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House of Earth: Folk Singer Woody Guthrie's Only Novel – A Searing Dust Bowl Portrait of Marriage and Hope
Finished in 1947 and lost to readers until now, House of Earth is legendary folk singer and American icon Woody Guthrie’s only finished novel. A powerful portrait of Dust Bowl America, it’s the story of an ordinary couple’s dreams of a better life and their search for love and meaning in a corrupt world.
Tike and Ella May Hamlin are struggling to plant roots in the arid land of the Texas panhandle. The husband and wife live in a precarious wooden farm shack, but Tike yearns for a sturdy house that will protect them from the treacherous elements. Thanks to a five-cent government pamphlet, Tike has the know-how to build a simple adobe dwelling, a structure made from the land itself—fireproof, windproof, Dust Bowl-proof. A house of earth.
A story of rural realism and progressive activism, and in many ways a companion piece to Guthrie’s folk anthem “This Land Is Your Land,” House of Earth is a searing portrait of hardship and hope set against a ravaged landscape. Combining the moral urgency and narrative drive of John Steinbeck with the erotic frankness of D. H. Lawrence, here is a powerful tale of America from one of our greatest artists.
An essay by bestselling historian Douglas Brinkley and Johnny Depp introduce House of Earth, the inaugural title in Depp’s imprint at HarperCollins, Infinitum Nihil.
290 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
348 people are currently reading
2231 people want to read
About the author
Woody Guthrie
80 books121 followersWoodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie was an American songwriter and folk musician. Guthrie's musical legacy consists of hundreds of songs, ballads and improvised works covering topics from political themes to traditional songs to children's songs. Guthrie performed continually throughout his life with his guitar frequently displaying the slogan "This Machine Kills Fascists". Guthrie is perhaps best known for his song "This Land Is Your Land" which is regularly sung in American schools. Many of his recorded songs are archived in the Library of Congress.
Guthrie traveled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California and learned traditional folk and blues songs. His songs are about his experiences in the Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression and are known as the "Dust Bowl Troubadour." Guthrie was associated with, but never a member of, Communist groups in the United States throughout his life.
Guthrie was married three times and fathered eight children, including American folk musician Arlo Guthrie. He is the grandfather of musician Sarah Lee Guthrie. Guthrie died from complications of the degenerative neurologic affliction known as Huntington's Disease. In spite of his illness, during his later years Guthrie served as a figurehead in the folk movement providing inspiration to a generation of new folk musicians, including mentor relationships with Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan.
Guthrie traveled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California and learned traditional folk and blues songs. His songs are about his experiences in the Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression and are known as the "Dust Bowl Troubadour." Guthrie was associated with, but never a member of, Communist groups in the United States throughout his life.
Guthrie was married three times and fathered eight children, including American folk musician Arlo Guthrie. He is the grandfather of musician Sarah Lee Guthrie. Guthrie died from complications of the degenerative neurologic affliction known as Huntington's Disease. In spite of his illness, during his later years Guthrie served as a figurehead in the folk movement providing inspiration to a generation of new folk musicians, including mentor relationships with Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan.
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October 6, 2020
“Μια ιστορία του αγροτικού ρεαλισμού και του προοδευτικού ακτιβισμού, και με πολλούς τρόπους ένα συνοδευτικό κομμάτι του λαϊκού ύμνου του Guthrie «Αυτή η γη είναι η γη σου», το House of Earth είναι ένα θλιβερό πορτρέτο κακουχίας και ελπίδας σε ένα καταστρεπτικό τοπίο. Συνδυάζοντας το ηθικό επείγον και το αφηγηματικό κίνημα του Τζον Στάινμπεκ με την ερωτική ειλικρίνεια του DH Lawrence, εδώ είναι μια ισχυρή ιστορία της Αμερικής από έναν από τους μεγαλύτερους καλλιτέχνες”
«Σπίτι απο γη».
Πρωτότυπο, πρωτότυπα βάναυσο σε σημεία, λυρικό τεχνούργημα με μια απόκοσμη ίσως σημασία για τη σημερινή Αμερική.
Ισχυρό βιβλίο, θλιβερό σαν ικρίωμα σε ένα πορτραίτο φρικιαστικής κακουχίας, ανημποριάς, εκμετάλλευσης, ένα κοινωνικό φέρετρο με επιθανάτια μοιρολόγια ελπίδας απο μακάβρια τραγούδια ουτοπικά και απόκοσμα.
Αυτή η γη είναι γη σου σε έναν αγροτικό σκληρό ρεαλισμό που καθρεφτίζει το ολοκάθαρο τοπίο της καταστρεπτικής διαφθοράς του κόσμου όλου.
Γραμμένο πριν πάρα πολλά χρόνια εξακολουθεί να είναι τόσο επίκαιρο όσο και η εγκάρδια τήξη της φτώχειας. Γραμμένο ποιητικά, σχεδόν μια ελεγεία για την ολότητα της φύσης, για την ψυχή των πάντων, για τα ανθρώπινα πάθη και παθήματα του 20ου αιώνα.
Περισσότερο από οτιδήποτε άλλο, αυτό το βιβλίο αφορά τον αγώνα για επιβίωση και την παραγωγή ελπίδας ανάμεσα απο αντίξοα, σκονισμένα, άγονα και πεινασμένα για δημιουργία όνειρα.
Ο Guthrie έθεσε τον αγώνα σαν κάποιο εφιάλτη, σαν ένα παραλήρημα ακτιβισμού, στον γκρεμό της αξιοπρέπειας που διαμελίζονται οι σκλάβοι, αυτοί που θυσιάζονται και ποτίζουν με επιθανάτια σωματικά υγρά τα χώματα που καλλιεργούν, τη λάσπη που πατούν, τη σκόνη της κολασμένης κακοκαιρίας που τους καλύπτει σαν την ανισότητα της ζωής, αυτή που γκρεμίζει καλύβια απο ξύλο άχυρο και χώμα και απαγορεύει κάθε προσπάθεια μόνιμης δομής.
