The Laying On of Hands: Stories

By Alan Bennett

Book Overview

Alan Bennett's 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 son's vigil at... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312290519
• ISBN13: 9780312290511
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: Picador
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.5" x 1.0" x 4.9"

Customer Reviews

A Subversively Funny Send-up

The title story of Alan Bennett's "The Laying on of Hands," a novella that takes up half the book of three stories, demonstrates the playwright's sparkling versatility as a writer. Anyone who has seen or read Bennett's recent Tony-award-winning play, "The History Boys," will appreciate the more subtle humor of "The Laying on of Hands," the focus of which is a memorial service for a highly attractive, skillful, and young (dead at age 34) masseur conducted by a High Anglican priest who, like most of those attending the service, has enjoyed the virile masseur's services, albeit without the knowledge of the others. Among the attendees is wide selection of mourners, including many of England's wealthy and famous, male and female, a "version of England," as it were. Add a self-righteous Archdeacon, there to report on the conduct of Father Geoffrey Jolliffe, who is conducting the service, and you have the ingredients for a smart, subversive dark comedy revolving around the question of "What did he die of?" To supply the answer would spoil the story. Read it and enjoy it; then read and see the movie version, available on DVD, of "The History Boys" if you haven't already. Wrestling With Angels: A Tale of Two Brothers Bare Roots Loud Whisper

A Classic from a Master

Alan Bennett is the classiest act in literature. His personal style--wry, self-effacing--shades his writing, which manages to be delicate, ironic, and hysterically funny all at once. The title story is destined to be a classic, and if you loved "The Clothes They Stood Up In," it's sure to be something you read and reread. It's genuinely laugh-out-loud funny, and it's quite astonishing how a seemingly lightweight take about the death of an ambisexual masseur can hone in on people's hopes and fears without ever becoming less than a breathtaking feat. The second, also more a novella than a shirt story, is less impressive but still very funny, sexy, and also sweet. The last is the least compelling--the prat of a protagonist makes it rough going--but this is the shortest of the lot by far. And the first take alone is well worth the price.