Synopses & Reviews
Three stories in one volume from one of Britain's most admired authors and playwrights.
The Laying On Of Hands is Bennett at his inimitable best in this funny, and mischievous satire about a society memorial service for a rather special masseur who has died at a tragically young age in Peru.
In "Father! Father! Burning Bright" Bennett writes with tragicomic insight about a son's vigil at his father's deathbed where their lifelong battle continues to the end. With his pared down and deceptively simple prose style Bennett unflinchingly describes the random thoughts and haphazard conversations of the family members waiting in the hospital as they face life and death.
In "Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet" a podiatrist shows a lonely, unmarried department store clerk that there's more to life than looking after her brother. Part of the award winning and critically acclaimed Talking Heads series, "Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet" was described in the New York Times as both "touching" and "hilarious."
Review
"[A] collection of three more or less perfect short stories....If the situations sound dreary, they are, but Bennett can make cake out of clay. Bennett's genius is his ability to satirize humanely....He leaves no fool unwhipped, no frailty unexposed, but he does so with extraordinary sympathy he has the gentleness of a (good) priest....Bennett's prose is like stained glass: if you stare at it, you see things you missed....[B]rilliant and luminous..." Christopher Buckley, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Bennett hits the mark in the title novella of this brief collection....Bennett's multileveled approach makes the title story work....Unfortunately, the quality of craft drops significantly in the other two efforts, with the second novella in particular focusing more on manners than comedy." Publishers Weekly
Review
"The humor throughout is caustic....In taking pains to make sure we keep laughing, though, Bennett fails to get beyond this sitcom presentation to the real complexities beneath." Bernadette Murphy, The Los Angeles Times
Synopsis
Alan Bennetts extraordinary ear for dialogue and sharpness of perception have made him a master storyteller. In “Father! Father! Burning Bright” he writes with tragicomic insight about a sons vigil at his fathers deathbed where their lifelong battle continues to the end. “The Laying on of Hands,” a brilliantly funny satire, describes a society memorial service for a rather special masseur who died tragically young; and in “Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet,” a lonely, unmarried department store clerk discovers theres more to life than looking after her brother through her only indulgence, her podiatrist.
About the Author
Alan Bennett is a renowned playwright and essayist, a succession of whose plays have been staged at the Royal National Theatre and whose screenplay for
The Madness of King George was nominated for an Academy Award. He made his first stage appearance with
Beyond the Fringe and his latest play was
The Lady in the Van with Maggie Smith. Episodes from his award-winning
Talking Heads series have been shown on PBS. His first novel,
The Clothes They Stood Up In, was published in 2000. He lives in London.