The Uncommon Reader: A Novella
The Uncommon Reader is none other than HM the Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. She reads widely ( JR Ackerley, Jean Genet, Ivy Compton Burnett and the classics) and intelligently. Her reading naturally changes her world view and her relationship with people like the oleaginous prime minister and his repellent advisers. She comes to question the prescribed order of the world and loses patience with much that she has to do. In short, her reading is subversive. The consequence is, of course, surprising, mildly shocking and very funny.
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Community Reviews
This was a second reading, as it was a prior read at a different book club. I enjoyed it as much as the first time, perhaps more. That is always the best indicator for me of a successful writer-reader connection.
Real or imaginary it gave us a window into the royal duties and expectations of the queen . I enjoyed the humor and point of view. Easy read, delightful!!!
A biting satire of the the British class system and the Royal Family. Bennett skewers the lot of them. Laugh out loud funny!
Quirky novella, imagining Queen Elizabeth had happened upon a mobile library outside the palace, thus igniting in her a lust for reading. Bennett successfully engages in a series of literary name dropping and a number of thoughtful statements about the value of reading as the Queen indulges her new pastime.
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