The Complete Talking Heads (Paperback)

~ (Author) "I was all right on the Monday..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Bennett's genius is his ability to satirize humanely. [His] prose is like stained glass: if you stare at it, you see things you missed."
-- The New York Times Book Review

"In the hands of Alan Bennett, the tragic and painful are close bedfellow with the funny and the sexual....We laugh at the situations presented and then feel a twinge of guilt."
-- Los Angeles Times

"Few write sharper dialogue or probe more tellingly into the frailties and occasional strengths of the human psyche than Alan Bennett. No one knows more about getting each scene just right or as consistently."
-- William Trevor

"Bennett's genius is for the imploding situation in which a cleverly made house of cards shudders and comes down; the comments of his characters as they nimbly pick their way around the wreckage verge on aphorism."
-- The New Yorker
-- Review

Review

"Bennett's genius is his ability to satirize humanely. [His] prose is like stained glass: if you stare at it, you see things you missed."
-- The New York Times Book Review

"In the hands of Alan Bennett, the tragic and painful are close bedfellow with the funny and the sexual....We laugh at the situations presented and then feel a twinge of guilt."
-- Los Angeles Times

"Few write sharper dialogue or probe more tellingly into the frailties and occasional strengths of the human psyche than Alan Bennett. No one knows more about getting each scene just right or as consistently."
-- William Trevor

"Bennett's genius is for the imploding situation in which a cleverly made house of cards shudders and comes down; the comments of his characters as they nimbly pick their way around the wreckage verge on aphorism."
-- The New Yorker

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Picador; 1st edition (May 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031242308X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312423087
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #205,934 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Teddy Bear with Laser Eyes, March 9, 2001

By	Theodora Di Passional (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Talking Heads (Paperback)

Alan Bennett has been called England's National Teddy Bear, so beloved is his work and person. It's a sweet moniker, but misleading to those who may not have yet read Bennett. Insightful and compassionate with a wit so sharp it effectively amputates sentimentality, this is a Teddy Bear with laser eyes and sharp claws that are only just retracted.

Bennett's character sketches in Talking Heads are devastating. The grown man whose safe little existence begins to unravel as he discovers his dear old mum has taken a lover, the vigilent, upright busybody who ends up in prison for invading her neighbor's privacy, the widow of "Soldiering On" whose emptiness of purpose is revealed through her inability to grieve--each uncomprehending character Bennett has created in these astonishing soliloquies is undone by his or her brave and steadfast unwillingness to acknowledge the bare-knuckled truth of human emotion.

Bennett is not cruel in revealing the weaknesses of his characters, but he is uncompromising in revealing those weaknesses. This is the Teddy Bear who brings to the picnic the sharp knives that cut through the bread and fat prepared and packaged by his companions.

Also recommended are Bennett's Writing Home, The Clothes They Stood Up In, and any and all of his other plays, particularly The Old Country; and, for those who just must have the soft and fuzzy version of the Teddy Bear, listen to Bennett's reading of Winnie the Pooh, or go see his stageplay of The Wind in the Willows.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars These people are everywhere, May 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Talking Heads (Paperback)

I suppose I am a bit biased because I grew up in the same town as Alan Bennett (Leeds, Yorkshire) but this book is truly remarkable. The characters are a mixture of people we all know. A chip in the sugar is the man who lives down the street, A lady of Letters is always in the post office (usually in front of me !). All these people exist, what Alan Bennett does is drag them out of their lives and our heads and put them there in front of us. We may read about them and dismiss them as characters in fiction but they all exist and in most cases there's bits of them inside each of us. Thanks Alan Bennett for entertaining us and teaching us at the same time.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars British Genius, July 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Talking Heads (Paperback)

I can't believe I'm the first person to review this masterpiece! Maybe it's because Bennett seems so very British, English even, that he's not appealled to American readers. I'm sure you're missing something worth having.

Bennett is a masterful observer of character and the six monologues gathered in this collection all display strong characters revealled with a sharp eye and a compassionate heart. Bennett is witty and controlled in his approach, allowing his characters to reveal themselves and their foibles subtley. I find these little tales deeply moving as well as funny, despite the apparently mundane subjects he's dealing with.

I can't think of a comparison to make to illuminate his style, especially since monologue is very rarely seen these days. I can see an affinity to A. Maupin and R.Rodi in terms of waspish observations of people and their social milieu. Bennett's characters aren't blatantly queer like Maupin's or Rodi's, they're not young and tre! ndy things either, but Bennet's own sensibilites and sensitivities give queer readers pause for thought, especially about the older, isolated members of society.

He takes us right inside the heads of six very ordinary people and lays bare their lives, their self-delusions and their petty snobberies in their own words. The texts were originally written as television plays and were broadcast on the radio by the BBC too, however, they work perfectly well on the page, rather like short stories. Why not try it and see for yourselves!