Smut by Alan Bennett

First published in the UK in 2011; published by Picador on January 3, 2012

Dry British humor enlivens the two stories/novellas in Smut, a book that, despite its promising title, has little to do with smut.  Its mildly salacious content is more funny than smutty -- which, I suppose, makes the title amusing in light of the book’s content.  In any event, the two stories are charming, wise, a little silly, and very funny, at least for fans of dry British humor.

The newly widowed Mrs. Donaldson takes a job as a “simulated patient,” feigning illness so she can be examined by medical students, a profession Alan Bennett milks for its tremendous comedic potential.  To make ends meet, Mrs. Donaldson takes on a medical student and her boyfriend as boarders.  When they fall short of funds for their rent, they propose to provide Mrs. Donaldson with a voyeuristic thrill in lieu of payment.  The typical British reserve with which Mrs. Donaldson greets the performance is hilarious, yet there’s a serious note here:  what does it take to give an aging widow a sense of freedom, of life renewed?  For all its humor, “The Greening of Mrs Donaldson” has moments of sweet sadness as Alan Bennett puts the reader inside Mrs. Donaldson’s lonely mind.  But don’t worry too much about Mrs. Donaldson:  the unexpected ending is both hopeful and hilarious.

The other story is more about narcissism than voyeurism; Graham likes to look at himself rather than others.  Graham and Betty are mismatched, at least in the opinion of Graham’s doting mother.  Graham is handsome and dashing; Betty is plain.  But what Graham knows (and his mother doesn’t) is that Betty has inherited a large sum of money.  This, in Betty’s opinion, entitles her to marry someone out of her league, someone like Graham.  Shortly before their wedding Graham realizes that he might actually like Betty, but a secret is soon revealed that makes it difficult to believe the marriage will be entirely successful.  Yet Betty is even more doting and accepting than Graham’s mother, and a better cook as well.  Will Graham’s interest be sufficiently sparked to make a marriage work, or will his predilections and self-absorption ultimately lead to the sort of behavior that destroys a marriage?  The story offers an entertaining contrast between the “modern” marriage of Graham and Betty and the more traditional (i.e., all but dead) version endured by Graham’s parents.  By the end of the story more than one secret is being kept, if only because of the “distaste for disturbance” that characterizes married life.  Fun though it is, “The Shielding of Mrs Forbes” concludes a little too neatly and lacks the punch of the first story.

In style and content Alan Bennett reminds me of the American author Jim Harrison (although Bennett is more generous in his use of commas). Both milk the relationship between age and sex for its tremendous comic potential.  Both spice their stories with pithy observations about modern life and its myriad participants.  Bennett’s characters are even quirkier than Harrison’s; the obnoxious ones are a delight to know.  His minor characters play important roles as Bennett holds them up for ridicule.  My only serious complaint about the stories in Smut is that there aren’t more of them.

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