If you look for a book full of action, surprises, adventures and fancy events, then abstain from this tiny novel.

It would not be for you and you would not be for it.

If, on the contrary, you find appealing the thought of a gentle, but deeply quirky novel which conveys the idea that love for books can change a life, then very probably you’ll enjoy “The Uncommon Reader”.

Have you seen a film directed by Stephen Frears where a moving and talented Helen Mirren played the main character?

The title of the film is “The Queen” and I might dare to suggest you to see it, if this was a Cine Club instead of just a Book Club.

Nevertheless I had to mention it to introduce the book we are talking of, since I see a clear connection between them.

In both the film and the book the main character is the Queen Elizabeth II, who is not portrayed in any caricature-like way, but presented with genuine empathy from a very human point of view, as she might be behind the scenes of her public role.

Alan Bennett, the author of the book, was born in 1934 in Leeds. He studied at Exeter College, Oxford, then after a period of National Service, became a lecturer for a short time at Oxford University.
To date he has been actor, director, broadcaster, and written for stage, television, radio and film. His work focuses on the everyday and the mundane; on people with typically British characteristics and obsessions.

A few years ago I discovered his work reading by chance “The Lady in the Van” a bizarre autobiographical memoir of a deranged woman who parked her car in his garden and stayed for 15 years; then a couple of years ago I found this other book of his and I bought it without knowing what it might be about, just trusting the author.

I have adored it!

The title is probably a voluntary play on words which may have found their origin in the title of a collection of essays by Virginia Woolf “The Common Reader” and it is a preliminary pointer to prove the amused intellectual interest of the author in the importance of reading.

As for the plot, there is not any real one, the book is based on a very clever invention and describes the consternation which grows among the Queen’s retinue of equerries, advisors, maids and pages, when she develops a love of reading in a totally casual way (walking after her corgies and entering a mobile library parked near Buckingham Palace, she feels obliged to borrow a book as a formal courtesy).

The other leading character of the book is Norman Seakins, the kitchen hand the Queen meets in the mobile library and promotes to page, with special responsibility for the recommendation of novels.
The affective and intellectual complicity between the two of them is described by Bennett with tender irony and gentle humour.

The book is written in an apparently simple style, which is in reality based on a very elegant and effective prose and for that reason alone it would be a pleasure to read.

“The Uncommon Reader” is an entertaining and deep apologue on the joy of sentimental education and self-awareness through a personal discovery of literature which is never too late to start.
Click HERE to see the impression of Grinning Cat 1 on this book