1968. Many television, stage and radio plays followed, along with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose and broadcasting, and many appearances as an actor. Bennett's lugubrious yet expressive voice (which still bears a slight Leeds accent) and the sharp humour and evident humanity of his writing have made his readings of his own work (especially his autobiographical writing) very popular. His readings of the Winnie the Pooh stories are also widely enjoyed.
Alan Bennett is an English author and Tony Award-winning playwright. Bennett's first stage play, Forty Years On, was produced in 1968. Many television, stage and radio plays followed, along with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose and broadcasting, and many appearances as an actor. Bennett's lugubrious yet expressive voice (which still bears a slight Leeds accent) and the sharp humour and evident humanity of his writing have made his readings of his own work (especially his autobiographical writing) very popular. His readings of the Winnie the Pooh stories are also widely enjoyed.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 184 reviews
June 6, 2020
I had the joy of listening to this on audio, narrated by the great man himself, Alan Bennett. He gives us a look into his family, his self effacing parents, the mental health issues, the family history and its secrets. The move from Leeds to a rural village that tips his mother over the edge, she was far more comfortable fading into the background amongst the many in the city, but not the greater focus on her that village life would bring, her depression brings to the surface the truth about his maternal grandfather. The close relationship, loyalty and commitment his father has towards his mother shines through, his insistence on going to visit her without fail. He relates the impact of his memorable aunts, Kathleen and Myra, how Kathleen ended up with dementia, just like his mother, and finding her after she went missing. Bennett relates a family with elements that many will recognise within their own families, with all the niggles and irritations, and a family that struggled to accept all that Alan is, an acceptance that came easier in London. I found this to be an engaging, endearing and witty insightful look into Bennett's family life, reflective of the times and the place. I highly recommend listening to this on audio!
March 19, 2013
It's purely by chance that I read this back-to-back with Alan Sillitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, but the contrast between the two throws light on both. Here we have the flip side of Arthur Seaton. Alan Bennett grew up in Leeds, his working class pedigree is as spotless as Arthur Seaton's and he can't be more than five years younger. Yet his parents were shy, quiet, self-sufficient. Indeed this other Alan sees this as the key to understanding them, and himself too. He often mentions that he was a 'show-off' as a child, in a self-disparaging way that reveals how much he has accepted the values of his parents. "Put simply and as they themselves would have put it, both my parents were shy, a shortcoming they thought of as an affliction while at the same time enshrining it as a virtue. Better to be shy, however awkward it made you feel, than be too full of yourself and always shoving yourself forward." He offers an insight into what he sees as two sides of one coin:"...the self-effacing and the self-promoting, shy and its opposite, share a basic assumption, shy and forward the same. Everybody is looking at me, thinks the shy person (and I wish they weren't). Everybody is looking at me, thinks the self-confident (and quite right too)."
That famous lugubrious voice, the Yorkshire intonations, the self-irony, self denigration, the sardonic humour make this a heart-rendingly poignant account of family dynamics, of mental illness, of social aspirations; a celebration of the human. It is achingly sad, but achingly honest. Life's like that.
That famous lugubrious voice, the Yorkshire intonations, the self-irony, self denigration, the sardonic humour make this a heart-rendingly poignant account of family dynamics, of mental illness, of social aspirations; a celebration of the human. It is achingly sad, but achingly honest. Life's like that.
March 3, 2012
I wasn't sure about this book at first. It began so quietly. But Alan Bennett's sentences are always pitch perfect. Soon I was totally caught. Bennett captures the heartbreak of ordinary family life perfectly. But maybe that gives the wrong impression. He captures the lived life of a family perfectly. It isn't all heartbreak, unless mortality strikes you as heartbreaking. It does me. The photographs are haunting.
One of my favorite sentences in A Life Like Other People's: Bennett's Aunt Myra has died and he is talking to an older relative, Florence. Florence had recently written a two page letter sharing her news with the Bennetts. "Halfway down the page came the sentence, 'Frank died last week, haven't we been having some weather?' Seldom can a comma have borne such a burden." The book is filled with this kind of humor, and also the heartbreak of his parents' goodness, reticence and inability to bear the world. I love Bennett's writing.
One of my favorite sentences in A Life Like Other People's: Bennett's Aunt Myra has died and he is talking to an older relative, Florence. Florence had recently written a two page letter sharing her news with the Bennetts. "Halfway down the page came the sentence, 'Frank died last week, haven't we been having some weather?' Seldom can a comma have borne such a burden." The book is filled with this kind of humor, and also the heartbreak of his parents' goodness, reticence and inability to bear the world. I love Bennett's writing.
August 8, 2016
I liked Alan Bennett's work and had read a couple of his books before. Happily making my way through this book, hearing stories of his family and their 'foibles'. Then I hit page 110 and thought you know Alan I don't like you very much. Here is the paragraph that repelled me to him "It's a sign of my age that shoe shops seem nowadays to be staffed by sluts, indifferent, unhelpful and with none of that matronly dignity with which the selling of shoes and buying of clothes were in those days conducted." Speaking of his Aunty Kathleen and her job as a shoe salesperson Alan describes all modern shoe salespersons as "Sluts." I took offense to the use of the word and to how it was constructed in this sentence.
