Customer Reviews

The Clothes They Stood Up In and The Lady in the Van (Today Show Book Club #5)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are two stories in this slim package, both dealing with people’s relationships with their possessions.

In the first, Mr. and Mrs. Ransome return from the opera to find their flat totally empty. The casserole has disappeared along with the oven, and even the toilet paper’s gone. Mr. Ransome mostly misses his stereo equipment (and of course the toilet paper) but cheers up when he remembers that he can upgrade his technology with the insurance refund.

Mrs. Ransome quickly gets over her shock, and begins shopping for the bare essentials to tide them over until the insurance cheque arrives. During this exercise, she rediscovers the simple things and learns that life without all her accumulated baggage isn’t that bad after all.

When the mystery is revealed, Mrs. Ransome has a whole new outlook on life, and although her husband has also changed, he hasn’t evolved as much as she has. This is a story with some very funny bits, but also with some important messages for all of us.

The other (shorter) story is about an eccentric woman who makes her home in a van, surrounded by everything she owns. Also very funny, it is so rich in description that your nose turns up whenever the author takes you inside the van.

If you’re looking for an entertaining read, and don’t feel like tackling a whole book, this one is highly recommended.


Amanda Richards, April 1, 2006

"The Clothes They Stood Up In" are all Mr. and Mrs. Ransome have left when they return to their London apartment after spending the evening at the opera. That's because they've been robbed -- well, burgled, as Mr. Ransome points out. People are robbed, premises are burgled.
And the Ransomes have been burgled down to the floorboards. Everything is gone. Not just the minor valuables like the jewelry Mrs. Ransome had, and the almost-but-not-quite state-of-the-art stereo system Mr. Ransome used to listen to his beloved Mozart, are missing. The rugs are gone, and the furniture that sat on top of them. The kitchen appliances are gone, as is the casserole Mrs. Ransome had in the oven to be ready for them when they returned from "Cosi fan tutti." The burglars even made off with the toilet paper roll that was on the spindle in the loo.
This slim, compact tale is the first work of fiction Bennett has published, although he's been writing for some 40 years. He's close to being a national literary treasure in his native England, for his plays like "A Question of Attribution" and "An Englishman Abroad," television programs like the series of monologues titled "Talking Heads" (some of which were broadcast as a part of "Masterpiece Theater" in the U.S.), films like "A Private Function" and "The Madness of King George."
"The Clothes They Stood Up In" has all the hallmarks of Bennett's work. It's concise and understated the story takes less time to read than you need to listen to, well, to "Cosi fan tutti." It's suffused with a gentle wit that occasionally rises to passages of laugh-out-loud hilarity. It also reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the characters with a mix of compassion and unflinching honesty.
Those weaknesses quickly become apparent. Mr. Ransome tries to ignore the situation, determined to go about his work as if nothing has happened. He does plan, once the police arrive and ask for an inventory of stolen objects, to inflate the quality of his stolen stereo system, so he can use the insurance money to purchase an even better set- up, the better to pursue he quest for the perfect Mozart performance.
Mrs. Ransome, on the other hand, has been completely knocked out of her orbit. The little routines around the apartment that made up her life are gone; she has to venture out to new stores, buy items she's never had to think about buying before.
The Ransome's slowly start building back their lives, when they receive a bill from a storage facility for an extraordinary sum. The couple investigate, and find that one of the storage units contains their old furnishings -- all kept meticulously in place and in working order, as if the interior of their apartment had suddenly materialized whole.
All except for the casserole, of course.
But then, "The Clothes They Stood Up In" is not a whodunit -- you learn in time who did the stealing and why, and it's about as absurd a resolution as the initial theft was a preposterous crime. The questions this story asks go a lot deeper: Who are you, really, if all you have is the clothes you're wearing? How much is your life defined by the things you gather around yourself? What sort of connections have you made to the people with whom you share your life, much less with world around you? What does it take to be happy?
These are questions Mr. and Mrs. Ransome never ask themselves; they simply act out their answers, as their story gently, carefully, gracefully works its way to a conclusion that is at once profoundly sad and genuinely hopeful.
In that way, "The Clothes They Stood Up In" is a lot like the music of Mozart -- a bright, cheery surface that accentuates rather than hides the profound, sobering depths of emotion. It's a story you will return to again and again.

What a delightful find--these two short stories challenge the reader to think about the meaning of material possessions and what constitutes a home.
The first short story, "The Clothes They Stood Up In," tells of a well-heeled London couple who return to their flat to find everything gone. Everything, even the toilet paper roll--The story chronicles their journey through their stages of grief over the loss of their assets and in many ways, their mutual life.
The second short story is actually true. Bennett, the author, tells the unusual story of a homeless London woman whose van was parked in his driveway for more than fifteen years. At times, it is poignant, humorous, and profound.
The two pieces together make a significant statement on materialism in today's world.
I would recommend this book to individuals who cherish the subtleties of British humor and to those who like short pieces with provocative ideas.