Κάθε δικαίωμα για οικοδόμηση ανθεκτικών πραγματικών σπιτιών, που θα σήμαινε έναν πραγματικό θρίαμβο των υπηκόων έναντι σε κάθε ευνοημένο, κάτοχο, ιδιοκτήτη, ανώτερο κοινωνικά και ταξικά, εκμεταλλευτή αφέντη.
Και όλα αυτά είναι τα σκληρά θραύσματα, τα άνυδρα απόβλητα που καταλήξαν κάποτε στο πραγματικό Τέξας φαινομενικά απρόσωπα και υποβαθμισμένα απο την ίδια την οικουμενική ιστορία του κάτω κόσμου.
Αλλά τελικά ο πραγματικός αγώνας είναι μεταξύ συνηθισμένων, σκληρών εργαζομένων (εδώ εκπροσωπείται από τον Tike και την έγκυο Ella May Hamlin, είναι ζευγάρι που αγαπιέται και παλεύει γι’αυτή την αγάπη ) είναι που θέλουν να βελτιώσουν τη ζωή τους, και να ανατρέψουν τις αντιξοότητες των μεγάλων επιχειρήσεων (ένας ανώνυμος επιθεωρητής Υπουργείου Γεωργίας των ΗΠΑ), που τους κρατά σε ένα είδος φυλακής με βάση τα ενοίκια που εισπράτει.
Ένας βρυκόλακας, ένα είδος ανόργανου κανίβαλου που εξυπηρετεί μεγάλα συμφέροντα της άγριας οικονομικής ζούγκλας για να μπορεί να κρατάει ανθρώπους μέσα σε ποντικότρυπες θανάτου , σε σκουριασμένα κονσερβοκούτια γεμάτα χρέη και αθλιότητα, μαζί τους και μια νοσοκόμα που κατανοεί το εξασφαλισμένο προνόμιο των εργαζομένων του να ζουν σε ένα φέρετρο, η Blanche, που βοηθάει για να έρθει στον κόσμο η νεογέννητη καταδικασμένη ζωή.
Κανείς ποτέ δεν θα τους γλιτώσει απο τους εμπόρους ξυλείας, απο εταιρίες δανείων, απο τράπεζες, κανείς δεν θα συναισθανθεί την αδιανόητη επιθυμία τους να χτίσουν το δικό τους σπίτι απο τη δική τους γη.
Οι περιγραφές του συγγραφέα για τη γη και τη ζωή που ζουν οι ήρωες του είναι πραγματικά αυθεντικές και ζωντανεύουν αυτήν την ιστορία. Οι αγώνες τους μπορούν να βρεθούν στην Ιστορία του σήμερα - το φυσικό μέρος μπορεί τώρα να είναι διαφορετικό - αλλά ο αγώνας για τα σκληρά κερδισμένα δικαιώματα είναι ακόμα μαζί μας.
Όμως κάτω από όλα είναι ένα ελαφρύ και χυδαίο συναίσθημα - αξίζει τελικά ο αγώνας;
«Ο Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (1912-1967) ήταν ένας Αμερικανός λαϊκός μπαλαντέρ του οποίου το πιο γνωστό τραγούδι είναι "This Land Is Your Land". Η μουσική του κληρονομιά περιλαμβάνει περισσότερα από τρεις χιλιάδες τραγούδια, που καλύπτουν ένα εξαντλητικό ρεπερτόριο ιστορικών, πολιτικών, πολιτιστικών, τοπικών, πνευματικών, αφηγηματικών και παιδικών θεμάτων».
🦋
Καλή ανάγνωση.
Πολλούς ασπασμούς.
«Σπίτι απο γη».
Πρωτότυπο, πρωτότυπα βάναυσο σε σημεία, λυρικό τεχνούργημα με μια απόκοσμη ίσως σημασία για τη σημερινή Αμερική.
Ισχυρό βιβλίο, θλιβερό σαν ικρίωμα σε ένα πορτραίτο φρικιαστικής κακουχίας, ανημποριάς, εκμετάλλευσης, ένα κοινωνικό φέρετρο με επιθανάτια μοιρολόγια ελπίδας απο μακάβρια τραγούδια ουτοπικά και απόκοσμα.
Αυτή η γη είναι γη σου σε έναν αγροτικό σκληρό ρεαλισμό που καθρεφτίζει το ολοκάθαρο τοπίο της καταστρεπτικής διαφθοράς του κόσμου όλου.
Γραμμένο πριν πάρα πολλά χρόνια εξακολουθεί να είναι τόσο επίκαιρο όσο και η εγκάρδια τήξη της φτώχειας. Γραμμένο ποιητικά, σχεδόν μια ελεγεία για την ολότητα της φύσης, για την ψυχή των πάντων, για τα ανθρώπινα πάθη και παθήματα του 20ου αιώνα.
Περισσότερο από οτιδήποτε άλλο, αυτό το βιβλίο αφορά τον αγώνα για επιβίωση και την παραγωγή ελπίδας ανάμεσα απο αντίξοα, σκονισμένα, άγονα και πεινασμένα για δημιουργία όνειρα.
Ο Guthrie έθεσε τον αγώνα σαν κάποιο εφιάλτη, σαν ένα παραλήρημα ακτιβισμού, στον γκρεμό της αξιοπρέπειας που διαμελίζονται οι σκλάβοι, αυτοί που θυσιάζονται και ποτίζουν με επιθανάτια σωματικά υγρά τα χώματα που καλλιεργούν, τη λάσπη που πατούν, τη σκόνη της κολασμένης κακοκαιρίας που τους καλύπτει σαν την ανισότητα της ζωής, αυτή που γκρεμίζει καλύβια απο ξύλο άχυρο και χώμα και απαγορεύει κάθε προσπάθεια μόνιμης δομής.
Κάθε δικαίωμα για οικοδόμηση ανθεκτικών πραγματικών σπιτιών, που θα σήμαινε έναν πραγματικό θρίαμβο των υπηκόων έναντι σε κάθε ευνοημένο, κάτοχο, ιδιοκτήτη, ανώτερο κοινωνικά και ταξικά, εκμεταλλευτή αφέντη.