Actually I think that he could have put that word to better use in describing his lateness in his own sexual revolution. Let me quote pages 94 & 95 "While sexual intercourse did not quite begin in 1974 it was certainly the year when sex was available pretty much for the asking...or maybe I had just learned the right way to ask. Whatever the reason, I suddenly seemed to be leading the kind of life I was told everybody else had been leading for years." So in other words Alan you were a slut.
Misogynist here's another word I'd like to use here one I believe should be added to Alan's list of credits. Oh and did his editor and publisher not think this paragraph needed reviewing? Maybe they are tarred with the same brush and slutting yourself for fame and money overrides any concern they may have in offending shoe saleswomen!
Actually I think that he could have put that word to better use in describing his lateness in his own sexual revolution. Let me quote pages 94 & 95 "While sexual intercourse did not quite begin in 1974 it was certainly the year when sex was available pretty much for the asking...or maybe I had just learned the right way to ask. Whatever the reason, I suddenly seemed to be leading the kind of life I was told everybody else had been leading for years." So in other words Alan you were a slut.
Misogynist here's another word I'd like to use here one I believe should be added to Alan's list of credits. Oh and did his editor and publisher not think this paragraph needed reviewing? Maybe they are tarred with the same brush and slutting yourself for fame and money overrides any concern they may have in offending shoe saleswomen!
June 28, 2011
Bennett's voice is so calm and deliberate, so lacking in sentiment, that I was midway through this book before I realized it was annihilating me. Bennett kills with a thousand tiny cuts, all delivered via masterfully wrought sentences and a reflective, fluid structure that never stops in the abruptness of chapter breaks but rather shifts in and out of time and place.
There is little to nothing extraordinary about the lives Bennett plumbs. The brilliance and poignancy of this book lie in his powers as a writer, in his exploration of a universality that eventually hits home for most of us — aging — and in his willingness to turn the writer's knife on himself.
I loved this book, even though (because?) I'm going to feel a pit in my stomach for days.
There is little to nothing extraordinary about the lives Bennett plumbs. The brilliance and poignancy of this book lie in his powers as a writer, in his exploration of a universality that eventually hits home for most of us — aging — and in his willingness to turn the writer's knife on himself.
I loved this book, even though (because?) I'm going to feel a pit in my stomach for days.
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February 21, 2023Come sempre, mi sento a disagio a dare stelline a uno scritto autobiografico. Qui Bennett (scrittore che amo molto) ci racconta con il suo solito modo di quasi noncuranza la sua famiglia, i suoi genitori, le sue zie materne e i suoi nonni materni. Flash di vita e malattia e morte negli anni '70 perlopiù. E per tutto il libro mi rimbombava nella testa l'incipit forse più famoso di sempre: Tutte le famiglie felici sono uguali, ogni famiglia è infelice a modo suo.
March 3, 2011
Alan Bennett in questo libro rende un omaggio ai suoi genitori, a suo padre Walt, a sua madre Lilian e alla loro unione decisamente fuori dall’ordinario. Ambedue provenivano da famiglie piccolo borghesi e nonostante costituissero una famiglia normale non erano mai riusciti ad essere uguali agli altri; in particolare i Bennett odiavano attirare l’attenzione e suscitare i commenti e curiosità nel prossimo, parenti compresi.
Dopo il pensionamento del padre decidono di trasferirsi in un piccolo paese per godersi la pace e la tranquillità della campagna; ma il cambio di ambiente causa delle crisi nervose nella madre, motivate dalla paura di essere spiati da vicini e passanti. Da questi episodi partono quasi 30 anni di un ininterrotto via vai da cliniche psichiatriche , con elettroshock e breve periodi di stabilita .
Per lo scrittore sono anni di crisi improvvise ed emergenze, ricoveri coatti e terapie d’urto, fino alla scoperta della verità: la vera causa della morte di suo nonno, la fuga di sua zia, i segreti che hanno reso la sua famiglia diversa da tutte le altre.
“Una vita come le altre” e’ una delicata storia di amore, raccontata tramite i ricordi familiari. Alan Bennet la narra senza indulgenze, mantenendo uno sguardo distaccato, a volte ironico ma sempre affettuoso, parlando di due persone che hanno vissuto la tragedia di un male oscuro come un avvenimento quotidiano.
Dopo il pensionamento del padre decidono di trasferirsi in un piccolo paese per godersi la pace e la tranquillità della campagna; ma il cambio di ambiente causa delle crisi nervose nella madre, motivate dalla paura di essere spiati da vicini e passanti. Da questi episodi partono quasi 30 anni di un ininterrotto via vai da cliniche psichiatriche , con elettroshock e breve periodi di stabilita .
Per lo scrittore sono anni di crisi improvvise ed emergenze, ricoveri coatti e terapie d’urto, fino alla scoperta della verità: la vera causa della morte di suo nonno, la fuga di sua zia, i segreti che hanno reso la sua famiglia diversa da tutte le altre.
“Una vita come le altre” e’ una delicata storia di amore, raccontata tramite i ricordi familiari. Alan Bennet la narra senza indulgenze, mantenendo uno sguardo distaccato, a volte ironico ma sempre affettuoso, parlando di due persone che hanno vissuto la tragedia di un male oscuro come un avvenimento quotidiano.
