A LIFE LIKE OTHER PEOPLE'S (2009) is a different kind of memoir, because Alan Bennett becomes a secondary character in this loving, sometimes hilarious, often very moving portrait of his parents, two very shy people who somehow muddled their way through life and raised two sons. Family secrets, including, depression, dementia, odd maiden 'aunties,' and a grandfather's suicide, are revealed piecemeal as Bennett tells his parents' story. His father, a promising violinist, was forced to become a butcher at a young age, and stayed one until he retired. Bennett's mother was plagued by periodic bouts of clinical depression and frequent hospitalizations, which took a toll on his father's health. But the hardest parts to read were about his mother, widowed and finally institutionalized, as she sunk deeper into dementia. She lived into her nineties, her memories gone, and could no longer recognize her own sons, finally losing even her words, reduced to childlike babbling and vacant stares. Profoundly troubled and feeling the usual filial guilt, Bennett wonders about our modern methods of warehousing our old people, using untrained, poorly paid staff to care for them. I found his musings about these things almost heartbreaking.

Alan Bennett is, of course, well known in Britain as a writer for stage, screen and TV. He was also a founding member of the comedy troupe Beyond the Fringe. And while there are many funny things in this "memoir," it is also a very serious look at the vicissitudes of life - and how it all must end. Born in 1934 himself, Bennett was obviously increasingly aware of his own mortality as he researched and set down this family record. Simply written, funny and sad, it's a lovely little book. My very highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )

Parents, family, and home are highlighted in this short memoir. The famous humorist and playwright is both moving and funny in this very personal narrative. ( )

A Life Like Other People's is the main story from Bennett's collection Untold Stories, but is long enough to stand up a short memoir in its own right in this publication.

This memoir focuses on Bennett's family, primarily his parents in later life and two of his aunts. It covers some difficult ground, primarily his mother's lifelong struggle against depression and her 15 years of being lost through Alzheimer's, yet is never maudlin or self-pitying.

I loved this book. It was thoroughly 'Great British' - full of dry humour in the darkest of times, and with many warm moments of old-school British daftness around everything from his mother's perception of 'commonness' to her aspiration to join the 'cocktail set' she read about in her women's magazines, despite both her and her husband being teetotallers.

'Your Dad and me have found an alcoholic drink that we really like. It's called bitter lemon'.

Nor was it merely the drink at cocktail parties my mother found mysterious, but the food that was on offer there too.... a sausage had only to be hoisted onto a stick to become for my mother an emblem of impossible sophistication.

4 stars - warmed the cockles of my heart. My first but certainly not my last Bennett read. ( )

Having watched many of Alan Bennett's films I thought it time to read one of his books. An unexpectedly sad but at times funny story, of his parents lives and his connection with them. There is no attempt to cover up any of the struggle they all had with his mother's dementia and how each member of the family coped with her depression, and her many years in and out of various homes and hospitals. You just never know people's stories! ( )

I am finding this book hard to review. I liked it, but I found something was missing. The title is suited for the book. Alan Bennett's does not have extraordinary life, but it's his. I have a feeling that he wanted to get this off of his chest.

We got up close and personal, not just with his parents, but also, his mother's side of the family. I enjoyed reading about his "aunty's".

Alan wrote this book at the point of his life when he is thinking of what his senior years would be like. I felt that he is concerned that he may end up on the same path as some of his family members.

It certainly was a fast read. There were times in the book where I got bored, but then it picked up and I soon forgot my boredom.

Glad I read it. Opened up my eyes on what so seniors do have to face. ( )