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Suppose you
live and work alone in a tiny, one-bedroom home on Cape Cod. Suppose you hope to expand
your home but you don’t really want to start from scratch. Suppose you see this ad in the
local paper: “Cottages for sale, $3,000 each, must be
moved.”
Kate
Whouley, in her delightful new memoir, Cottage for Sale, Must be Moved, is just
the type of person to ask, Why not?
Whouley’s book is a detailed account
of her inventive home expansion that goes far beyond a script for an episode of This
Old House. While there is more than enough fun construction and destruction detail to
satisfy even the most ardent
hammer-and-nail enthusiast, that’s not the real point of
the book. In taking readers through the her cottage’s move across Cape Cod to be joined
to her home, Whouley takes us on an even more interesting journey. She guides us through
her own
life–a life rich in family, friends (including one of American literature’s
most interesting cats), challenges, and personal growth and
satisfaction.
In the first half of the book, we mostly get to know the
intricacies of planning and implementing her cottage project. While we get a few hints at
who Whouley and her friends are, we get a great deal more about construction crews,
building movers, and town bureaucracy. This is great stuff, no question, but the second
half of the book delves more deeply into the people involved in Whouley’s
project.
As the house
expansion takes shape, the people come into
greater focus as well. As nails are driven and walls painted, the men holding the hammers
and brushes emerge into fuller clarity and complexity. In particular, we learn much more
about Whouley herself as
she lets us deeper into her unique life, agile mind, and
generous heart.
In the last few chapters, we see not only the complete
house, but a complete person as well. The last forty pages are as beautifully written as
any novel and as revealing and rewarding as the best memoirs.
In a genre
dominated by cash-cow celebrity/survival/blame memoirs, it’s a pleasure to read a
terrific account of an extraordinary time in a normal life. Overall, this
is a
wonderful book on many different levels. It’s a great how-to (and how-not-to) guide to
home improvement, a thoughtful reflection on the interconnections between human beings
and the world around them, and (above all) a beautiful look deep into
an exceptional
person.