October 29, 2017
- Geum rivale -
September 25, 2022
Bennett's autobiographical love letter to his parents is a sincere, self-effacing memoir that exudes gratitude, understanding, and honesty. He doesn't shy from the difficulties of living with someone with debilitating depression, or the mixed feelings and motivations of a dramatist and son in approaching the topic of his family. For example, when he is asked if he wants to see his dead father's body, he reflects,
"Less forgivably there was some notion that being a writer demanded an unflinching eye, to look on death part of the job. Besides, I was forty and the death of the father was one of the great formative experiences; I had a duty to make the most of it."
No matter how this conflict of son/writer affected Bennett, the overall result is of clarity and honesty, and the wonderfully reflective and sympathetic book that the reader gets out of it makes it an entirely positive circumstance.
"Less forgivably there was some notion that being a writer demanded an unflinching eye, to look on death part of the job. Besides, I was forty and the death of the father was one of the great formative experiences; I had a duty to make the most of it."
No matter how this conflict of son/writer affected Bennett, the overall result is of clarity and honesty, and the wonderfully reflective and sympathetic book that the reader gets out of it makes it an entirely positive circumstance.
March 21, 2015
Humble origins, as they say. But how many renowned writers could look back on them with such kindness - such pity, in the best sense of that corrupted term - and such absolute lack of acquired superiority? Alan Bennett writes of his parents' (and aunts') pinched and constrained and little-educated lives with his usual gimlet eye, and pulls off his usual monstrously difficult trick: writing that is wholly unsentimental, and yet wholly compassionate.
For some reason I think this won't feature in lists of his best work - it's hard to compete with the plays, after all, or The Uncommon Reader, or Talking Heads. But he is such a master of quiet irony, and of perfect sentences, that he's always worth reading. And there's the usual deep pleasure to be had in his almost unique capacity for an unvarnished, almost-mocking frankness that is never cruel.
"Mam" suffered from debilitating depression, and then a long, long senility. These scenes of her last years, with the dutiful but feeling-guilty son visiting from London, are brilliantly captured. He sits stroking his bedridden mother's hand over the untouched, congealing custard. He doesn't know what to say. A loud, theatrically cheerful nurse breezes in and out. ("Isn't she a love!") Bennett: "Irritatingly, Mam seemed to enjoy it, this grotesque performance eliciting far more of a response than is achieved by my less condescending and altogether more tasteful contribution."
Thus does a master of nuance signal his discomfort about his own discomfort. And here he is at the crematorium: "How few lives end now full-throated to hymns soaring or bells pealing from the tower. How few escape a pinched suburban send-off, the last of a life some half-known relatives strolling thankfully back to the car. Behind the boundary of dead rattling beeches careful flower beds shelter from the wind, the pruned stumps of roses protruding from a bed of wood-chips."
A short passage you could use as the basis for an hour-long writing seminar! ("Careful flower beds" - brilliant.) And if it sounds depressing, I should say that Bennett has never written anything that is not, in a quiet subversive way, also very funny. This book is no exception.
For some reason I think this won't feature in lists of his best work - it's hard to compete with the plays, after all, or The Uncommon Reader, or Talking Heads. But he is such a master of quiet irony, and of perfect sentences, that he's always worth reading. And there's the usual deep pleasure to be had in his almost unique capacity for an unvarnished, almost-mocking frankness that is never cruel.
"Mam" suffered from debilitating depression, and then a long, long senility. These scenes of her last years, with the dutiful but feeling-guilty son visiting from London, are brilliantly captured. He sits stroking his bedridden mother's hand over the untouched, congealing custard. He doesn't know what to say. A loud, theatrically cheerful nurse breezes in and out. ("Isn't she a love!") Bennett: "Irritatingly, Mam seemed to enjoy it, this grotesque performance eliciting far more of a response than is achieved by my less condescending and altogether more tasteful contribution."
Thus does a master of nuance signal his discomfort about his own discomfort. And here he is at the crematorium: "How few lives end now full-throated to hymns soaring or bells pealing from the tower. How few escape a pinched suburban send-off, the last of a life some half-known relatives strolling thankfully back to the car. Behind the boundary of dead rattling beeches careful flower beds shelter from the wind, the pruned stumps of roses protruding from a bed of wood-chips."
A short passage you could use as the basis for an hour-long writing seminar! ("Careful flower beds" - brilliant.) And if it sounds depressing, I should say that Bennett has never written anything that is not, in a quiet subversive way, also very funny. This book is no exception.
May 10, 2014
This is a poignant and often quite painful memoir to read. It almost made me feel guilty for intruding.
Alan Bennett writes unflinchingly about the suicide of his grandfather, his mother's increasingly severe bouts of depression and mental health issues, his father's death and the tragic circumstances surrounding his Aunt's death - she walked out of hospital, suffering from dementia, and her body was found several days later by Bennett and his brother who were searching the grounds around the hospital.
