The Clothes They Stood Up In Book

So, I've read Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader, as well as The Lady In The Van already and came upon The Clothes They Stood Up In by chance. I had to read it. Alan Bennett is a must-read, like Shakespeare, Hemingway, Oscar Wilde, Gabriel García Márquez, John Steinbeck, Willa Cather, Daphney Du Maurier, et al.

They all have one highly interesting thing in common: they never acquired degrees in creative writing, in which identity politics became an indulgence in poisonous entertainment. You've read one, you've read them all. A set menu of opinions which declare anything outside this box not only wrong, but also evil. Through millions of writings, a monolithic opinion devoid of maverick personalities are forced upon the bibliophile. The battle of opinions lost its venue. The reader is sadly the loser.

Jane Austin is another superb example of classic penmanship defying the teachings of creative writing. Never got that degree. Never needed it. Mark Twain didn't either. And they were never intimidated/threatened by cultural appropriation. They wrote what they saw, and became masters at it. The same with all the Eastern European authors before communism switched off their creativity and pushed them into a comatose brain-death. Talking about cultural appropriation: Pearl S. Buck did not have that degree either. What about Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind. My word, wordsmiths par excellence they were.

Reading a novella such as The Clothes They Stood Up In, brings that luvly bubbly back into my blood. It's like opening a good ole bottle of champagne, drinking the stars, as Dom Perignon exclaimed about the unwanted bubbles in his wine. Experiencing the word-art of a brilliant mind is like holding heaven in my hands. Unique, refreshing, a timeless wonder.

The Clothes They Stood Up In is a quirky, funny and almost surreal novella, which simultaneously inspires a feeling of sadness and compassion while laughing out loud. The reader is left to decide what will happen after the ending. Mr. and Mrs. Ransome (quite appropriate last name) will be difficult to forget. She said they were robbed, he said they were burgled ( a play on the psychological, mentally and physical effect it had on them both). The ransom... a lifetime of living together told that part of the story.