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‘Smut’ by Alan Bennett

BOOK REVIEW

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

December 28, 2011|By Joseph Peschel

Alan Bennett wrote The Madness of King George and The History Boys. (ALEX BAILEY/HISTORY BOYS…)

In August, Nicholson Baker blurted out a new book, “House of Holes,’’ his adolescent-like narrative of the sexual escapades of several one-dimensional characters frolicking through an extended dirty joke that might’ve aptly been titled “Smut.’’

“Smut,’’ though, happens to be the new book by British writer Alan Bennett. If Baker’s sense of humor in “House’’ is unrestrained, and ahem, smutty, Bennett’s is subtle and often wry, full of clever word play, innuendo, and decidedly British. Oh, and there are naughty bits, too.

You might recognize Bennett as the screenwriter of “The Madness of King George’’ and “The History Boys,’’ which he adapted from his own plays. He’s had a hand in several other movies, stage plays, television shows, and written several books, including short stories, memoirs, and other nonfiction.

His new book, a satire, comprises two long short stories, “The Greening of Mrs. Donaldson’’ and “The Shielding of Mrs. Forbes,’’ in which characters play roles and never really are who they seem to be.

Mrs. Donaldson, a 55-year-old widow, works as a Simulated Patient, a kind of living practice dummy for medical students. Besides portraying patients with everyday maladies, she’s played the part of depressed daughter of a patient, stroke victim, and male patient in drag with a bad knee. To supplement her meager income, Mrs. Donaldson takes in students as boarders. She soon finds herself role-playing at home as well as work. Her first boarders, Andy and Laura, offer to do a sex demonstration in lieu of three weeks rent. So, “not unlike a tennis umpire overseeing a particularly close-fought match,’’ she watches them make love. Watching them brings back a memory for her of a vase in a British museum; and the “[o]ther things Andy was doing had not even been in the British Museum.’’ Quite the switcheroo from sex with her husband. New “boarders’’ come and go. Mrs. Donaldson embraces her secret new voyeuristic life - which isn’t all that secret - but wonders what sort of person she really is, and she enjoys quite a little romp finding out.