Και όλα αυτά είναι τα σκληρά θραύσματα, τα άνυδρα απόβλητα που καταλήξαν κάποτε στο πραγματικό Τέξας φαινομενικά απρόσωπα και υποβαθμισμένα απο την ίδια την οικουμενική ιστορία του κάτω κόσμου.
Αλλά τελικά ο πραγματικός αγώνας είναι μεταξύ συνηθισμένων, σκληρών εργαζομένων (εδώ εκπροσωπείται από τον Tike και την έγκυο Ella May Hamlin, είναι ζευγάρι που αγαπιέται και παλεύει γι’αυτή την αγάπη ) είναι που θέλουν να βελτιώσουν τη ζωή τους, και να ανατρέψουν τις αντιξοότητες των μεγάλων επιχειρήσεων (ένας ανώνυμος επιθεωρητής Υπουργείου Γεωργίας των ΗΠΑ), που τους κρατά σε ένα είδος φυλακής με βάση τα ενοίκια που εισπράτει.
Ένας βρυκόλακας, ένα είδος ανόργανου κανίβαλου που εξυπηρετεί μεγάλα συμφέροντα της άγριας οικονομικής ζούγκλας για να μπορεί να κρατάει ανθρώπους μέσα σε ποντικότρυπες θανάτου , σε σκουριασμένα κονσερβοκούτια γεμάτα χρέη και αθλιότητα, μαζί τους και μια νοσοκόμα που κατανοεί το εξασφαλισμένο προνόμιο των εργαζομένων του να ζουν σε ένα φέρετρο, η Blanche, που βοηθάει για να έρθει στον κόσμο η νεογέννητη καταδικασμένη ζωή.
Κανείς ποτέ δεν θα τους γλιτώσει απο τους εμπόρους ξυλείας, απο εταιρίες δανείων, απο τράπεζες, κανείς δεν θα συναισθανθεί την αδιανόητη επιθυμία τους να χτίσουν το δικό τους σπίτι απο τη δική τους γη.
Οι περιγραφές του συγγραφέα για τη γη και τη ζωή που ζουν οι ήρωες του είναι πραγματικά αυθεντικές και ζωντανεύουν αυτήν την ιστορία. Οι αγώνες τους μπορούν να βρεθούν στην Ιστορία του σήμερα - το φυσικό μέρος μπορεί τώρα να είναι διαφορετικό - αλλά ο αγώνας για τα σκληρά κερδισμένα δικαιώματα είναι ακόμα μαζί μας.
Όμως κάτω από όλα είναι ένα ελαφρύ και χυδαίο συναίσθημα - αξίζει τελικά ο αγώνας;
«Ο Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (1912-1967) ήταν ένας Αμερικανός λαϊκός μπαλαντέρ του οποίου το πιο γνωστό τραγούδι είναι "This Land Is Your Land". Η μουσική του κληρονομιά περιλαμβάνει περισσότερα από τρεις χιλιάδες τραγούδια, που καλύπτουν ένα εξαντλητικό ρεπερτόριο ιστορικών, πολιτικών, πολιτιστικών, τοπικών, πνευματικών, αφηγηματικών και παιδικών θεμάτων».
🦋
Καλή ανάγνωση.
Πολλούς ασπασμούς.
September 9, 2022
I was so excited to read another Woody Guthrie title. In January I thoroughly enjoyed his Bound for Glory , so when Mom gave me this one I couldn't wait to get home and read. She had read it first, but her reserved comment about it didn't bother me at all, because we have not always seen eye to eye about the books we share. She had said, in a cautious tone of voice: "Well, see what you think. And I gotta tell you, there is a lot of wild sex in this book. But see what you think."
This type of comment usually means she is dying to say she hated the book but wants me to judge for myself. And the bit about the wild sex? My mom is 86, and has still managed to stay fairly naive about many things, so I was not expecting anything truly 'wild'.
The introduction explains how Guthry felt that adobe houses would help solve many of the problems tenant farmers and sharecroppers faced in the Texas-Oklahoma panhandle area of the country. The idea became an obsession, especially after a visit to Taos, New Mexico. (The cover of the book is a Guthry painting of houses he saw in Taos, by the way.) This book was the result of his thinking about what could be done to relieve the harshness of the lives of the people he saw around him as a youngster.
Our story is about Tike Hamlin and his wife Ella May, who live in an eighteen foot square house made of thin board, plastered on the inside with a flour paste and pieces of newspaper and magazines. Turns out that Ella May is the daughter of one of the richest land owners in the area, but life led her to Tike, a man who has no real ambition, and never seems to have the ability to buckle down and work. He also thinks almost constantly about sex. [And yes, nearly the entire first chapter is an extremely graphic lovemaking scene. Not necessarily 'wild' or even vulgar, but raw, earthy, and at times a bit creepy. Frankly, I am astonished that my mother kept reading!]
In between (and even during!) the sex and the rest of daily life, Ella May and Tike are always talking about building an adobe house. The introduction had mentioned that although Guthry respected John Steinbeck's work in books such as The Grapes Of Wrath, he felt that Steinbeck had put false words and tones of voice into his characters. Guthry wanted his people to sound like the people he knew best, the ones who stayed on the land throughout the horrors of the Dust Bowl years, fighting Nature, bankers, big business, and anyone else who came along.
But while reading the conversations between Tike and Ella May, I very seldom felt that they were plausible. One or the other would go off on a spiel about adobe houses, or the government, or bankers or whatever. Tike was an annoying little boy in a man suit, and Ella May seemed forced to be his Mamma as well as his wife, not to mention needing to be the main puller of the team in their marriage.
There were bits and pieces of the brilliantly poetic writing style I remember from Bound For Glory, but only a sentence here and there, not paragraphs or pages. Overall, this was an unusual book, perhaps too grand in scope for its length? Or not tidied up as completely as it should have been? I honestly cannot quite put my finger on what feels so off about it. The obsession over the adobe houses pops up a lot when perhaps it could be expressed more effectively in a different way, and some parts were tediously annoying to read. (Lists, he made lists of objects every so often and went on for pages naming types of people who lived there in the Panhandle, for example.)
Someday I want to re-read this, give it another chance, try harder to see what Guthry was attempting to say here. This time around I feel like his point was just out of his reach, but most likely it was simply just beyond my own.