He doesn't always portray himself in a good light in this book - often showing a lack of patience or sympathy and sometimes anger with his family either directly or in the retelling of an event (his brother comes across as a much warmer, kinder person). I found myself not liking him very much at some points and yet feeling great sympathy with him at others. I know it is hard having to deal with elderly relatives - most of us have to at some time or other, and often in difficult circumstances. I can perhaps understand a little better my own father's frustration and anger with his now ex partner whose mental health issues are very similar to how Bennett's mother's were.
It must have been incredibly difficult to write about subjects which are, essentially, so very private and yet he achieved this and turned them into something very special. I did wonder, though, when I'd finished reading it how his brother would have felt about the making public of their family's life.
There is plenty of his subtle humour throughout and I don't think anyone could fail to snort with laughter at the photograph of the two Australian soldiers and the accompanying comments!
Alan Bennett writes unflinchingly about the suicide of his grandfather, his mother's increasingly severe bouts of depression and mental health issues, his father's death and the tragic circumstances surrounding his Aunt's death - she walked out of hospital, suffering from dementia, and her body was found several days later by Bennett and his brother who were searching the grounds around the hospital.
He doesn't always portray himself in a good light in this book - often showing a lack of patience or sympathy and sometimes anger with his family either directly or in the retelling of an event (his brother comes across as a much warmer, kinder person). I found myself not liking him very much at some points and yet feeling great sympathy with him at others. I know it is hard having to deal with elderly relatives - most of us have to at some time or other, and often in difficult circumstances. I can perhaps understand a little better my own father's frustration and anger with his now ex partner whose mental health issues are very similar to how Bennett's mother's were.
It must have been incredibly difficult to write about subjects which are, essentially, so very private and yet he achieved this and turned them into something very special. I did wonder, though, when I'd finished reading it how his brother would have felt about the making public of their family's life.
There is plenty of his subtle humour throughout and I don't think anyone could fail to snort with laughter at the photograph of the two Australian soldiers and the accompanying comments!
February 4, 2018
pietà filiale
Resta, forte, l’immagine di questa famiglia: la madre gioiosa e depressa a fasi alterne, il padre teneramente innamorato di lei, e, tutti e due follemente timidi, al punto di vivere tutta una vita al riparo, di sfuggita, pateticamente isolati, desiderosi in modo spasmodico di “passare inosservati”.
Difficile passare inosservati però quando si soffre di crisi di allucinazione, in una piccola città. Ed il dramma si svolge qui, nelle dimensioni piccole della provincia, della famiglia ripiegata su se stessa – messa a disagio dalle zie appariscenti o dal figlio scrittore – il dramma dell’aspirazione ad una vita “come le altre”, immaginate felici, ricche, straordinarie. E’ vergogna avere un nonno suicida, un parente ricoverato nel reparto psichiatrico, è vergogna, e si nasconde.
Non si vede traccia, qui, dell’umorismo di Bennett ma capiamo come è nato: dallo sforzo di nascondersi dietro il sorriso, dalla nostalgia per la madre scherzosa, dalla dignità del papà genere “va tutto bene qui da noi”.
Peraltro, il libro è disuguale, e la tensione che sorregge la prima parte si affloscia in seguito. Rimaniamo un pò scossi e un pò commossi dalla pietà filiale dello scrittore, dal suo dolente amore per i genitori, così fragili, così ritrosi nel farsi ritrarre che solo questo, forse, poteva fare, il figlio scrittore: scriverli ed aprirci il suo album di famiglia, senza più vergogna.
Resta, forte, l’immagine di questa famiglia: la madre gioiosa e depressa a fasi alterne, il padre teneramente innamorato di lei, e, tutti e due follemente timidi, al punto di vivere tutta una vita al riparo, di sfuggita, pateticamente isolati, desiderosi in modo spasmodico di “passare inosservati”.
Difficile passare inosservati però quando si soffre di crisi di allucinazione, in una piccola città. Ed il dramma si svolge qui, nelle dimensioni piccole della provincia, della famiglia ripiegata su se stessa – messa a disagio dalle zie appariscenti o dal figlio scrittore – il dramma dell’aspirazione ad una vita “come le altre”, immaginate felici, ricche, straordinarie. E’ vergogna avere un nonno suicida, un parente ricoverato nel reparto psichiatrico, è vergogna, e si nasconde.
Non si vede traccia, qui, dell’umorismo di Bennett ma capiamo come è nato: dallo sforzo di nascondersi dietro il sorriso, dalla nostalgia per la madre scherzosa, dalla dignità del papà genere “va tutto bene qui da noi”.
Peraltro, il libro è disuguale, e la tensione che sorregge la prima parte si affloscia in seguito. Rimaniamo un pò scossi e un pò commossi dalla pietà filiale dello scrittore, dal suo dolente amore per i genitori, così fragili, così ritrosi nel farsi ritrarre che solo questo, forse, poteva fare, il figlio scrittore: scriverli ed aprirci il suo album di famiglia, senza più vergogna.
January 29, 2018
Alan Bennett has written a family memoir which is clear-eyed and sharply perceptive about human weaknesses. An example is the attention-seeking which he deplores in his histrionic aunts - as when one of them, making the most of her bereavement, insists on elaborate funeral rites for her husband and an unsuccessful, but enjoyable, scattering of the ashes.
