Smut: Stories (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. ( )

Smut is a fun, little book with two short stories. The joy of these stories is the richness of the story telling – so few words, so much being said, so much more to use your imagination.

The first covers the recently widowed Mrs. Donaldson who earns extra money by renting out a room to lodgers as well as by character-and-case acting as patients to help teach doctors-in-training, after being referred by a lodger. The former results in the lodgers offering alternative means to pay the rent, by performing intercourse in front of Mrs. Donaldson. The latter becomes intertwined with the former when it became apparent that many of the students, including the teaching doctor learned of the special arrangement that Mrs. Donaldson is willing to accept.

I found this first story humorous and intriguing in that I have no idea what Mrs. Donaldson may or may not choose to do. Some quotes:

On marriage – kind of sad that there this feels like a lot of truth:
“She was (or thought herself) a conventional middle-class woman beached on the shores of widowhood after a marriage that been, she supposed, much like many others… happy to begin with, then satisfactory and finally dull.”

Was she or was she not into the moment? Only the later pages will reveal more.
“Mrs. Donaldson’s first instinct was to look away so that rather than frankly considering this naked young man kissing his equally naked girlfriend with his hand buried between her legs she found herself looking at the floor and wondering if it was time she had the carpet cleaned. ‘Bring back memories?’ said Laura, Andy’s face now where his hand had been. ‘Ye-es,” said Mrs. Donaldson, thought the truth was it was a memory of a vase in the British Museum.”

The speech from Ballantyne, the teaching doctor to the pupils. I rather liked this speech:
“Remember. You are a physician. You are not a policeman nor are you a minister of religion. You must take people as they come. Remember, too, that though you will generally know more about the condition than the patient, it is the patient who has the condition and this if nothing else bestows on him or her a kind of wisdom. You have the knowledge but that does not entitle you to be superior. Knowledge makes you the servant not the master.”

Another speech from Ballantyne, after Mrs. Donaldson’s acting character declares, “I’m bereaved but I’m not upset”.
“I’m not sure how much it taught us about breaking bad news still less offering comfort to the bereaved but at least it reminded us that death and grief don’t always go together: sympathy needs to be on offer but it’s not necessarily welcome and can sometimes be thought presumptuous.”
I had found this speech to carry a lot of meaning. Sometimes, it’s ok to say good bye and just let go, and there is no grief involved.

The second story has layers of complexities that it’s best not to describe, except to say everyone has secrets. Even the author included this towards the end:

“In conclusion, how much better… how much healthier… had all these persons, these family members, been more candid with one another right from the start.”

And more importantly, the last sentence:
“Still, for all that everybody, while not happy, is not unhappy about it. And so they go on.”

Both these quotes have a simple profoundness that I can relate. ( )

Wickedly entertaining... A slight hint of A.McCall Smith, but not nearly as benign. ( )

Pleasantly diverting, but personally I preferred An Uncommon Reader. Recommended for Bennett fans. ( )

I love Bennett, and these two stories entertain very nicely. "The Greening of Mrs Donaldson" was delightfully naughty (and has one of the best openings I've read in fiction!), but i didn't care as much for "The Shielding of Mrs Forbes". ( )

Two short stories about women of a certain age being rude or having rudeness thrust upon them.
Moments of vintage Bennett. ( )

“Smut” is two short stories, “The Greening of Mrs. Donaldson”, and “The Shielding of Mrs. Forbes”. In the first, a middle-aged widow takes in lodgers who occasionally fall behind on the rent, and make up for it by having sex in front of her. In the second, a combative couple’s son decides to marry a woman who is not as physically attractive as he is; it turns out the son is gay and having a dangerous liaison, but his fiancée has a few secrets of her own as well. Both tales are told with wonderful British humor.

