Smut (edition 2012)

Three stars, but I "appreciated" it more than "liked" it. I found the first story to be implausible - would any tenants actually suggest what they suggested to Mrs. Donaldson "in lieu of" paying rent? - but well-written and at least an exercise in stretching one's imagination muscles. The second story seemed more suited to a play than to prose; there was quite a tangle of relationships among the characters. Bennett also uses commas so sparingly that reading his sentences is sometimes jarring. Overall, more intellectual than emotional; very well done, but not a favorite. ( )

Funny book. It is two short stories, both about middle aged women in circumstances or situations that, in former times may have been regarded primly as smutty, something which this book is not. It is witty and clever, light hearted, and gently pokes fun at society's preoccupations with "how things look".

[from 'The Shielding of Mrs Forbes'] “In the years since he was born her sights had risen and Graham was not nearly the classy name she’d once thought. She wished now that she could get rid of it as she had got rid of the dark oak dining suite that belonged to the same period. But though car-boot sales exist to dispose of discarded aspirations there are no stalls dealing in our most unwanted commodities like names, relatives or one’s own appearance in the glass.” ( )

A copy of this review also appears on my blog,
I">http://mswordopolis.blogspot.com.

I haven’t read much by Alan Bennett. I read The Uncommon Reader, which was sort of a comedy piece about the Queen of England becoming an avid reader, and I watched the film version of The History Boys. This collection of paired stories, Smut, fits with what I know of Bennett: the stories are funny, smart, and humane toward its main characters. And, of course, given the title, these stories contain plenty of sex.

The first story, “The Greening of Mrs. Donaldson,” involves the sexual awakening of a fifty-five-year old widow who supports herself as an actor in medical student demonstrations and as a landlady. The second story, “The Shielding of Mrs. Forbes,” involves two couples: Graham and his wife Betty, and Graham’s parents. This is the story that made me see the humane side of Bennett in the final pages.


Both stories deal with small town propriety: basically every character has a bit of a tawdry sex life that they are intent on keeping from their neighbors. These are, after all, stories of seemliness. Bennett does poke fun at suburban mores, but these pieces are not straight satires. He cares for his characters, even the snobby elder Mrs. Forbes. I don’t want to give away much more about the details about these delightful stories. They are witty stories about hidden sex lives.




Smut: Two Unseemly Stories by Alan Bennett
Picador
Publication Date: January 3, 2012
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
( )

Cosy meets racy in these two novellas. They are fluffy and funny and fun to read. ( )

Smut contains two short stories The Greening of Mrs Donaldson and The Shielding Of Mrs Forbes. Each is about the fear associated with a perceived abnormality in ones sexuality.

The Greening has the recently widowed Mrs Donaldson taking in lodgers and acting out case studies to teach med students at the local hospital to earn some extra cash. When the lodgers get behind in their rent, they offer Mrs Donaldson a voyeuristic opportunity in lieu of money which, quite passively, is accepted. The Shielding sees a gay man attempting to keep his sexuality a secret from his stuffy, matriarchal mother and his very intelligent new wife. While these stories revolve around sex, and contain sex scenes, they are not graphic. These events are more like background so that Bennett can explore his themes.

I adored The Uncommon Reader but was quite disappointed with Smut. There was none of that same whimsy, and the laughs were few and far between – although if British humour is your thing, you’ll probably be more entertained than I was. The Greening was more plot orientated while The Shielding was all about the characters, so I found both a little uneven. But there are some wonderful, quotable lines in this little book that nicely and succinctly explore the themes of what and who exactly is “ordinary”.

The casualness of how events occur in the first story made it hard for me to suspend my disbelief, and the characters in the second weren’t particularly likable although they were understandable. So while Smut was entertaining, subtly profound and a fun way to explore some serious ideas, it just didn’t live up to the high expectations set by The Uncommon Reader. ( )