Though he deplores his own attention-seeking, Alan Bennett's prose is perfect and unshowy. It is particularly effective for conveying his parents' self-contained dignity, loving kindness and quiet sense of fun.
Then the mood darkens. Change and decay in all around he sees and the reading becomes painful. The book was written, I think, ten years ago. It is a cheering thought that they seem to have been good years for the author, who is still practising his profession.
Though he deplores his own attention-seeking, Alan Bennett's prose is perfect and unshowy. It is particularly effective for conveying his parents' self-contained dignity, loving kindness and quiet sense of fun.
Then the mood darkens. Change and decay in all around he sees and the reading becomes painful. The book was written, I think, ten years ago. It is a cheering thought that they seem to have been good years for the author, who is still practising his profession.
April 25, 2019
This book reminded me a lot of my own family where depression was not to be talked about should it lessen other people's opinions of the individual and the family as a whole. I found it sad but very real and Alan Bennett's writing never ceases to amaze me.
November 1, 2016
L'omaggio partecipato, ma composto dell'autore ai propri genitori. Limpida e serena tristezza.
October 24, 2020
An intriguing, dispassionate account of life with the author's parents. The description in the opening pages of his mother's lead up to and first admission to hospital is shockingly funny. The impression the reader has of a bleak and lonely desperation in the early pages soon changes.
I won't say how but the author's attachment to his parents and village is surprising, bringing the reader around to a very tender experience.
I love the author's attitude to hugging and "caring". At last. The English. Love 'em.
I won't say how but the author's attachment to his parents and village is surprising, bringing the reader around to a very tender experience.
I love the author's attitude to hugging and "caring". At last. The English. Love 'em.
March 13, 2022
I read this after being a big fan of bbc's talking heads for quite a few years and was disappointed to find such a bleak, old fashioned and somewhat ignorantly privileged view of life through the eyes of a fantastic writer. As it is an auto-biography I do understand that honesty is all he can and should give and in that sense I appreciated the transparency of his character. However I would not recommend the book as I feel a reader gains very little from it if they do not live and think exactly as the writer does.
April 24, 2022
Alan Bennett’s The Uncommon Reader is one of my favourite books. This one is in a totally different vein - a brutally frank memoir, in which Bennet writes about seeing his parents grow old, witnessing his mom descend into a memory-less existence, his father die, his aunts too… It could have been a depressing book, and in many ways, it does make you sad. But Bennett’s self-deprecating humour, and his low-key, pitch-perfect voice makes the heartbreak bearable, even instructive. A lovely book, and very timely for me.
August 5, 2019
That's my encounter with death covered for the next few weeks...
This book didn't excite me in any particular way and in fact the accounts of the life of Alan Bennett's relatives, and eventual deaths, are relatively morose; however there is charm in this brief history of a single family.
This book didn't excite me in any particular way and in fact the accounts of the life of Alan Bennett's relatives, and eventual deaths, are relatively morose; however there is charm in this brief history of a single family.
June 16, 2025
A Life Like Other People’s by Alan Bennett my note on his marvelous The History Boys is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/... along with thousands of other reviews
8 out of 10
Alan Bennett is one of my favorite authors, and not just that, I admire what I think is his character, he appears to be a gentle, kind, douce man, in contrast with so many ordinary people that are so bombastic, without any skills, talents to justify any such self-regard, as always, my favorite example is Orange Jesus
They nicknamed him like that, within his own cult, though he is raving mad, and we can see evidence of that every single day: he has had a debate, a couple of days ago, which he lost, but as is his way, he keeps saying he won (as for the last elections) and furthermore, he will not have another face off, coward that he is
The History Boys is a spectacular work, which has quite a few memorable lines, one of which is “History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.” It is both so true and amusing, seen from here, I mean we could laugh at men
Then we have The Uncommon Reader https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/11/... which we find included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, another fantastic book, where the late queen is the main character, she is The Uncommon Reader, in an amusing and entertaining work
Her majesty had a heavy program (her son, other present and future royals engage in the same schedule, more or less) and no time to read, initially, she has to meet hoi polloi, the subjects, and have small talk with them, such as ‘have you come far’, but then a twist in the plot changes the whole picture for readers
Aristotle https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... is known for his philosophical contributions, but he had so much to say on other topics, such as drama, which needs to have a climax, and a reversal the best example is in Oedipus Rex, where the king finds that he inadvertently killed his father…
Worse still, he married his mother, and now that he is aware of this tragedy, he takes his eyes out, and then he wonders away with his daughter, Antigone – she has her own play, and in the myth, she will suffer an equally terrifying fate, trying to take a stand https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/12/...