Quotes:
On being a doctor:
“Remember. You are a physician. You are not a policeman nor are you a minister of religion. You must take people as they come. Remember, too, that though you will generally know more about the condition than the patient, it is the patient who has the condition and this if nothing else bestows on him or her a kind of wisdom. You have the knowledge but that does not entitle you to be superior. Knowledge makes you the servant not the master.”

On love:
“This is where love generally comes in: whether the inequality between the partners is physical or social or indeed financial, evening up the score is what love is about. Still, even in the most perfect of unions there’s often detectable an element of bestowal. And that Betty was of the wrong gender made making love to her seem to Graham the greatest bestowal of all.”

On old age:
“It’s also interesting,’ he continues, ‘that though a daughter can say ‘I have to do everything for her’ about her aged mother, at the other end of life a mother would never say of her infant child ‘I have to do everything for her’. Why do we take the helpless condition of infancy without complaint but not that of senility?”

On religion:
“’If you are getting married in church, Graham, the vicar likes you to pretend you believe in God. Everyone knows this is a formality. It’s like the air hostess going through the safety drill. God’s in His Heaven and your life jacket’s under the seat.’
‘I don’t see what that’s got to do with whether we’ve done it or not.’
‘When you are as old as Canon Mollison,’ Mr. Forbes said patiently, ‘one of the few perks of the job is talking to young people about the sexual act. What in any other context would probably get him arrested, in the vestry passes for spiritual advice.’”

On sex, I smiled at this very ‘British’ way of putting it:
“Betty, whose sexual expectations had not been very high, found herself the object of prolonged and vigorous and on the whole pleasurable assault.”

And this one:
“Their congress concluded, the Donaldsons retired to their separate sides of the bed and went to sleep. There was never any discussion or comment even. It was over until next time.
Not so these young people who if an orgasm is a little death proceeded to conduct a post-mortem in an assessment of their respective quotients of gratification and pleasure.”

On voyeurism in middle age, I laughed over this one:
“Mrs. Donaldson’s first instinct was to look away so that rather than frankly considering this naked young man kissing his equally naked girlfriend with his hand buried between her legs she found herself looking at the floor and wondering if it was time she had the carpet cleaned.
‘Bring back memories?’ said Laura, Andy’s face now where his hand had been.
‘Ye-es,’ said Mrs. Donaldson, though the truth was it was a memory of a vase in the British Museum.”

On women:
“One of the functions of women, Mr. Forbes had long since decided, was to impart an element of trouble into the otherwise tranquil lives of men.” ( )

I see Smut as two views of secrets and sexual awakening. Both were enjoyable and thought provoking. I gave the book 4 stars instead of 5 because ultimately I couldn't identify what motivated the characters. For me it lacked a little depth.

In "The Greening of Mrs. Donaldson" the main character is a conservative and reserved woman, who considers taking in lodgers as daring. When she takes a job as a pseudo patient at the local medical school, her equally conservative daughter considers it unseemly. While highly entertaining, I could not understand why Mrs. Donaldson chose to accept the lodgers offer "in lieu of" rent.

Similarly, in the "Shielding of Mrs. Forbes" I was interested and entertained by the secrets and activities, but really couldn't understand Betty's motivation in marrying Graham. What did she gain? I really enjoyed the story, but was not altogether convinced. ( )

Adult, Fiction ( )

Lately, there has been a spate of novels that enforce the lesson that one can never truly know someone else. While someone may portray himself in a public persona as polished and urbane, this same person could be struggling with a mental disorder or harboring a hoarding fetish. One just never knows and can never know all of the details. Smut is yet another example of this, focusing on sexual proclivities instead of other personality traits.

What is Smut? This is one instance where the author's choice of verbiage is quite telling. This one little word has multiple definitions, all of which apply to Bennett's stories. One definition for smut is a particle of dirt or a smudge made by soot or dirt. Yet another definition is something that is obscene in writing or speech. The third, and probably most well-known, definition is pornography. It is also a form of fungus on grains. Driving home the point that what is ordinary to some is extraordinary to others, both of Bennett's main characters experience a shift in their own definitions of smut. What both of them would have once considered obscene becomes acceptable, even commonplace. These acts become as innocent as a smudge of dirt to the main characters, while others revile their actions as akin to the lowliest form of fungi.