This type of comment usually means she is dying to say she hated the book but wants me to judge for myself. And the bit about the wild sex? My mom is 86, and has still managed to stay fairly naive about many things, so I was not expecting anything truly 'wild'.
The introduction explains how Guthry felt that adobe houses would help solve many of the problems tenant farmers and sharecroppers faced in the Texas-Oklahoma panhandle area of the country. The idea became an obsession, especially after a visit to Taos, New Mexico. (The cover of the book is a Guthry painting of houses he saw in Taos, by the way.) This book was the result of his thinking about what could be done to relieve the harshness of the lives of the people he saw around him as a youngster.
Our story is about Tike Hamlin and his wife Ella May, who live in an eighteen foot square house made of thin board, plastered on the inside with a flour paste and pieces of newspaper and magazines. Turns out that Ella May is the daughter of one of the richest land owners in the area, but life led her to Tike, a man who has no real ambition, and never seems to have the ability to buckle down and work. He also thinks almost constantly about sex. [And yes, nearly the entire first chapter is an extremely graphic lovemaking scene. Not necessarily 'wild' or even vulgar, but raw, earthy, and at times a bit creepy. Frankly, I am astonished that my mother kept reading!]
In between (and even during!) the sex and the rest of daily life, Ella May and Tike are always talking about building an adobe house. The introduction had mentioned that although Guthry respected John Steinbeck's work in books such as The Grapes Of Wrath, he felt that Steinbeck had put false words and tones of voice into his characters. Guthry wanted his people to sound like the people he knew best, the ones who stayed on the land throughout the horrors of the Dust Bowl years, fighting Nature, bankers, big business, and anyone else who came along.
But while reading the conversations between Tike and Ella May, I very seldom felt that they were plausible. One or the other would go off on a spiel about adobe houses, or the government, or bankers or whatever. Tike was an annoying little boy in a man suit, and Ella May seemed forced to be his Mamma as well as his wife, not to mention needing to be the main puller of the team in their marriage.
There were bits and pieces of the brilliantly poetic writing style I remember from Bound For Glory, but only a sentence here and there, not paragraphs or pages. Overall, this was an unusual book, perhaps too grand in scope for its length? Or not tidied up as completely as it should have been? I honestly cannot quite put my finger on what feels so off about it. The obsession over the adobe houses pops up a lot when perhaps it could be expressed more effectively in a different way, and some parts were tediously annoying to read. (Lists, he made lists of objects every so often and went on for pages naming types of people who lived there in the Panhandle, for example.)
Someday I want to re-read this, give it another chance, try harder to see what Guthry was attempting to say here. This time around I feel like his point was just out of his reach, but most likely it was simply just beyond my own.
December 8, 2018
Αναλυτική κριτική μπορείτε να διαβάσετε στο Oh That Book.
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Το 2012 το New York Times Book Review ανακοίνωσε την ανακάλυψη ενός ολοκληρωμένου μυθιστορήματος του Αμερικανού τραγουδιστή και θρύλου της φολκ μουσικής, Γούντι Γκάθρι, 100 χρόνια μετά τη γέννησή του. Ο Γκάθρι γεννήθηκε στην Οκλαχόμα αλλά οι οικογενειακές δυσκολίες τον έφεραν στο Πάμπα του Τέξας, όπου σε ηλικία 18 ετών έφτιαξε το πρώτο του συγκρότημα. Εκεί έζησε από κοντά τη μεγάλη ύφεση που έπληξε τις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες τη δεκαετία του 1930 κι από ακόμη πιο κοντά το εφιαλτικό πέρασμα του Dust Bowl, μιας τετράχρονης περιόδου όπου ξηρασία και αμμοθύελλες εναλλάσσονταν από το Νέο Μέξικο μέχρι το Τέξας κι απ’ το Κολοράντο μέχρι την Οκλαχόμα, ερημοποιώντας τις καλλιεργήσιμες εκτάσεις γης.
Το πρόσφατα ανακαλυφθέν μυθιστόρημά του στοχάζεται τη ζωή των ανθρώπων στο Δυτικό Τέξας σε σχέση τόσο με τα καιρικά φαινόμενα, όσο και με την καταστροφή του φυσικού περιβάλλοντος από τις ανθρώπινες δραστηριότητες που εξαθλιώνουν τους μικροκαλλιεργητές.
Ο Γούντι Γκάθρι ορίζει το πλαίσιο της αφήγησης στις πέντε κιόλας πρώτες σελίδες. Το υπολείμματα των αρχαίων ινδιάνικων πολιτισμών του Τέξας κι η αγριάδα των κόκκινων πετρωμάτων συναντούν τις ανεμοδαρμένες καλύβες που σαπίζουν με κάθε νέο πέρασμα της βροχής, δυσκολεύοντας τις προσπάθειες των ανθρώπων να τις ανακτήσουν από τη φθορά. Αυτόν τον άνισο αγώνα παρακολουθούμε από κοντά μέσα από το ζευγάρι του Τάικ και της Έλα Μέι, δύο νέων ανθρώπων που ζουν στο Καπ Ροκ.
Ο Γούντι Γκάθρι μέσα απ’ αυτό το εκπληκτικά εναργές κείμενο, αναδεικνύεται σε κορυφαίο ποιητή του Τέξας, γεωγράφο των κάμπων και εξερευνητή των βουνών, ωτακουστή των εντόμων και παρατηρητή των βουβαλιών, μετεωρολόγο των καιρικών φαινομένων, λαογράφο των αγροτών και τροβαδούρο της απελευθέρωσης τους από την τυραννία των γαιοκτημόνων και των τραπεζών. Οι βραδείες ερωτικές σκηνές ανάμεσα στον Τάικ και την Έλα Μέι σφύζουν από τον πραγματικό ρυθμό της ανθρώπινης επαφής, η χλωρίδα και η πανίδα περιγράφονται οργιαστικά, έρχονται στο προσκήνιο μέσα από μυρωδιές και ήχους.
