"The Uncommon Reader" By Alan Bennett Farrar, Straus and Giroux: 2007
Most people would say both here and across the pond that the Queen of England is a rather dull sort of monarch; but this book portrays her in a far different light and although it is fiction one would only wish it was a true one. Alan Bennett has written a witty and delightful book about reading and used the Queen to be the explorer of great books and how one chance meeting at a bookmobile sitting at the back of the palace changes her life.
If the author can transform an unintellectual queen into interesting and intelligent woman with the use of books, there is hope for all of us. Not everyone in the palace understands the queen's growing hunger for books and many see it as a threat to the empire. The more she reads the more she is able to build a sense of self-determination and to direct her own life. Ah, the power of books. She has help in this in the person of Norman Seakins who helps her on her journey.
This is a short book, a novella really of 120 pages and the evolution of a reader and beyond. It is believable and a lot of fun. There are many good mentions of great books and if someone wanted to expand the lessons that the queen learned from her reading to those of us who read as well it would not be hard. There is lots of humor here as when the queen asks why she cannot read the books from her own library and finds out they are too valuable to read. I liked this book so much I read it twice, and it is staying in my library.
