A Life Like Other People's - 9780374191924

"A prose stylist of disarming grace and sly humor... Surprising, funny and deeply affecting."---Charles McGrath, The New York Times Book Review

"One of the greatest living English writers."---David Thomson, The Nation

"There is probably no other distinguished English man of letters more instantly likable than Bennett."---Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book World

"[Alan Bennett's] writing about his family is utterly absorbing; entirely charitable, but in no way sentimental...This is art of no mean order, though subtly concealed."---Jane Stevenson, The Observer (London)

In this Poignant Memoir of his parents' marriage, Alan Bennett recalls the lost world of his childhood and the lives, loves, and deaths of his unforgettable aunties, Kathleen and Myra. First published in the acclaimed collection Untold Stories, this tender, intimate family portrait beautifully captures the Bennetts' hopes, disappointments, and yearning for a life like other people's. With the sudden descent of his mother into depression, and later dementia, Bennett uncovers a long-held family secret in this extraordinarily moving and at times irresistibly funny work of autobiography.

"Every bit as touching and funny as you would expect...[This] is something else, a work of art, and without a drop of splother in it."---Ferdinand Mount, The Spectator