Η χαρά της ζωής κυριαρχεί στο μυθιστόρημα του Γκάθρι, γιατί αυτή είναι «πολύ σκληρή…είσαι τυχερός αν καταφέρεις να τη ζήσεις ολόκληρη».
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Το 2012 το New York Times Book Review ανακοίνωσε την ανακάλυψη ενός ολοκληρωμένου μυθιστορήματος του Αμερικανού τραγουδιστή και θρύλου της φολκ μουσικής, Γούντι Γκάθρι, 100 χρόνια μετά τη γέννησή του. Ο Γκάθρι γεννήθηκε στην Οκλαχόμα αλλά οι οικογενειακές δυσκολίες τον έφεραν στο Πάμπα του Τέξας, όπου σε ηλικία 18 ετών έφτιαξε το πρώτο του συγκρότημα. Εκεί έζησε από κοντά τη μεγάλη ύφεση που έπληξε τις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες τη δεκαετία του 1930 κι από ακόμη πιο κοντά το εφιαλτικό πέρασμα του Dust Bowl, μιας τετράχρονης περιόδου όπου ξηρασία και αμμοθύελλες εναλλάσσονταν από το Νέο Μέξικο μέχρι το Τέξας κι απ’ το Κολοράντο μέχρι την Οκλαχόμα, ερημοποιώντας τις καλλιεργήσιμες εκτάσεις γης.
Το πρόσφατα ανακαλυφθέν μυθιστόρημά του στοχάζεται τη ζωή των ανθρώπων στο Δυτικό Τέξας σε σχέση τόσο με τα καιρικά φαινόμενα, όσο και με την καταστροφή του φυσικού περιβάλλοντος από τις ανθρώπινες δραστηριότητες που εξαθλιώνουν τους μικροκαλλιεργητές.
Ο Γούντι Γκάθρι ορίζει το πλαίσιο της αφήγησης στις πέντε κιόλας πρώτες σελίδες. Το υπολείμματα των αρχαίων ινδιάνικων πολιτισμών του Τέξας κι η αγριάδα των κόκκινων πετρωμάτων συναντούν τις ανεμοδαρμένες καλύβες που σαπίζουν με κάθε νέο πέρασμα της βροχής, δυσκολεύοντας τις προσπάθειες των ανθρώπων να τις ανακτήσουν από τη φθορά. Αυτόν τον άνισο αγώνα παρακολουθούμε από κοντά μέσα από το ζευγάρι του Τάικ και της Έλα Μέι, δύο νέων ανθρώπων που ζουν στο Καπ Ροκ.
Ο Γούντι Γκάθρι μέσα απ’ αυτό το εκπληκτικά εναργές κείμενο, αναδεικνύεται σε κορυφαίο ποιητή του Τέξας, γεωγράφο των κάμπων και εξερευνητή των βουνών, ωτακουστή των εντόμων και παρατηρητή των βουβαλιών, μετεωρολόγο των καιρικών φαινομένων, λαογράφο των αγροτών και τροβαδούρο της απελευθέρωσης τους από την τυραννία των γαιοκτημόνων και των τραπεζών. Οι βραδείες ερωτικές σκηνές ανάμεσα στον Τάικ και την Έλα Μέι σφύζουν από τον πραγματικό ρυθμό της ανθρώπινης επαφής, η χλωρίδα και η πανίδα περιγράφονται οργιαστικά, έρχονται στο προσκήνιο μέσα από μυρωδιές και ήχους.
Η χαρά της ζωής κυριαρχεί στο μυθιστόρημα του Γκάθρι, γιατί αυτή είναι «πολύ σκληρή…είσαι τυχερός αν καταφέρεις να τη ζήσεις ολόκληρη».
November 28, 2018
Και τώρα ανθρωπάκο στην αμερικανική βερσιόν. Οι μη προνομιούχοι είναι αναγκασμένοι να πολεμούν για την επιβίωση. Υποταγμένοι στα ένστικτα τους δεν μπορούν να αντιμετωπίσουν την πείνα, τη λαγνεία, το φθόνο, κ δεν σταματούν να ονειρεύονται.
Η θέληση για ζωή, ωστόσο, είναι πανίσχυρη κ επιβραβεύεται.
Ο φολκ τροβαδούρος παίρνει θέση απέναντι στα καπιταλιστικά/ φεουδαρχικά καθεστώτα, που με αρωγό τα κλιματικά φαινόμενα της εποχής, εκμεταλλεύονται κ διαιωνίζουν την φτώχεια.
Σπουδαίες παραστάσεις και από τους τρεις πρωταγωνιστικούς χαρακτήρες
Η θέληση για ζωή, ωστόσο, είναι πανίσχυρη κ επιβραβεύεται.
Ο φολκ τροβαδούρος παίρνει θέση απέναντι στα καπιταλιστικά/ φεουδαρχικά καθεστώτα, που με αρωγό τα κλιματικά φαινόμενα της εποχής, εκμεταλλεύονται κ διαιωνίζουν την φτώχεια.
Σπουδαίες παραστάσεις και από τους τρεις πρωταγωνιστικούς χαρακτήρες
March 24, 2021
Um. Awkward. I've waited a while before committing this response to writing, but it isn't getting any better in my head, so here goes.
He's Woody Guthrie, for goodness sakes! A legend! An icon! I'm thinking this was unpublished for a reason. . . there are parts of it, the descriptive bits about the environment and his feelings about where in his life he was. . .those were keepable, readable. Makes a reader sink into the words. I like that.
Then a complete section spent on the execution of one marital act with Ella May. . . .every little bit, with every drip and drop described. Who's hard, who's not, and weird baby talk - nonstop - with a conversation weaving in his desire to not just finish this task on a high note (and by the way are you ever going to org, dear Ella?? Huh? Now? Ya there yet? Huh?) but let me tell you about the Earth House I'm going a build you just as soon as we are done here. . . .(now? how 'bout now? it's 48 pages and I'm still holdin' on. . .now?). Seriously. Explicit blow-by-blow weirdness one keeps to one's own barn, hay and participants.
There comes (sorry.) a point when enough questions arise (again, sorry.) that a moment of analysis is required. Where is the balance on the scales? Value / Non-Value for me, the reader? Has the non-value overwhelmed the value? I'm thinking so.
