The Clothes They Stood Up In and The Lady and the Van

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.

Everything I have ever read by Alan Bennett is wonderful and this book is no exception.

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 is a simple story with a profound lesson - it's good to get out of your comfort zone and try something new. There's more to life than than that cozy rut! Alan Bennett tells the story beautifully, showing us a married couple who have been together for many years but are essentially strangers. The Lady in the Van reminds us that, yes, folks, those unsightly homeless people are people, too, with feelings, emotions, histories, and families somewhere. Bennett evokes Miss Shepherd vividly enough that I could practically smell the interior of the van. Highly recommended.

"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 qu