Dos Historias Nada Decentes (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
Alan Bennett is a lovely man. Lovely writer, kindly, gentle and wise. His short stories and reflections on life past and present are always worth reading. Anyone who allowed a batty old woman to live in her caravan on his driveway for many years deserves respect!Smut is short, witty and....smutty.The first story is particularly memorable where a 'respectable' middle aged lady agrees to let her lodgers pay their rent in kind. She agrees to watching them have sex. It is very funny as Mrs Donaldson seems neither very outraged or even very interested in the sex that she witnesses.It's a short and funny and somewhat life enhancing read. I find this to be true of all Alan Bennett's work. SMUT. (2012). Alan Bennett. ****.This is a collection of two novellas by Bennett that deal with the reactions of his characters below the surface. From the title, the obvious guess is that the reactions deal with sex. Right you are! In the first tale, “The Greening of Mrs. Donaldson,” we meet our heroine after she has recently lost her husband. In an effort to make ends meet and have a little extra, she takes a job at a hospital where her role is to play act as a patient – exhibiting various symptoms that the doctors in training have to use to analyze the disease. She does this quite well and enjoys her work. She further realizes that there is an extra room in the house that could be let out to help further defray costs. Her first lodgers were a young couple who actually worked at the hospital. Although they were not married, the couple made excellent tenants: they were neat, they didn’t play loud music, and they respected the privacy of Mrs. Donaldson. Our new landlady noticed, however, that the couple was sexually active, and the noise of their activity managed to come through the walls. One morning, the young man approached Mrs. Donaldson and explained that they didn’t have enough money to meet the rent. He suggested an alternative form of payment if she was willing to consider it. Mrs. Donaldson soon learns that there is a side to her that she didn’t know existed. The second tale concerns the secret homosexuality of a young man. He was courting a woman who had a good bank balance, and things were going well. All depended on his keeping his preferences secret. When he is forced in a corner and has to admit that he is gay, his world crashes about him, but he is not hurt. The woman he took to be a simple wife is a lot smarter than he, and manages to save the situation for all of them. Both stories are well written and contain gobs of humor – though not of the thigh-slapping sort – and finish up on a surprise ending. It’s easy to see why Bennett has earned the respect of his writing community. Recommended.
What do You think about Dos Historias Nada Decentes (2011)?
Unique characters in interesting situations caught with their drawers down. What's not to like?
—JOY_123456
Quite far fetched in places. Fairly readable but certainly not essential reading.
—Wolfie_Girl1999
One star for the first story. The second one was too boring for me to continue.
—katelynmaree
