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Amazon.co.uk 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
This witty and accomplished novella is set at the memorial service for Clive, who died of mysterious circumstances in Peru. A small number of his friends arrange the service in London, but none of them is aware just how popular Clive, and his services, were, until the mourners begin to arrive, among them pop stars, actors, politicians, and numerous other distinguished personages. Clive was a masseur and he was very good at it. But he was also very good at other, more personal, services. And this is where Alan Bennett's bone-dry sense of humour really comes to the fore, as he describes the congregation running through a gamut of emotions - grief at Clive's death, curiosity about what he died of - and fear that it may be catching. The dissection of folly and pettiness is Bennett's forte, and here he excels in combining mockery of human foibles with a sensitive analysis of our complex reactions to issues of sex and death. Clever, perceptive and amusing at the most unexpected moments, this is a perfect miniature work. (Kirkus UK)
English scriptwriter and story-maker Bennett (The Clothes They Stood Up In, 2001; The Madness of George III) offers three stories about the foibles of being human. At novella length (almost 100 pages), "The Laying On of Hands" opens with the unlikely prospect for humor of a memorial service in a London church. It's being held for the handsome Clive Dunlop, dead at 34, by profession a masseur to the rich and famous (and the not so rich and famous). Cause of death? All suppose it to have been AIDS, a fact that for most of those gathered to mourn and remember Clive is a cause for secret and acute anxiety, since the affable Clive's "professional" net was cast very, very wide. Imagine the relief of all assembled when they discover-during reminiscences about Clive that are invited by the liberal-minded clergyman who's officiating-that the death wasn't from that at all, but from an insect bite. People's relief at such good news can be imagined-and Bennett imagines it with drollery and panache. "Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet" is a slighter-and shorter-affair, about the unconventional but salutary relationship that emerges between a woman and her foot doctor. "Father! Father! Burning Bright," however, brings Bennett to top form again. While his own father was a plumber and man of the earth, Midgely went to university and became a teacher-and always suffered great unease and resentment, feeling he could never live up to whatever son's duty was expected of him (a syndrome that hasn't helped his marriage, by the way). Now that Father has had a sudden stroke and is catatonic, though, the least Midgely can do, what he should do, is be there with his father through the end. So he waits dutifully, for days, at the hospital-only once again, hilariously, to be outfoxed by his fate. Deft, light, observant, and very funny indeed. (Kirkus Reviews)
English scriptwriter and story-maker Bennett (The Clothes They Stood Up In, 2001; The Madness of George III) offers three stories about the foibles of being human. At novella length (almost 100 pages), "The Laying On of Hands" opens with the unlikely prospect for humor of a memorial service in a London church. It's being held for the handsome Clive Dunlop, dead at 34, by profession a masseur to the rich and famous (and the not so rich and famous). Cause of death? All suppose it to have been AIDS, a fact that for most of those gathered to mourn and remember Clive is a cause for secret and acute anxiety, since the affable Clive's "professional" net was cast very, very wide. Imagine the relief of all assembled when they discover-during reminiscences about Clive that are invited by the liberal-minded clergyman who's officiating-that the death wasn't from that at all, but from an insect bite. People's relief at such good news can be imagined-and Bennett imagines it with drollery and panache. "Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet" is a slighter-and shorter-affair, about the unconventional but salutary relationship that emerges between a woman and her foot doctor. "Father! Father! Burning Bright," however, brings Bennett to top form again. While his own father was a plumber and man of the earth, Midgely went to university and became a teacher-and always suffered great unease and resentment, feeling he could never live up to whatever son's duty was expected of him (a syndrome that hasn't helped his marriage, by the way). Now that Father has had a sudden stroke and is catatonic, though, the least Midgely can do, what he should do, is be there with his father through the end. So he waits dutifully, for days, at the hospital-only once again, hilariously, to be outfoxed by his fate. Deft, light, observant, and very funny indeed. (Kirkus Reviews)
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