Bennett gives us two totally different stories -- one fiction, one true. In "CLOTHES," the characters lose absolutely everything and turn out to have surprising reactions to the crime. It leaves you thinking. Yet the characters are almost cartoon-like, as if it's all a dream. In "LADY," Bennett presents one of the most interesting characters in literature -- definitely unlikable, but really fascinating.

What does it mean to have nothing? What do you have left when you have "nothing"? Bennett's a great comic writer, but I wouldn't say hilarity abounds in either of these stories. Rather, there's more subtle humor, irony. Warning: DO NOT read the introduction first. It gives away the major plot points, which are most delightful only when they sneak up on you as you read the stories themselves. Whatever you do, don't miss "THE LADY IN THE VAN."

The Clothes They Stood Up in and The Lady in the Van are two very charming, very witty works--one is a novella, the other an extended essay about a most unusual woman Alan Bennett was acquainted with for many years. The novella concerns a couple whose possessions are all taken from them--all but the clothes on their back. The essay concerns an eccentric woman who lived in a van on Bennett's property. Both pieces are very funny and both ruminate on the nature of possessions and acquisitiveness effectively. These are enjoyable, breezy works.

The first part of the book is a short story, "The clothes they stood up in". A middle-class London couple come home one night to find that their flat has been completely emptied, right down to the toilet roll, and the story describes the effect this loss has on their relationship (such as it is).

The second part, "The lady in the van", is Bennett's account of his relationship (again, such as it is) with a homeless woman who for several years lived in a van parked at first on his street and eventually in his own garden.

While the notes and reviews lead one to expect, as one person put it, "jolly, broad and very English humour", beneath the humour both stories were in fact very sad, about people leading incomplete lives, Bennett himself included. This book is a thought-provoking and worthwhile read.

I read this book AFTER I read Uncommon Reader and was disappointed with the short story/novella. But Bennett's essay Lady in the Van gave me pause and was well-worth the read. Bennett, a well-known playwright allows a homeless woman to park her van in his driveway for years. The essay (compiled from newspaper columns he wrote) is honest ... not saccharine at all.

The first of two works "The Clothes They Stood Up In" concerns a couple who come home to find everything they own has dissapeared from their home. The husband and wife experience different emotions relating to their loss and later recovery of their belongings. For Mrs Ransome the events mark a new beginning, for Mr Ransome the effects are equally marked but significantly less pleasing. A witty story that delves quietly into relationships and suppresion almost without you realizing it, worth the price on it's own. The Lady in the Van is the documentary of a non comformist woman who lives in a van, or to be more precise several vans. Over time she and her van migrate into the authors garden, where she constantly berates him despite his efforts to help her. While extremely funny the story is quite graphic as it details our heroines struggle to fit into society and the frailty of the elderly when they have no support mechanism. A superb blend of comedy and illumination, Bennett brings the unseen element of society under our noses and gently nudges our concience to acknowledge it. Overall an excellent book well worth the investment in both money and time,

The author's introduction clarifies that 'The Lady in the Van', Miss Shepherd, saw herself as a member of the middle class, no matter what she wore and had. This calls to mind the upper class designation of the Big and Little Edies Bouvier, the women in GREY GARDENS.

THE CLOTHES THEY STOOD UP IN, the first piece of the volume, concerns a couple, Rosemary and Maurice Ransome, victimized by burglars, remaining together through his love of Mozart. In replacing household items, Mrs. Ransome developed a zest for shopping. An interesting point is that the Ransomes are provided with the services of a burglary counselor. Events take an unanticipated turn. Really, details pile up and an absurd scenario is disclosed to the reader. Marriage is a sort of parenthesis it is stated. This is droll in the extreme.

'The Lady in the Van' presents another sort of mystery wherein the writer befriends a near bag lady. This tale covers a span of twenty years. Miss Shepherd, the lady, claimed she had always been in the transport line. Giving Miss Shepherd sanctuary in his garden, Bennett's arrangement for the storage of her van and domicile lasted for fifteen years. Cables ran from Bennett's house to give Miss Shepherd light and heating. She was not part of the desperate poor by her own estimation. When she had the flu. Bennett shopped for her. Being parked in Bennett's garden, Miss Shepherd could qualify for full social security payments since she had an address. The account is very funny and very sad. Near the end, suffering from illness and quite aged, Miss Shepherd attended a day center. Following her death, the author visited her brother.

Alan Bennett's text causes the reader to think of a novel by Doris Lessing describing an elderly charity case. In addition there are similarities between Bennett's work and the stories of Joseph Mitchell detailing the lives of eccentric characters encountered by him in New York City that appeared in THE NEW YORKER. The comparisons here are meant to cast Bennett's work in a positive light. It is hard to imagine that anyone would not enjoy Bennett's sparkling pieces.

Two long short stories are in this quirky little book. In The Clothes They Stood Up In, a couple come home to find that every single item in their home, down to the last roll of toilet paper, has been stolen. The Lady in the Van keeps all her possessions in a van she has parked for fifteen years. How are our possessions important in our lives? How do they shape who we are?