The Laying on of Hands, Alan Bennett 2002

Three short stories comprise this entertaining collection by one of the UK’s leading playwright and author.  Sex and death are leading players which interact and intersect in a charming fashion.  An Anglican minister presides over the celebrity-filled funeral/memorial service for a bisexually active masseur as the congregation worries about AIDS.  A spinster and an aging chiropodist exchange pounds for foot fetishism satisfaction.  A son beds a nurse during the one moment he’s waited patient days for—his father’s death.  Life is a foolish exercise which ends too soon.