Honestly this was like a window, peeking in on someone's life. There are actually times in the lives of others, fictional or no, when I would intentionally not peek. I was interested in Tike's obsession with the earth house building - he'd clearly had a traumatic experience with wooden structures. . .would have liked to know more about that. Other than that, I found no point - other than an ejaculatory persuasion that hay, while pokey, does the job as an appropriate venue for coitus, including but not limited to pre- and post- activities - for getting this book into my hands as a reader. I did appreciate that he did his best to make sure Ella May was taken care of before he bounced off satisfied sooooo many pages later.
Turning away from my readerly window, I just felt sorry for Ella May. Life with Tike was not going to be easy, if he even stayed. Things were not going to get better, and like so many women in the afterglow, I just had that old familiar feeling that this family of 2 was soon going to be 3 (or 4).
Not sure I'm going to continue with Woody's works. I may depend on the kindness of biographers' restraint, though. He's a legend, and an icon, after all.
He's Woody Guthrie, for goodness sakes! A legend! An icon! I'm thinking this was unpublished for a reason. . . there are parts of it, the descriptive bits about the environment and his feelings about where in his life he was. . .those were keepable, readable. Makes a reader sink into the words. I like that.
Then a complete section spent on the execution of one marital act with Ella May. . . .every little bit, with every drip and drop described. Who's hard, who's not, and weird baby talk - nonstop - with a conversation weaving in his desire to not just finish this task on a high note (and by the way are you ever going to org, dear Ella?? Huh? Now? Ya there yet? Huh?) but let me tell you about the Earth House I'm going a build you just as soon as we are done here. . . .(now? how 'bout now? it's 48 pages and I'm still holdin' on. . .now?). Seriously. Explicit blow-by-blow weirdness one keeps to one's own barn, hay and participants.
There comes (sorry.) a point when enough questions arise (again, sorry.) that a moment of analysis is required. Where is the balance on the scales? Value / Non-Value for me, the reader? Has the non-value overwhelmed the value? I'm thinking so.
Honestly this was like a window, peeking in on someone's life. There are actually times in the lives of others, fictional or no, when I would intentionally not peek. I was interested in Tike's obsession with the earth house building - he'd clearly had a traumatic experience with wooden structures. . .would have liked to know more about that. Other than that, I found no point - other than an ejaculatory persuasion that hay, while pokey, does the job as an appropriate venue for coitus, including but not limited to pre- and post- activities - for getting this book into my hands as a reader. I did appreciate that he did his best to make sure Ella May was taken care of before he bounced off satisfied sooooo many pages later.
Turning away from my readerly window, I just felt sorry for Ella May. Life with Tike was not going to be easy, if he even stayed. Things were not going to get better, and like so many women in the afterglow, I just had that old familiar feeling that this family of 2 was soon going to be 3 (or 4).
Not sure I'm going to continue with Woody's works. I may depend on the kindness of biographers' restraint, though. He's a legend, and an icon, after all.
April 29, 2013
Thanks, Douglas Brinkley and Johnny Depp, for a well-written and interesting introduction. Now if only the book itself were as well-written and interesting! I TRIED to read it. I spent about a year in Pampa, Texas, when my husband was on a job assignment, so I thought I might enjoy the feel of the setting. After all, I did enjoy some elements of the windblown high plains during my time there. Instead, as I read House of Earth, I wanted to say, "Tike, why don't you and 'Lady' (ugh!), aka Ella May, just move!" In the introduction, "The question has been asked: Why wasn't House of Earth published in the late 1940s?" I would ask, why WAS House of Earth published in 2013? I believe Woody Guthrie presented this manuscript to a filmmaker instead of a book publisher because he never intended it to be a novel. His ability to write folksy music and to express the views of the common man does not necessarily equate to being a novelist. My recommendation: Read the Intro; skip the book.
February 2, 2013
I've spent the last couple of days lost in the 1930s Dust Bowl, specifically on the Texas plains. It's a hard, nasty place to be, but it was enlivened by the passionate Tike and Ella May Hamlin--wheat farmers and plain and simple, but they've got big dreams. They live in a rotting share-croppers shack, but five cents bought them a government pamphlet giving directions to create adobe bricks which would be safe from the horrible winds of the plains, protect them from the heat and the cold, and would not be prone in insect infestation. A place to grow their family in. If they can find land to build on.
There is a whole lot of societal, financial and political talk in here, told with a lot of passion, frustration, and hope. It's the same, or very nearly so, that you'll find any time you turn on the news these days. This is the only book Guthrie finished, but he's made it count. He lived through the "Black Sunday: (4-14-1935) dust storm in Pampa, TX. When the storm ended, he was a changed man. He's the one who bought that five cent pamphlet and crusaded for adobe housing for the rest of his life. The lengthy introduction, written by Doug Brinkley and Johnny Depp (yes, THE Johnny Depp), covers a lot of that and Guthrie's life from then on. That alone is fascinating, but combined with the novel, the whole package adds up to a big bite of the history and culture that shaped America. Sometimes funny, sometimes bawdy, sometimes heartbreaking, this book is a gem that will make a big impression on any reader. Just because it was written in 1945 doesn't mean it can't be the best book of 2013, at least in my humble opinion.
There is a whole lot of societal, financial and political talk in here, told with a lot of passion, frustration, and hope. It's the same, or very nearly so, that you'll find any time you turn on the news these days. This is the only book Guthrie finished, but he's made it count. He lived through the "Black Sunday: (4-14-1935) dust storm in Pampa, TX. When the storm ended, he was a changed man. He's the one who bought that five cent pamphlet and crusaded for adobe housing for the rest of his life. The lengthy introduction, written by Doug Brinkley and Johnny Depp (yes, THE Johnny Depp), covers a lot of that and Guthrie's life from then on. That alone is fascinating, but combined with the novel, the whole package adds up to a big bite of the history and culture that shaped America. Sometimes funny, sometimes bawdy, sometimes heartbreaking, this book is a gem that will make a big impression on any reader. Just because it was written in 1945 doesn't mean it can't be the best book of 2013, at least in my humble opinion.
