Laying On of Hands: Stories - Softcover

Bennett, Alan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312422253 ISBN 13: 9780312422257

Publisher: Picador, 2003

Synopsis

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 his father's deathbed where their lifelong battle continues to the end. "The Laying on of Hands," a brilliantly funny satire, describes a society memorial service for a rather special masseur who died tragically young; and in "Miss Fozzard Finds her Feet," a lonely, unmarried department store clerk discovers there's more to life than looking after her brother through her only indulgence, her podiatrist.

About this title

Review

The Laying on of Hands is vintage Alan Bennett, who has clearly mastered the art of the funny, wise and moving story that stands somewhere between a novel and a short story. The story revolves around the funeral of Clive Dunlop, a young man who has died in Peru under mysterious circumstances. As Father Geoffrey Joliffe prepares to lead the funeral, it seems "hard to say what Clive was, for instance, though taking note of the numerous celebrities who were still filing in, 'well-connected' would undoubtedly describe him". As Father Joliffe begins to speak, it soon emerges that the TV stars, politicians, singers, writers, and even the priest himself, who have gathered to mourn Clive were all beneficiaries of his "healing hands". Clive was a gifted masseur, although for many of his clients massage "was just a preliminary to a more protracted and intimate encounter and one which might, understandably, come a little dearer".

Under the disapproving eye of one of his church superiors, Father Joliffe allows the funeral to descend into a free-for-all as Clive's friends and clients try to understand who he was, and worry over the nature of his mysterious death. Beautifully written in Bennett's laconic, adroit style, The Laying on of Hands suddenly creeps up on the reader as a funny and wise meditation on the big issues of sex, death, religion and HIV/AIDS. --Jerry Brotton

Review

"Bennett's genius is his ability to satirize humanely. [His] prose is like stained glass: if you stare at it, you see things you missed...brilliant and luminous." --The New York Times Book Review

"Bennett's genius is for the imploding situation in which a cleverly made house of cards shudders and comes down; the comments of his characters as they nimbly pick their way around the wreckage verge on aphorism." --The New Yorker

"In the hands of Alan Bennett, the tragic and painful are close bedfellows with the funny and the sexual, making for a collection of stories, in which we laugh at the situations presented and then feel a twinge of guilt." --Los Angeles Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0312422253
• ISBN 13: 9780312422257
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 212