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How to Build Impossible Things: Lessons in Life and Carpentry
A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK
'Like sitting in a room with Mark and hearing the best stories in the world, wound up with wisdom, craft, and hard-won philosophy' Burkhard Bilger, The New Yorker
'A brilliantly engaging storyteller, laugh-out-loud funny, loving, cheekily smug.... An enjoyable read on making, inventing and what might contribute to a life worth living' Julie Mehretu, Painter
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Over the past forty years, Mark Ellison has worked on some of the most beautiful homes you've never seen, specializing in rarefied and challenging projects with the most demanding of clients. He built a staircase a famed architect called a masterpiece. He worked on the iconic Sky House, which Interior Design named the best apartment of the decade. He's even worked on the homes of David Bowie, Robin Williams, and others whose names he cannot reveal. He is regarded by many as the best carpenter in New York.
But before he was any of that, Ellison was just 'a serial dropout' who spent his young adult years taking work where he found it and sleeping on couches.
In How to Build Impossible Things, Ellison tells the story of his unconventional education in the world of architecture and design, and how he learned the satisfaction and joy that comes from doing something well for a long time. He takes us on a tour through the lofts, penthouses, and townhouses of New York's elite which he has transformed over the years - before they're camera-ready - and offers a window into what he's learned about living meaningfully along the way. Scrapped blueprints and last-minute demands characterise life in the high-stakes world of luxury construction. From staircases that would be deadly if built as designed to algae-eating snails boiled to escargot in a penthouse pond, Ellison exposes the messy wiring behind the pristine walls - and the mindset that any of us can develop to build our own impossible things.
'Like sitting in a room with Mark and hearing the best stories in the world, wound up with wisdom, craft, and hard-won philosophy' Burkhard Bilger, The New Yorker
'A brilliantly engaging storyteller, laugh-out-loud funny, loving, cheekily smug.... An enjoyable read on making, inventing and what might contribute to a life worth living' Julie Mehretu, Painter
--
Over the past forty years, Mark Ellison has worked on some of the most beautiful homes you've never seen, specializing in rarefied and challenging projects with the most demanding of clients. He built a staircase a famed architect called a masterpiece. He worked on the iconic Sky House, which Interior Design named the best apartment of the decade. He's even worked on the homes of David Bowie, Robin Williams, and others whose names he cannot reveal. He is regarded by many as the best carpenter in New York.
But before he was any of that, Ellison was just 'a serial dropout' who spent his young adult years taking work where he found it and sleeping on couches.
In How to Build Impossible Things, Ellison tells the story of his unconventional education in the world of architecture and design, and how he learned the satisfaction and joy that comes from doing something well for a long time. He takes us on a tour through the lofts, penthouses, and townhouses of New York's elite which he has transformed over the years - before they're camera-ready - and offers a window into what he's learned about living meaningfully along the way. Scrapped blueprints and last-minute demands characterise life in the high-stakes world of luxury construction. From staircases that would be deadly if built as designed to algae-eating snails boiled to escargot in a penthouse pond, Ellison exposes the messy wiring behind the pristine walls - and the mindset that any of us can develop to build our own impossible things.
277 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 18, 2023
17 people are currently reading
360 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 10, 2023
Nice and pleasant read!
As a blue-collar worker, Ellison reminds me a bit of my dad (who was an electrician for 40 years) but with plenty more interesting stories due to the uniqueness of his projects and clientele.
He distills his wisdom from years of life and working thoughtfully and modestly, unafraid to shine himself in a poor light. Each story is interesting and prevents the book from becoming too preachy. The last chapter feels a bit off because it shifts mostly away from carpentry work toward other creative endeavors like music, but is a good note to end on.
What I find most impressive about this book is the quality of editorial assistants at Hutchinson Heinemann. They must be really top-notch over there.
As a blue-collar worker, Ellison reminds me a bit of my dad (who was an electrician for 40 years) but with plenty more interesting stories due to the uniqueness of his projects and clientele.
He distills his wisdom from years of life and working thoughtfully and modestly, unafraid to shine himself in a poor light. Each story is interesting and prevents the book from becoming too preachy. The last chapter feels a bit off because it shifts mostly away from carpentry work toward other creative endeavors like music, but is a good note to end on.
