Sunday 1 January 2012

Smut by Alan Bennett


I'm going to start this review by stating that I am a big Alan Bennett fan (The Uncommon Reader is amongst my favourite books), so I had high expectations for this collection of two new novellas and jumped at the chance to read and review them via NetGalley.  Smut contains the stories "The Greening of Mrs Donaldson" and "The Shielding of Mrs Forbes" and both are about the secrets behind the net curtains of middle-class England.

The Greening of Mrs Donaldson is about a widower who takes on a job as a 'demonstrator' at the local hospital, which involves her pretending to have various illnesses so that medical students can practise their diagnostic skills.  She also rents out a room in her house to students and this signals a kind of sexual awakening/liberation.   The Shielding of Mrs Forbes, the novella I preferred, is about a middle class, middle aged woman who believes that everything in her family is normal, despite having a gay married son who is being harassed by a police officer and a daughter in law that's having a secret affair with her husband, and who isn't as stupid as Mrs Forbes believes.

Smut was a big disappointment for me.  While there were elements of satire and humour in both novellas, Bennett's writing felt flat, not razor sharp like it usually does. Neither story really hooked me in and whilst I could take a stab at inferring all of the themes that Alan Bennett was covering in the novellas, this lack of an interesting and engaging story was too big of a flaw for me to get past.  The things that happened in the stories seemed random, especially in The Greening of Mrs Donaldson.  I probably wouldn't be as harsh in my review if not for that fact that I really am an Alan Bennett fan, and have read much better from him.  I would advise readers new to Bennett to start somewhere else.

Verdict: For me, a disappointing collection of two novellas lacking the satire and humour of the author's previous works.
Source: From NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Score: 2 out of 5  

Smut is released in the US on the 3rd January 2012.  It is already available in the UK.

7 comments:

  1. The premise of both of the stories sound intriguing... I don't know his work, but reading about this, despite concerns, and your enthusiasm for The Uncommon Reader absolutely pique my interest!

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  2. Sorry to hear it was a disappointment, great name for a book though, LOL.

    http://www.ManOfLaBook.com

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  3. Happy New Year, Sam!
    Interesting review. I'm a big Alan Bennett fan too, so will definitely give this a go.

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  4. I am also a big fan of Alan Bennett, so I read this post with interest. I will almost certainly seek out a copy anyway but I do really appreciate reading an honest opinion, how disappointing he is not up to his usual form.

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  5. How disappointing! I became a fan of Alan Bennett after reading The Uncommon Reader, too, and also enjoyed The Clothes They Stood Up In.

    P.S. Very impressed to see you've already finished a book this year.

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  6. Bookspersonally, I loved The Uncommon Reader and would recommend it over this one.

    JoAnn, I actually finished this one in December but only just got around to posting the review - cheating really!

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  7. Great title, but sounds like it belongs to an Irvine Welsh book. Shame about the content, not the Sharp wit expected, not sure about reading this or not, may check it out more before deciding.

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