June 24, 2013
Woody Guthrie describes in exquisite detail the bleak existence of a young couple trying to get by in abject poverty in one of the harshest environments this country has had to offer - the Texas panhandle in the 1930's. He hits on his usual themes of the stark contrast between the haves and the have-nots and the resilience and determination of the latter. His writing style, however, surprised me a bit. It's a stream-of-consciousness flow in the local vernacular that would probably be called "beat" if it had been written a decade later (Keruoac wishes he could have written so well). It was written in 1947. The story itself probably could have been told in 30 pages or less, but all the rest of it puts you into a time and place and actually into the imaginations of the characters. The 44 page introduction by Johnny Depp could have been done in 4 pages and left at that. He was trying too hard to set the stage for the story. It didn't need it. Woody took care of that himself quite nicely.
January 30, 2013
House of Earth is a previously unpublished novel by the prolific musician and artist, Woody Guthrie, most famous for the American ballad, "This Land is Your Land." Guthrie apparently wrote over three thousand songs but this is his only novel and unfortunately I must say that the freshman novelist's unpublished work should have stayed the way Guthrie left it, unpublished. The short 200 page work took me over a week and a half to finish, which is far too long for a reader like me who has so many other interests to pursue.
Guthrie was a man of the depression era who disapproved of the corruption that was inherent in capitalism. He sang the songs of the common man who lost out to corporate farming, sharecropping, and the environmental devastation of the dust bowl. House of Earth is the flushed out story of a common man living in the Texas/Oklahoma panhandle who, unlike the characters of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, was determined to stay rooted in the dust worn country and weather through the difficult winters of the lower plains. The two primary characters of House of Earth are Tike Hamlin and his wife Ella May: hard working and determined people that struggle to get by on their rented land. They live in a rented wooden house that is termite eaten, suspect to the wind, and hardly keeps them warm from the bitter winters. Tike and Ella May don't want to seek out the milk and honey in the promised land of California, they hope to build an adobe home that will withstand the weather and be a home they can truly own, a home made of the land and part of the land that they live and work.
As I noted in my introduction above, this novel has plenty of problems. First is the dialogue. Now, I'm not saying that the Guthrie's use of dialect is a bother, the trouble is the nature of the situations that prompt the dialogue. For instance, within the first few pages of the novel we read a lengthy and graphic erotic scene between Tike and Ell May where they break off into what could be a dinner table conversation about building a house of earth all while sharing the pleasures of coitus. I didn't really have any problem with the graphic nature of the love making - the problem is that tone of the dialogue didn't match the passion of the action taking place. This tonal problem appears again late in the novel after Ella May gives birth: rather than celebrating the joys (or suffering the pains) of child birth, Ella May goes into a long rant with her nurse about her family's goals to build a house of earth. In addition to these unbalanced dialogue sequences, there are several tangential moments that are part rant and part dream sequence where it seems that Guthrie was lost in his role as narrator. These are the negative effects of posthumous editing where the editor must guess at what the deceased author was trying to get at in his novel's draft. Unfortunately, there isn't a large body of Guthrie novels for the editor to reflect style, however after reading this novel I can tell why there isn't such a body of work in existence. I think that Guthrie had hopes to express his art through novelistic form but thought better of it otherwise.
Guthrie was a man of the depression era who disapproved of the corruption that was inherent in capitalism. He sang the songs of the common man who lost out to corporate farming, sharecropping, and the environmental devastation of the dust bowl. House of Earth is the flushed out story of a common man living in the Texas/Oklahoma panhandle who, unlike the characters of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, was determined to stay rooted in the dust worn country and weather through the difficult winters of the lower plains. The two primary characters of House of Earth are Tike Hamlin and his wife Ella May: hard working and determined people that struggle to get by on their rented land. They live in a rented wooden house that is termite eaten, suspect to the wind, and hardly keeps them warm from the bitter winters. Tike and Ella May don't want to seek out the milk and honey in the promised land of California, they hope to build an adobe home that will withstand the weather and be a home they can truly own, a home made of the land and part of the land that they live and work.
As I noted in my introduction above, this novel has plenty of problems. First is the dialogue. Now, I'm not saying that the Guthrie's use of dialect is a bother, the trouble is the nature of the situations that prompt the dialogue. For instance, within the first few pages of the novel we read a lengthy and graphic erotic scene between Tike and Ell May where they break off into what could be a dinner table conversation about building a house of earth all while sharing the pleasures of coitus. I didn't really have any problem with the graphic nature of the love making - the problem is that tone of the dialogue didn't match the passion of the action taking place. This tonal problem appears again late in the novel after Ella May gives birth: rather than celebrating the joys (or suffering the pains) of child birth, Ella May goes into a long rant with her nurse about her family's goals to build a house of earth. In addition to these unbalanced dialogue sequences, there are several tangential moments that are part rant and part dream sequence where it seems that Guthrie was lost in his role as narrator. These are the negative effects of posthumous editing where the editor must guess at what the deceased author was trying to get at in his novel's draft. Unfortunately, there isn't a large body of Guthrie novels for the editor to reflect style, however after reading this novel I can tell why there isn't such a body of work in existence. I think that Guthrie had hopes to express his art through novelistic form but thought better of it otherwise.
March 10, 2013
read my full review: http://bit.ly/ZrDMnb
My opinion: I will never forget an outraged Dennis Green, coach of the AZ Cardinals, after a butt whoopin' by the Chicago Bears in 1996 screaming on the podium "They were who we thought they were!" Well, in regards to House of Earth, it is what I thought it would be. Think progressiveness and those mean, mean corporations. Predictable, boring, foreseeable in plot! Had it not have been Woody Guthrie who wrote the book it never would have hit my TBR shelf, but I gave it a shot because he did write it. My really, really bad!
To boot, the book is written in colloquial prose style which made a book which should have only taken me about 2.5 hours to read dragged out to 5 hours. It is only 240 pages for cryin' out loud!
I will say that it was a pretty risque writing for being written in 1947. Had released, I could have seen this hitting the banned books list before one could say "corporations suck!"
