The Laying On of Hands: Stories
by Alan Bennett
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Book Summary Information
Author: Alan BennettEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2003-05-02
ISBN: 0312422253
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Picador
Book Reviews of The Laying On of Hands: Stories
Book Review: A Subversively Funny Send-up
Summary: 5 Stars
The title story of Alan Bennett's "The Laying on of Hands," a novella that takes up half the book of three stories, demonstrates the playwright's sparkling versatility as a writer.
Anyone who has seen or read Bennett's recent Tony-award-winning play, "The History Boys," will appreciate the more subtle humor of "The Laying on of Hands," the focus of which is a memorial service for a highly attractive, skillful, and young (dead at age 34) masseur conducted by a High Anglican priest who, like most of those attending the service, has enjoyed the virile masseur's services, albeit without the knowledge of the others.
Among the attendees is wide selection of mourners, including many of England's wealthy and famous, male and female, a "version of England," as it were. Add a self-righteous Archdeacon, there to report on the conduct of Father Geoffrey Jolliffe, who is conducting the service, and you have the ingredients for a smart, subversive dark comedy revolving around the question of "What did he die of?"
To supply the answer would spoil the story. Read it and enjoy it; then read and see the movie version, available on DVD, of "The History Boys" if you haven't already.
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