What I find most impressive about this book is the quality of editorial assistants at Hutchinson Heinemann. They must be really top-notch over there.
January 26, 2024
This book was like starting a new job. You begin full of enthusiasm, keen to get on with it, and gradually become disillusioned and then disappointed with the progress. The title of the book is “How to build impossible things” but at no point in the book were any of these impossible things described, let alone given any indication of how to build them. The sub-title gave a slightly better idea of the content. It is a memoir of a life spent in the building trade, where the author managed to get work renovating the apartments and dwellings of the ridiculously wealthy of New York’s elite. There was a lot of ruminating and philosophizing but not much about the actual work. It was readable, but by the end of the book, I was rather disappointed. I was looking forward to finding out about the fabulous apartments or the staircases shown on the cover and end papers, but it was not to be.
September 17, 2023
Mark Ellison (author) is a carpenter—according to many the best carpenter in New York. However, depending on the job, he is also a welder, sculptor, cabinetmaker, inventor and designer. He’s a man who gets hired to build impossible things, and this book is a collection of some of the wackiest jobs he's had to do and also the weirdest ultra rich people who commission him to work for them. I loved this - I had to laugh out loud at many stories and nearly wept and some of the others where beautiful places in rare woods are designed and built and then ripped out by the ultra rich because they weren't quite right.
November 21, 2023
Fussy, elaborate writing, some fascinating and deep thoughts. Some work involved, but worth it. And just as a footnote: omg, any word is better than 'emblazoning' in any situation. I mean anything.
October 24, 2023
It would have been 5 stars if the book stopped after the construction stories. The lecturing that came in the last third was tiresome.
November 2, 2023
Another book choice gleaned from listening to the author, this time reading extracts from the book, on BBC Radio 4.
I was a bit disappointed as there were fewer anecdotes about the successes, failures and frustrations of working as a carpenter and builder in high-end apartment and mansion refurbishments in New York, Long Island and those other places where rich New Yorkers spend their summer. Instead, unexpectedly, there rather more home spun philosophical musings.
It was OK, quite interesting and did provide some insights. I didn't like the style - some of the sentences were quite convoluted and the use of vocabulary was, dare I say, a bit pompous. I had to read some sections a couple of times to get the meaning. But that's partly the fault of the editors.
I was a bit disappointed as there were fewer anecdotes about the successes, failures and frustrations of working as a carpenter and builder in high-end apartment and mansion refurbishments in New York, Long Island and those other places where rich New Yorkers spend their summer. Instead, unexpectedly, there rather more home spun philosophical musings.
It was OK, quite interesting and did provide some insights. I didn't like the style - some of the sentences were quite convoluted and the use of vocabulary was, dare I say, a bit pompous. I had to read some sections a couple of times to get the meaning. But that's partly the fault of the editors.
September 7, 2023
How to Build Impossible Things is an interesting book, in some ways it feels very much like a stream of consciousness ramble by an experienced man who's done lots of amazing things. It is part-memoir, part-notes of life, philosophy in the loosest sense of the word. Where it lacks depth, it tries to make up for it with the wittiness and personality on the pages.
Reading it felt like what I imagine New York feels like. It was irreverent, bold, a bit too much bluster at first but then the style grows on you as you come to respect the ease with which it doesn't take itself seriously. The stories are brash but funny, and they are the best part. For someone who hasn't had to renovate houses for the super rich, it is a window into a fantastical world where the author finds space for challenge, originality, and great folly. The last of these sometimes made me laugh out loud.
On the other hand, there is a loose sense of philosophy about the whole thing that doesn't quite work. The lessons are often basic but also, in an almost comic way, just not very aligned with the stories themselves. I think part of this is that the book is not chronological, but it is still kinda funny when the author tells us he is unafraid to tell people when he doesn't know something, and then a chapter later he tells us of how he got a job by lying to someone about whether he knew how to use specific bits of equipment.
At its core, How to Build Impossible Things is not a book that I could take very seriously. I don't think it wanted to be that book. Instead, it was funny, interesting, and sometimes wise purely through the brute strength of experience.