Alan Bennett wrote the play and the script for the screen adaptation of The Madness of King George https://realini.blogspot.com/2019/03/... which has some elements of truth within, as far as I can see, albeit this is not a documentary, and ergo we have artistic license…
King George III acts in a peculiar manner, and he ends up being restrained, made to ‘take treatment’, which at times involves what looks like abuse…this is a comedy, first and foremost, however serious the subject is, and the fact that Alan Bennett is not one to just titillate, there is a very instructive, serious, enlightening side in his works
Some of those ‘physicians’ were looking at the feces of the king, his urine, which of course, are examined today, medical tests find elements that are alarming, but centuries ago, they were just making presumptions, there was no substance, scientific basis for their ‘diagnoses, and their cure was just a joke, most often
Speaking of doctors, A Life Like Other People’s has a large part dedicated to the decline of his mother – the women caring for her call her ‘Lilly’, at some stage – the death of his father, the way his parents enter their final years, and the sad, depressing cognitive decline – which we see in Orange Felon, to come back to my obsession
It is bad to keep coming back to that leit motif, but on the other hand, The Economist has the cover of the present copy with America’s Election is Mired in Conflict, the opening article, and then more in the newspaper (the best in the world) look at the aftermath of the elections, and the big trouble we will have to face
One scenario has the two candidates tied, and then strangely, congress will elect one, if that is only one in three hundred chance (maybe this is wrong, but still, an unlikely outcome), then you have the Felon win, and that will be disastrous, however, now I have to see the good result, and still understand the immense danger
The Economist explains how they will contest the results, they already do, the Convicted Man keeps saying blue is red and red is blue, one of the biggest liars in history – to use his style, narcissistic psychopath that he is, he maintains that he is the greatest in history, best brain, ‘very stable genius’ and all that
If the change at the very top will be peaceful on the whole, even with groups of the rebels attacking various places, just like we have seen almost four years ago, The Economist is so accurate in foreseeing that the future is not good for America, and that means the rest of us will be affected, because this Orange Fool has done so much damage
In order to govern, people need trust, and that is sinking fast, in the US, 70 % of members of the cult of Orange Jesus have been brainwashed by the new prophet (well, 100% actually) and they say that he has won in 2020!
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’
“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
8 out of 10
Alan Bennett is one of my favorite authors, and not just that, I admire what I think is his character, he appears to be a gentle, kind, douce man, in contrast with so many ordinary people that are so bombastic, without any skills, talents to justify any such self-regard, as always, my favorite example is Orange Jesus
They nicknamed him like that, within his own cult, though he is raving mad, and we can see evidence of that every single day: he has had a debate, a couple of days ago, which he lost, but as is his way, he keeps saying he won (as for the last elections) and furthermore, he will not have another face off, coward that he is
The History Boys is a spectacular work, which has quite a few memorable lines, one of which is “History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.” It is both so true and amusing, seen from here, I mean we could laugh at men
Then we have The Uncommon Reader https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/11/... which we find included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, another fantastic book, where the late queen is the main character, she is The Uncommon Reader, in an amusing and entertaining work
Her majesty had a heavy program (her son, other present and future royals engage in the same schedule, more or less) and no time to read, initially, she has to meet hoi polloi, the subjects, and have small talk with them, such as ‘have you come far’, but then a twist in the plot changes the whole picture for readers
Aristotle https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... is known for his philosophical contributions, but he had so much to say on other topics, such as drama, which needs to have a climax, and a reversal the best example is in Oedipus Rex, where the king finds that he inadvertently killed his father…
Worse still, he married his mother, and now that he is aware of this tragedy, he takes his eyes out, and then he wonders away with his daughter, Antigone – she has her own play, and in the myth, she will suffer an equally terrifying fate, trying to take a stand https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/12/...
Alan Bennett wrote the play and the script for the screen adaptation of The Madness of King George https://realini.blogspot.com/2019/03/... which has some elements of truth within, as far as I can see, albeit this is not a documentary, and ergo we have artistic license…
King George III acts in a peculiar manner, and he ends up being restrained, made to ‘take treatment’, which at times involves what looks like abuse…this is a comedy, first and foremost, however serious the subject is, and the fact that Alan Bennett is not one to just titillate, there is a very instructive, serious, enlightening side in his works
Some of those ‘physicians’ were looking at the feces of the king, his urine, which of course, are examined today, medical tests find elements that are alarming, but centuries ago, they were just making presumptions, there was no substance, scientific basis for their ‘diagnoses, and their cure was just a joke, most often
Speaking of doctors, A Life Like Other People’s has a large part dedicated to the decline of his mother – the women caring for her call her ‘Lilly’, at some stage – the death of his father, the way his parents enter their final years, and the sad, depressing cognitive decline – which we see in Orange Felon, to come back to my obsession
It is bad to keep coming back to that leit motif, but on the other hand, The Economist has the cover of the present copy with America’s Election is Mired in Conflict, the opening article, and then more in the newspaper (the best in the world) look at the aftermath of the elections, and the big trouble we will have to face
One scenario has the two candidates tied, and then strangely, congress will elect one, if that is only one in three hundred chance (maybe this is wrong, but still, an unlikely outcome), then you have the Felon win, and that will be disastrous, however, now I have to see the good result, and still understand the immense danger
The Economist explains how they will contest the results, they already do, the Convicted Man keeps saying blue is red and red is blue, one of the biggest liars in history – to use his style, narcissistic psychopath that he is, he maintains that he is the greatest in history, best brain, ‘very stable genius’ and all that
If the change at the very top will be peaceful on the whole, even with groups of the rebels attacking various places, just like we have seen almost four years ago, The Economist is so accurate in foreseeing that the future is not good for America, and that means the rest of us will be affected, because this Orange Fool has done so much damage
In order to govern, people need trust, and that is sinking fast, in the US, 70 % of members of the cult of Orange Jesus have been brainwashed by the new prophet (well, 100% actually) and they say that he has won in 2020!
