Tag Archives: Smut

The Lady in the Van on Audible

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51jkNj-OPEL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_   If you’ve missed Maggie Smith’s clever asides on Downton Abbey, her voice as The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett on Audible’s BBC radio adaptation will have you smiling. Maggie and I took a long walk together, as she enacted the role she made famous in Bennett’s witty play and recently in the movie version.

When I heard Maggie Smith revealing her character’s life with the nuns, who tried to break her spirit but never succeeded, and her escape from the asylum for a year and a day thereby freeing her to live on her own, I realized this homeless character who lived in a van in Bennett’s driveway, had a colorful past.

Bennett has gone on record to confirm the source of the story – the bag lady who actually lived in a van outside his garden.  Sadly, so many homeless now have changed the landscape here, not the lone lady in a van who slowly made her way down the hill to Bennett’s house.  When I first came years ago, I remember two homeless men living in the park – both had the same philosophical view of the world as Bennett’s character, and neither wanted the Christmas cookies nor the old quilt I offered.  Like the lady in the van, they were independent, self-reliant, and had wild stories to tell.  Times have changed, and now hundreds make camp on the sidewalks.  A few nights ago, the news scared residents with a stabbing and a murder between two homeless men in that same park.  Local residents now treat the homeless with fear and avoidance.

The story offered glimpses of humanity thorough the social worker who brought clean sheets and the emergency medical technicians who handled her with dignity and respect, never cringing at her shabby clothes or her smell.  And, of course, Bennett himself, who finally discovered her past – after she died – but always treated her well while she was alive.

Amazing how all came together for this story – the lady in the van living outside a writer’s window for fifteen years, a wry Englishman who has even taken on the Queen in his astute ramblings  (The Uncommon Reader), and the friendship of the writer and the famous actor who brought the play to life.

The Lady in the Van has a poignant message.

Related Review:   Smut 

 

 

Smut by the author of The Uncommon Reader

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Why is it that reading a book by a British author, in that proper tone, can render any topic more auspicious?  In Smut, Alan Bennett’s wry humor and clever asides carry the message, but you will be distracted by his language, and, as with The Uncommon Reader, Bennett turns perceptions upside down with humor and truth.  Have a cup of tea and enjoy the book, but be careful that the surprises don’t have you snorting out your nose. Just remember, you were warned by the title.

This slender volume actually has two short stories – different respectable characters, same topic.  In both, Bennett preserves the outer images of the prim and proper, while revealing their unexpected secrets.

In “The Greening of Mrs. Donaldson,” a middle-aged widow, trying to supplement her income after her husband dies, decides to take in boarders from the local medical school, despite her daughter’s misgivings.   Mrs. Donaldson also works part-time as a pseudo-patient for medical students.  Her role-playing as a fake patient provides opportunities for Bennett’s crackling comments and funny scenes.  But the exhibitionist activities of her tenants offers her unexpected enjoyment when she allows them to pay their overdue rent in an unconventional way.  Alas, even the thrilling eventually becomes mundane.

In “The Shielding of Mrs. Forbes,” a middle-aged mother is disappointed that her handsome son is marrying an unattractive woman.  The son, trying to protect his mother from his secret life, becomes an unwitting victim of his gay police officer partner who  blackmails him.  He is rescued by his wife, who had only been pretending not to know of his proclivities – as does his mother –  in a twisted tale of strange allegiances and misplaced trust.

Although witty and mocking, Smut is a strange commentary on lives that are more complicated than they seem.  The British flavor lends some respectability to the bawdiness, and Bennett has a gay old-time in the telling.

Related Article: Review of The Uncommon Reader