With a title like Smut, one would expect a fair level of explicit sex. While there are definitely sex scenes, Bennett shies away from crossing over into the pornographic. Granted, for certain readers even what is portrayed may be too much, but that is not Bennett's intent. Through Mrs. Donaldson's awakening and Graham's own experiences, the reader is meant to understand better the complexity of human nature and the fear in which each of us lives at the thought of being considered abnormal or different from others.

Because of its very nature, Smut is not for all audiences; it does take a fair amount of open-mindedness about sexuality to finish either story. For those willing and able to do so, Bennett's short stories provide tremendous insight into those who may be considered to be on the fringes of society, even if they appear perfectly ordinary to the world. Truly, what is "ordinary" and "normal" anyway?

Acknowledgements: Thank you to the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association for my advanced copy!

Alan Bennett is brilliant and this short comedy on the conventional mores and prejudices of English life is wonderfully illuminating. ( )

Naughty was never so nice

I’m a fan of Alan Bennett’s wonderful plays, but my greatest affection is reserved for his charming novella The Uncommon Reader. Coming in at a slight 160 pages, Smut is similar in length, but this book is made up of two brief stories. In content, they have nothing in common with that earlier tale, but they exhibit the same trademark humor and warmth. This is a writer it’s difficult not to like. Therefore, it may be surprising to hear that Mr. Bennett is writing Smut. These tales are about sex—at least in part. And though it’s been years since I read them, these stories remind me of nothing so much as the “adult” stories of Roald Dahl.

The first and longer of the two stories was my favorite. “The Greening of Mrs. Donaldson” involves a middle-aged widow who supplements her income by acting out symptoms for medical students to diagnose. There’s much more to it, of course, but half the pleasure here is in the discovery. The other half of the pleasure is the loveable and very human Mrs. Donaldson. And then the third half of the pleasure is the gentle humor.

I didn’t like the characters in “The Shielding of Mrs. Forbes” quite as much, but they weren’t meant to be as likable. The vain Graham Forbes has several secrets he’s keeping from his new wife, but it turns out she has an agenda of her own.

Despite Bennett’s natural sweetness, these stories really do discuss sexual matters in a very frank and adult manner. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t describe them as graphic. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend The Uncommon Reader to anyone who’s ever loved a book. I won’t be recommending Smut quite as unreservedly. I think more open-minded readers will enjoy these stories the most. But I enjoyed them immensely, and I do recommend them. ( )

Although subtitled Two Unseemly Stories, perhaps only the most prudish of Bennett's fans would find either The Greening of Mrs. Donaldson or The Shielding of Mrs. Forbes offensive. Perhaps more accurately, what the two stories share is that in neither case are surface appearances, in fact, what they seem.

I found the former story the better of the two. Mrs. Donaldson, newly widowed after a dull marriage, takes in medical students and also becomes a demonstrator during the course of their studies, pretending to various illnesses in order that they can study how to treat them. However, when one couple are unable to pay their rent and offer to pay off their debt in a somewhat, um, unconventional way. Thus does Mrs. Donaldson enter a newly liberated phase of her life although, this being Bennett, tea and custard creams are still involved.

Mrs. Forbes's son, Graham, self-abosrbed and arrogant, is hiding a secret from his Mum: his homosexuality. He is married to keep up appearances, but falls victim to a blackmailing policeman. His Dad seems more interested in first the dusky Samoan beauty (by way of Clitheroe) and then later Graham's wife. Will Graham's cover be blown and what will his Mum say?

Whilst enjoyable, I couldn't help the feeling that Smut was Alan Bennett by numbers: middle aged repressed ladies and their frightfully British take on propriety and marital relations being challenged. ( )

A disappointing follow on to The Uncommon Reader, although I could recognise the same voice in the first of these two short stories. The Greening of Mrs Donaldson had its laugh out loud moments as recently widowed Mrs Donaldson puts trainee med students through their paces. She role plays as a patient presenting with particular symptoms for them to practise their diagnostic skills on. Also to supplement her income she takes a couple in as lodgers and there we discover what the book title alludes too.
The Shielding of Mrs Forbes, the second tale, lacked the wit of the first and became farcical. Mrs Forbes' closet gay son marries plain but intelligent Betty. The marriage appears reasonably successful despite the development of soap opera like sexual relationships between members of the cast. None of the characters are particularly well fleshed out unlike Mrs Donaldson in the previous story. ( )

In this rather slight volumes sit two charming stories of unexpected sexuality. The first story is 'the Greening of Mrs Donaldson' and deals with a recently widowed middle-classed woman who to earn some extra income on the side takes a job at the local hospital as a part-time demonstrator helping medical students with their diagnosis technique by feigning different physical and mental conditions and at the same time catching the eye of their professor. As she takes in a couple of students as tenants she finds herself in an interesting predicament as the rent cheques begin to dry up there is an offer to pay the arrears in kind.

The Shielding of Mrs Forbes features another unorthadox sexual arrangement. Mrs Forbes has a handsome, eligible if not air-headed son called Graham and he is betrothed to a somewhat plain but extraordinarily intelligent woman. They would be set for a happy life if it weren't for the fact that Graham was a closeted homosexual whose extra-marital sexual encounters get him under the control of a blackmailing policeman.

Both stories are about people pretending to be whom they are not and failing miserably at the task. Both stories lead to rather unexpected conclusions and the brunt of the humour is rather directed not at the named protagonists themselves but at the people around who are in on the secret.

It's a slender volume and the stories are entertaining enough but it does leave me wondering if they were of sufficient calibre to justify individual publishing. I think Alan Bennett has reached the same level as Umberto Eco where anything he says or writes from now on will be snapped up and bound which is great if you're an avid fan eager for new material but it is no guarantor of continuing or consistent quality. ( )

It's probably fair to say that my rating for this book would be a little higher if I were reviewing a writer I am not familiar with, but as Alan Bennett is one of my favourite authors my expectations are proportionately greater, and 'Smut' does not not rate as highly as most in the corpus.

'Smut' comprises two longish short stories about unconventional sexuality in apparently conventional domestic situations. The fulcrum of 'The Greening of Mrs Donaldson' occurs when a student couple, tenants of the widow Mrs Donaldson, suggest she might like to watch them have sex in lieu of unpaid rent. 'The Shielding of Mrs Forbes' turns on the blackmailing of Mrs Forbes' newly-married son by his gay lover, a corrupt policeman. The stories are comic, wittily written in the Bennett style - deceptively homely with acerbic twists and curtain-parting satire. They are proficient sketches by a master, without much depth or texture.

And I think that's the trouble, really. The stories are slight. The characters (with the exception of the emergent Mrs Donaldson) do not grow much beyond caricature. Bennett offers us more than whimsy, but not a great deal more. There is not that much we can carry away beyond the simple pleasure we find in the telling; as we do having watched, say, a well-turned Ayckbourn farce. I found myself wondering whether there was enough here for these two stories (though they are complementary) to merit publication on their own.

Sometimes you end a book wanting more for all the right reasons, having invested so much in the story and the characters that you are reluctant to leave them, want to be along for the rest of the journey or a new one, or because you have developed some new understanding as a consequence of reading the book, and want to reach for further enlightenment. Here, I wanted more because I felt vaguely dissatisfied despite my enjoyment of the experience as far as it went. I felt a bit like Peggy Lee when she sings, 'Is that all there is?'

Reviewer David Williams writes a regular blog as Writer in the North. ( )