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’
“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
May 4, 2017
This book was read as a Thurso Book Club choice, never read Alan Bennett before, this book didnt really sell him to me, interesting observations, on not very interesting people. Fairly easy read, not very inspiring and pretty depressing, not one of my favourites.
September 1, 2024
Most enjoyable.
A simple descriptive story of Alan’s parents as they lived out the end of their lives.
A simple descriptive story of Alan’s parents as they lived out the end of their lives.
December 22, 2014
Alan Bennett writes about graveyards, the chapel in a crematorium, some wildlife, Leeds, a canal, hospitals, mental illness, its treatment and common attitudes to it, several aunties (not aunts), their unsatisfactory husbands, his grandfather a little, his father quite a lot and his mother mainly, their simple marriage, a mystery solved (why are there no wedding pictures?), her extended illnesses, his sudden death and her eventual death, perhaps too long delayed, care homes and those who work there, and concludes with some reflections on his own possible place of burial. He describes with painful clarity his mother's need for kindness and the difficulty he experienced in responding appropriately, even when a care worker models for him the need to be demonstrative. "The nurses ... have more sense. They know they are in a "Carry On" film. I am playing like it's "Brief Encounter."
The writing is whimsical and approaches its subject crabwise, embarrassed because it is so sensitive and yet, in the end, deeply revealing. He describes the inadequacy of our care for those who are vulnerable - though he really only is negative about the inadequacy of his own caring, finding excuses or making concessions for others - and perhaps evokes a tremor of recognition that we too will be vulnerable in time.
"Just here the canal, the railway, the river and the road all run parallel, and just over the hill to the north is Leeds and Bradford Airport. It's like one of those fanciful landscapes in the boy's book of childhood in which one setting is made to comprehend transport in all its forms: a car, a train, a boat, a plane, all going their separate ways as a man (giving the human scale) walks by the canal." My wife and I have often referred to such scenes as "Enid Blyton" scenery, referring to the same type of illustration from the older type of story books.
The writing is whimsical and approaches its subject crabwise, embarrassed because it is so sensitive and yet, in the end, deeply revealing. He describes the inadequacy of our care for those who are vulnerable - though he really only is negative about the inadequacy of his own caring, finding excuses or making concessions for others - and perhaps evokes a tremor of recognition that we too will be vulnerable in time.
"Just here the canal, the railway, the river and the road all run parallel, and just over the hill to the north is Leeds and Bradford Airport. It's like one of those fanciful landscapes in the boy's book of childhood in which one setting is made to comprehend transport in all its forms: a car, a train, a boat, a plane, all going their separate ways as a man (giving the human scale) walks by the canal." My wife and I have often referred to such scenes as "Enid Blyton" scenery, referring to the same type of illustration from the older type of story books.
November 27, 2009
These days Alan Bennett is enjoying a well deserved renaissance with a new play The Habit of Art opening this month in London, plus the recent hit play/film The History Boys, novel The Uncommon Reader and Pen/Ackerley Prize winning non-fiction collection Untold Stories remain fresh in our minds. This new volume was lifted in it’s entirety from Untold Stories, and deservedly so. In A Life Like Other People’s the openly gay Bennett tells with great wit and measured sentimentality the story of his parents and maternal aunts.
We are treated to truly inspired reminisces of the author’s earliest and formative years. The story of how his parents met, and their absurd wedding ceremony (or lack there of), his mothers mental illness, and his father’s all consuming steadfastness. There is a poignant scene of visiting his mother in an asylum; a harrowing scene of searching for an aunt with Alzheimer’s who’s slipped away from her hospital ward. There are revelations of family secrets, as well as ribald stories of marital misadventure. Finally there is a heartrending scene in a nursing home between mother and son that left this reader gob smacked by the purity of the writing.
This volume (which I ordered from Amazon.UK) is a precious gift of memories and observations, anecdotes and personal judgments harsh, humorous and unabashedly honest.
We are treated to truly inspired reminisces of the author’s earliest and formative years. The story of how his parents met, and their absurd wedding ceremony (or lack there of), his mothers mental illness, and his father’s all consuming steadfastness. There is a poignant scene of visiting his mother in an asylum; a harrowing scene of searching for an aunt with Alzheimer’s who’s slipped away from her hospital ward. There are revelations of family secrets, as well as ribald stories of marital misadventure. Finally there is a heartrending scene in a nursing home between mother and son that left this reader gob smacked by the purity of the writing.
This volume (which I ordered from Amazon.UK) is a precious gift of memories and observations, anecdotes and personal judgments harsh, humorous and unabashedly honest.
January 2, 2011
The title caught my eye at the library, so I picked this up. I wanted very much to give this just 2 stars, but had to grade up. The writing is peculiar to my American sensibilities, but still beautiful in many ways. Bennett doesn't try to explain anything that is unique to British life, but that was okay, too; I usually understood through context. If I cared enough I could always look it up.
