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Product Description
Review
`A beautiful little book, full of love regret and the dignity of unremarkable lives.' --Daily Mail
`This poignant memoir is Bennett at his superlative best.' --Val Hennessy
`It's the small details at which Bennett excels, lending poignancy to otherwise unremarkable moments.' --Aberdeen Press & Journal --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
`This poignant memoir is Bennett at his superlative best.' --Val Hennessy
`It's the small details at which Bennett excels, lending poignancy to otherwise unremarkable moments.' --Aberdeen Press & Journal --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Book Description
The acclaimed title piece from Bennett's bestselling collection Untold Stories.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I didn't realise that this book was extracted from Bennett's "Untold stories" until I received it. As I had read that and enjoyed the former immensely when it was published in 2005 I felt rather disappointed.
It was worth re-reading even though I had a copy of the original on shelves a few feet away. I blame the reviewer in the Yorkshire Evening Post who did't say (or notice) that the work wasn't original. Partly my own fault as well for not checking carefully before I bought it.
It was worth re-reading even though I had a copy of the original on shelves a few feet away. I blame the reviewer in the Yorkshire Evening Post who did't say (or notice) that the work wasn't original. Partly my own fault as well for not checking carefully before I bought it.
61 of 66 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
These days Alan Bennett is enjoying a well deserved renaissance with a new play The Habit of Art opening this month in London, plus the recent hit play/film The History Boys, novel The Uncommon Reader and Pen/Ackerley Prize winning non-fiction collection Untold Stories remain fresh in our minds. This new volume was lifted in it's entirety from Untold Stories, and deservedly so. In A Life Like Other People's the openly gay Bennett tells with great wit and measured sentimentality the story of his parents and maternal aunts.
We are treated to truly inspired reminisces of the author's earliest and formative years. The story of how his parents met, and their absurd wedding ceremony (or lack there of), his mothers mental illness, and his father's all consuming steadfastness. There is a poignant scene of visiting his mother in an asylum; a harrowing scene of searching for an aunt with Alzheimer's who's slipped away from her hospital ward. There are revelations of family secrets, as well as ribald stories of marital misadventure. Finally there is a heartrending scene in a nursing home between mother and son that left this reader gob smacked by the purity of the writing.
This volume (which I ordered from Amazon.UK) is a precious gift of memories and observations, anecdotes and personal judgments harsh, humorous and unabashedly honest
We are treated to truly inspired reminisces of the author's earliest and formative years. The story of how his parents met, and their absurd wedding ceremony (or lack there of), his mothers mental illness, and his father's all consuming steadfastness. There is a poignant scene of visiting his mother in an asylum; a harrowing scene of searching for an aunt with Alzheimer's who's slipped away from her hospital ward. There are revelations of family secrets, as well as ribald stories of marital misadventure. Finally there is a heartrending scene in a nursing home between mother and son that left this reader gob smacked by the purity of the writing.
This volume (which I ordered from Amazon.UK) is a precious gift of memories and observations, anecdotes and personal judgments harsh, humorous and unabashedly honest
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have come to an appreciation of Alan Bennett late in life, but I am not disappointed that I didn't discover him earlier. Everything I have seen or read of his so far has been wonderful and gives me a great sense of satisfaction that I still have a large back catalogue of his material to go at. This story of his parents' relationship, and by connection his extended family life, is a gem. I understand that it has been taken from a longer volume, Untold Stories, which I will be putting on my Christmas list in eager anticipation.
This short volume is by turns achingly funny and achingly sad. It tells a story of complex family relationships and that peculiar love/hate relationship we have with our parents as we grow into adulthood. It is beautifully paced, totally unsentimental and yet full of love. Bennett has that wonderful quality of being able to write with clarity about his own mixed emotions that makes what he writes about seem tender and true.
A wonderful book.
This short volume is by turns achingly funny and achingly sad. It tells a story of complex family relationships and that peculiar love/hate relationship we have with our parents as we grow into adulthood. It is beautifully paced, totally unsentimental and yet full of love. Bennett has that wonderful quality of being able to write with clarity about his own mixed emotions that makes what he writes about seem tender and true.
A wonderful book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Alan Bennett, a great writer
I am a great fan of Alan Bennett and found this book a fascinating insight into his world and family. Read more
Published 7 days ago by coralb
Whimsical ramble
Fair enough to write about parents, aunts, dementia, depression etc, but for me this book is too much of a whimsical ramble. I would have liked more structure.
Published 5 months ago by KatieSorrel
alan bennett a life like other peoples
I was disappointed as this short book was just repeating extracts from the older hard back version and I thought it was a bit of a rip off
Published 7 months ago by dorothea
A Life Like Other People's
Whatever your thoughts may be on Alan Bennett's varying works, I would not let it deter you from reading `A Life Like Other People's'. Read more
Published 9 months ago by N. A. Spencer
All families have a secret...
A Life Like Other People's is an attractively presented, pocket-size selection of ten episodes from Alan Bennett's Untold Stories, interspersed with black and white photos. Read more
Published 9 months ago by T. Bently
An ordinary life
A very well observed recount of his parents' and maternal aunts' lives told by a gifted storyteller. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Maria2222
Disappointed
Feeling like the lady that coughed at the opera, I love Alan Bennett but he's written much better books, it just isn't very interesting. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Janet S. Smith
A life like other peoples
Fabulous book, nice comfortable read. Lots of reminders of things from childhood and things like family secrets that obviously big at the time but maybe now would be less... Read more
Published 13 months ago by elizabeth
quality...
loved this book. so easy to read, but so interesting! really interesting reading about the context of homosexuality at the time he wrote it. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mozgirl
An enjoyable read
A Life Like Other People's An enjoyable ,easy read, another Alan Bennett's page turning book, he never fails to deliver for me!
Published 13 months ago by Simj
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