The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

August 23rd, 2008

The Uncommon Reader
Alan Bennett
121 p.

Faber & Faber Ltd., 2008
(First published by Faber & Faber, 2007.)

Back cover blurb:

Led by her yapping corgis to the Westminster travelling library outside Buckingham Palace, the Queen finds herself taking out a novel by Ivy Compton-Burnett. Duff read though it is, the following week her choice proves more enjoyable and awakens in Her Majesty a passion for reading so great that her public duties begin to suffer. And so, as she devours works by everyone from Hardy to Brookner to Proust to Beckett, her equerries conspire to bring the Queen’s literary odyssey to a close.

I love Alan Bennett. I spent a great part of the summer re-reading The History Boys probably a half-dozen times, without ever getting bored of it. And all the time, I heard buzz about this novella about the queen. When summer was drawing to a close, I bought and I read it. And it examplifies exactly why I love Bennett so. There’s much literature, so much name-dropping - culture exists as much as in reality, if not more, in Bennett’s stories. And everyone, everyone, is so witty. Bennett describes the world the way I want it too be; a bit more dashing, a bit more clever.

This story is why monarchy still exists.

Entry Filed under: English, Fiction