I was concerned right off the bat when his mother is diagnosed with just plain old depression and it was stressed to the family over and over that she was struggling with depression, nothing more, when she was paranoid and delusional. Those are not typical symptoms of plain old depression. I wondered if that was the way it was in the '60s when she had her first bout and thought that the diagnosis would change as advances were made in understanding depression and other mental illness, but, no. So, to me, there was a level of incompetence in the medical personnel that I couldn't quite get over.
The author jumps around in the time line and I found myself a little confused at times when he mentions not knowing about something that he has just talked about at length in a previous section.
Interesting look at family dynamics and the impact of those dynamics on each family member.
I was concerned right off the bat when his mother is diagnosed with just plain old depression and it was stressed to the family over and over that she was struggling with depression, nothing more, when she was paranoid and delusional. Those are not typical symptoms of plain old depression. I wondered if that was the way it was in the '60s when she had her first bout and thought that the diagnosis would change as advances were made in understanding depression and other mental illness, but, no. So, to me, there was a level of incompetence in the medical personnel that I couldn't quite get over.
The author jumps around in the time line and I found myself a little confused at times when he mentions not knowing about something that he has just talked about at length in a previous section.
Interesting look at family dynamics and the impact of those dynamics on each family member.
Read
July 27, 2011I like Alan Bennet's work and looked forward to reading this story of his own life or, perhaps more accurately, the lives of the people around him. But do not expect to be amused or uplifted by the characterisations. That is not the point . It is an honest appreciation of his life through his interaction with others, and it begins with the sadness of his mother's mental illness. She was depressive and could only be cured by electro-convulsive therapy. There were frequent remissions and in the end she was looked after by Alan's brother and his wife. This was the generally unknown background to his successful career as multi talented "Theatrical". Quite a burden for the whole family. All this is at the beginning of the book and there is more of the same sadness with deaths of his Aunts. One eventually gets used to the openess of the approach and the book can be "enjoyed" for that and for the natural skill in the portrayals
February 9, 2011
Alan Bennet's parents never felt they were quite the same as other people, aspiring to a better more sociable life, but never quite achieving it. Alan Bennet's father was a reluctant butcher, his mother a timid woman, overshadowed by her brasher, more confident sisters.
His mother developed depression and paranoia after moving out of Leeds when her husband retired, spending regular spells in various hospitals, his father's continuing devotion led eventually to his death from a heart attack. Though at times frustrated by them Alan Bennet clearly loved his parents and this is a very personal unflinching account of not only their lives and those of his family but also of his responses to his mother's depression and eventual dementia.
This is a very touching story of an ordinary family but it is also a valuable insight into the changing attitudes to mental health over the last fifty years.
His mother developed depression and paranoia after moving out of Leeds when her husband retired, spending regular spells in various hospitals, his father's continuing devotion led eventually to his death from a heart attack. Though at times frustrated by them Alan Bennet clearly loved his parents and this is a very personal unflinching account of not only their lives and those of his family but also of his responses to his mother's depression and eventual dementia.
This is a very touching story of an ordinary family but it is also a valuable insight into the changing attitudes to mental health over the last fifty years.
July 22, 2012
An enjoyable read, this was one of the titles nominated for World Book Night last year, so no doubt quite a few copies will find themselves in charity shops (although I found this one in a telephone box used as a book exchange in Devon). The book centres around Bennett’s relationships with his parents, and his two aunties on his mother’s side. Its charm derives from its honesty, particularly the account of his mother’s depression, and later descent into dementia, though readers will find the characterisation of his aunties funnier with a familiarity of Bennett’s plays; it seems that many of his characters were based on them. It’s a very engaging memoir in parts, and I began to think how I would write about my own family through a similar lens. But I’m not sure it really merits the extended print run that World Book Night demands.
June 14, 2014
This has sat on my book shelf since 2011 when I said "I'll give it a go" to someone giving it away for World Book Night.
I don't really read autobiographies. I don't know much about Alan Bennett. I do like the history boys.
So yesterday I wanted a thin book to cart down to London on the train and picked this off the shelf. Its competition was a very thin book about global economics that a friend bought me in a bid to educate.
I'm so pleased I said yes on World Book Night. Such a beautiful little book. A loving and honest view of himself as a child and also as an adult. The characters of his family sing off the pages. The rooms and locations just build around you as you read and there are sudden trips into unexpected metaphors.
Totally recommended reading.
I don't really read autobiographies. I don't know much about Alan Bennett. I do like the history boys.
So yesterday I wanted a thin book to cart down to London on the train and picked this off the shelf. Its competition was a very thin book about global economics that a friend bought me in a bid to educate.
I'm so pleased I said yes on World Book Night. Such a beautiful little book. A loving and honest view of himself as a child and also as an adult. The characters of his family sing off the pages. The rooms and locations just build around you as you read and there are sudden trips into unexpected metaphors.
Totally recommended reading.
June 29, 2015
I highly rate this book. Alan Bennett has such a command of the English language and such a good story teller the book held my interest from the first word it was tragic and very funny. Someone who was not familiar with the conditions during and after the war and of how people lived at the time would most probably miss some of the significance of the story.I would thnk that it also appeals more to the generation who remember the conditions which existed in the period he was writing about and the tragedy of loosing parents,brothers and sisters and the possibility of finishing up like Alan's mother.
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