Reading it felt like what I imagine New York feels like. It was irreverent, bold, a bit too much bluster at first but then the style grows on you as you come to respect the ease with which it doesn't take itself seriously. The stories are brash but funny, and they are the best part. For someone who hasn't had to renovate houses for the super rich, it is a window into a fantastical world where the author finds space for challenge, originality, and great folly. The last of these sometimes made me laugh out loud.
On the other hand, there is a loose sense of philosophy about the whole thing that doesn't quite work. The lessons are often basic but also, in an almost comic way, just not very aligned with the stories themselves. I think part of this is that the book is not chronological, but it is still kinda funny when the author tells us he is unafraid to tell people when he doesn't know something, and then a chapter later he tells us of how he got a job by lying to someone about whether he knew how to use specific bits of equipment.
At its core, How to Build Impossible Things is not a book that I could take very seriously. I don't think it wanted to be that book. Instead, it was funny, interesting, and sometimes wise purely through the brute strength of experience.
July 14, 2024
I really enjoyed this book for the most part. In particular, Ellison's anecdotes on the challenges and hard-worked solutions of previous construction jobs. The knowledgable author speaks with a clear passion for his work and is comically blunt about relationships throughout his varied career.
The book was most enjoyable in the early two-thirds where a subtle structure of writing occurred; Ellison detailed a theme within his career, then he would describe a story regarding the theme and then describe how he overcame the challenge. Sometimes, these passages were accompanied with delightful technical drawings to assist the reader in visualising the true extent of the challenge(s) faced. I would have liked to have seen this structure throughout the book.
The book was most enjoyable in the early two-thirds where a subtle structure of writing occurred; Ellison detailed a theme within his career, then he would describe a story regarding the theme and then describe how he overcame the challenge. Sometimes, these passages were accompanied with delightful technical drawings to assist the reader in visualising the true extent of the challenge(s) faced. I would have liked to have seen this structure throughout the book.
November 24, 2023
Wonderful description of the skills required to bring projects to a successful conclusion and the many issues faced when dealing with clients. A lot of parallels to the IT projects I have been associated with.
June 7, 2025
Overwhelmingly this book intrigued me. Naïvely I went in expecting a fairly clunky book about a world and a man who I had an affinity with, discussion of design and construction, some funny clients and a few wise words. I came away feeling almost the opposite.
The book is beautifully and artfully written with high flowing language and an almost poetic feel.
However the more i read, the more I felt that this poetic language and philosophical discussion was the purpose. There are stories of clients and projects but it feels more like they are there to show off some point or as a spring board to talk about the failings of the modern world than as a simple anecdote.
I would also admit that my lack of love for the book is probably influenced by the fact that the more I read, the less I felt like I would like the author if we were to meet. It became obvious as I read that despite sharing some interests, having very different opinions and world views makes it difficult to accept life advice from someone.
Overall an interesting read that was not what I expected, but I'm sure others would enjoy
The book is beautifully and artfully written with high flowing language and an almost poetic feel.
However the more i read, the more I felt that this poetic language and philosophical discussion was the purpose. There are stories of clients and projects but it feels more like they are there to show off some point or as a spring board to talk about the failings of the modern world than as a simple anecdote.
I would also admit that my lack of love for the book is probably influenced by the fact that the more I read, the less I felt like I would like the author if we were to meet. It became obvious as I read that despite sharing some interests, having very different opinions and world views makes it difficult to accept life advice from someone.
Overall an interesting read that was not what I expected, but I'm sure others would enjoy
October 16, 2024
Really good book - but I did feel like the author wasn't sure what the overarching goal was with the book. Towards the end, it felt more like life lessons randomly put together than a guide to how to live life on your own terms - which is what I thought it was working towards. But I did enjoy it.
October 22, 2024
Second favourite book I've ever read!
January 5, 2025
Great read. Work hard and love easily.
April 24, 2025
Light on philosophy, good writing, or any actually interesting annecdotes. Except for one about how a young female architect was kind to him (he was a dick about her behind her back), and how the best room he ever built was torn down by a billionaire who didn’t like it (he did this the garage built by authors colleague / boss, also). Lots of morning about youth and architects.
Barely gets to three stars cos it was interesting purely due to intrigue about how things are put together
Barely gets to three stars cos it was interesting purely due to intrigue about how things are put together
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews