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Loading... The Uncommon Reader (original 2006; edition 2008)by Alan Bennett
Work detailsThe Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (2006)
3.5 stars (  )  bonniemarjorie | May 7, 2013 |  Delicious little story. Love the language, love the style, love the idea, and most especially love the ending. A real treat. You can read it in one sitting, but you will soon realize you want to drag the story out for as long as possible. (  ) Pool_Boy | May 1, 2013 | Re-read 03 June 2012: Re-reading as my concession to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. "What she was finding also was how one book led to another, doors kept opening wherever she turned and the days weren't long enough for the reading she wanted to do." So true: every book read off the to-be-read list adds at least two more to Mount TBR, and this book mentions so many that at least want to be pushed a bit further up the pile. First read 26 June 2008: Short (a mere 120 pages) and sweet, this is a delicious fairy tale and exquisite fun to read, while putting across the 'moral' messages of the tale, as it were: the power of reading to change a person and the importance of actually making time to read. ( ) stevejwales | Apr 26, 2013 | Terri recommended this book, but I really didn't enjoy it as much as she did. I read it on a rainy day and perhaps wasn't in a mood for the humour. The Uncommon Reader is none other than HM the Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. She reads widely and intelligently. Her reading naturally changes her world view and her relationship with people such as the prime minister and his repellent advisers. She comes to question the prescribed order of the world, and loses patience with much that she has to do. In short, her reading is subversive. The consequence is, of course, surprising, mildly shocking and very funny. She decides to write a novel and resigns. (  ) bettyroche | Apr 12, 2013 | When the Queen of England accidentally discovers an affinity for reading, her staff and subjects are not amused. Charming and insightful. ( ) KimJD | Apr 8, 2013 |
 Bennett manages to touch on some pointed issues in this little volume: life experience versus book experience; the pleasure of reading versus the sterility of being briefed; the riddle of what is "natural" behavior when a person lives so much in the public eye. And he makes you whoop with laughter while he's at it.  In recounting this story of a ruler who becomes a reader, a monarch who’d rather write than reign, Mr. Bennett has written a captivating fairy tale. It’s a tale that’s as charming as the old Gregory Peck-Audrey Hepburn movie “Roman Holiday,” and as keenly observed as Stephen Frears’s award-winning movie “The Queen” — a tale that showcases its author’s customary élan and keen but humane wit. The Uncommon Reader is a political and literary satire. But it's also a lovely lesson in the redemptive and subversive power of reading and how one book can lead to another and another and another. This time, his odd, isolated heroine is the queen of England. The story of her budding love affair with literature blends the comic and the poignant so smoothly it can only be by Bennett. It’s not his very best work, but it distills his virtues well enough to suggest how such a distinctive style might have arisen. The Uncommon Reader has the tone and morally elevating intentions of a children's book. Yet this charming fairy tale is laced with plenty of drollery for readers of more than four feet high.
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0312427646, Paperback)From one of England's most celebrated writers, the author of the award-winning The History Boys, a funny and superbly observed novella about the Queen of England and the subversive power of reading (retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:54:53 -0500) The uncommon reader is none other that HM The Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. (summary from another edition) |
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