My opinion: I will never forget an outraged Dennis Green, coach of the AZ Cardinals, after a butt whoopin' by the Chicago Bears in 1996 screaming on the podium "They were who we thought they were!" Well, in regards to House of Earth, it is what I thought it would be. Think progressiveness and those mean, mean corporations. Predictable, boring, foreseeable in plot! Had it not have been Woody Guthrie who wrote the book it never would have hit my TBR shelf, but I gave it a shot because he did write it. My really, really bad!
To boot, the book is written in colloquial prose style which made a book which should have only taken me about 2.5 hours to read dragged out to 5 hours. It is only 240 pages for cryin' out loud!
I will say that it was a pretty risque writing for being written in 1947. Had released, I could have seen this hitting the banned books list before one could say "corporations suck!"
May 28, 2013
This formerly lost novel, which resurfaced in 2012 among his archival paperwork, is an interesting complement to Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath." Guthrie's novel diverges from the exodus of GoW, and finds its story in a couple suffering hardships but staying on their land. The goal of the main character Tike is to forge a house out of the earth -- the wooden homes ravaged by storm and weather were not to his liking, and he studies adobe bricks, and the obsession haunts Tike throughout the novel.
Woody's usual demeanor shows in the writing; he cries and sings for the voiceless, the down-trodden, the day-to-day workers putting in effort not generally recognized by humanity. His barbed words toward bankers resonate even today. Would to all that is holy that more Woody Guthries shore up, because there are an endless supply of those folks he depicts in words and song.
Woody's usual demeanor shows in the writing; he cries and sings for the voiceless, the down-trodden, the day-to-day workers putting in effort not generally recognized by humanity. His barbed words toward bankers resonate even today. Would to all that is holy that more Woody Guthries shore up, because there are an endless supply of those folks he depicts in words and song.
October 16, 2018
Tike and Ella May Hamlin try their best; struggling with the elements, larger farms and Banks in the Panhandle of Texas.
Tike is never serious, always jokeing and teasing and dancing in the kitchen. He would always rhyme words to the extent they became silly. He put the rhymes into music.
He never lost the dream of the Earth House.
Tike is never serious, always jokeing and teasing and dancing in the kitchen. He would always rhyme words to the extent they became silly. He put the rhymes into music.
He never lost the dream of the Earth House.
March 29, 2013
“On the fourteenth day of April,
Of nineteen thirty-five,
There struck the worst of dust storms
That ever filled the sky.
You could see that dust storm coming
It looked so awful black,
And through our little city,
It left a dreadful track.”
In this story Guthrie had his day to write, away from his ballads and in the same vein that Steinbeck undertook to wag his finger at the powers that be, at capitalism during the Great Depression. He was in the turmoil and great storms he felt the peoples plight, is and was the peoples voice and spokesman for the freedom and unshackling of the working class of his time from his shores and those that travelled through Route 66 to a kind of salvation, new home, new birth and a new chance for the underdog.
Amongst the main characters passage of passion and loving in this story, which can be quite steamy and visceral, there is his love for things of a more lasting kind, a home of his own built and owned by himself not rented and owned by others. He wants a chance at life to have his family settle with a chance of getting somewhere other than being owned by a corporation or bank he just does not want that.
In response to a question our main character Tike puts comical when he's asked
“Doesn’t your brain function on any other subject except just this business of making babies?”
“Nope. Nuthin’ else. Makin’ babies. An’ earth houses to raise ’em in.” (Tike said)
The prose flows in a great rhythmical style with a joy to read and a need for this journey not to end comes to fruition. The author did a great job describing and showing his characters and their feelings and the knows the environment and behavioural pattern of his subjects. It felt like reading a mix of Steinbeck and Henry Miller. There is some deep reflections on the life around the plight of the people of those days and their passions. The authors thoughts string out in threaded words as if your listening to one of his dustbowl ballads, except here they flow along to the right of sentences with a joy to read and ponder on.
Before reading this story, I had many of his tracks on my audio playlist including, Tom Joad, Talking Dust Bowl Blues, John Henry, Better World A-Comin, The Great Dust Storm, Dust Bowl Refugee, and This Land Is Your Land, they are all have great lyrics.
Steinbeck put it perfectly and in his tribute he wrote about Guthrie, “Woody is just Woody. Thousands of people do not know he has any other name. He is just a voice and a guitar. He sings the songs of a people and I suspect that he is, in a way, that people. Harsh voiced and nasal, his guitar hanging like a tire iron on a rusty rim, there is nothing sweet about Woody, and there is nothing sweet about the songs he sings. But there is something more important for those who still listen. There is the will of a people to endure and fight again against oppression. I think we call this the American spirit.”
It was a clear day. A blue sky. A few puffy, white-looking thunderclouds dragged their shadows like dark sheets across the flat Cap Rock country. The Cap Rock is that big high, crooked cliff of limestone, sandrock, marble, and flint that divides the lower west Texas plains from the upper north panhandle plains. The canyons, dry wash rivers, sandy creek beds, ditches, and gullies that joined up with the Cap Rock cliff form the graveyard of past Indian civilizations, flying and testing grounds of herds of leather-winged bats, drying grounds of monster-size bones and teeth, roosting, nesting, and the breeding place of the bald-headed big brown eagle. Dens of rattlesnakes, lizards, scorpions, spiders, jackrabbit, cottontail, ants, horny butterfly, horned toad, and stinging winds and seasons. These things all were born of the Cap Rock cliff and it was alive and moving with all these and with the mummy skeletons of early settlers of all colors. A world close to the sun, closer to the wind, the cloudbursts, floods, gumbo muds, the dry and dusty things that lose their footing in this world, and blow, and roll, jump wire fences, like the tumbleweed, and take their last earthly leap in the north wind out and down, off the upper north plains, and down onto the sandier cotton plains that commence to take shape west of Clarendon.”
“Let them? We caused ’em to steal?”
“Yes. We caused them to steal. Penny at a time. Nickel at a time. Dime. A quarter. A dollar. We were easygoing. We were good-natured. We didn’t want money just for the sake of having money. We didn’t want other folks’ money if it meant that they had to do without. We smiled across their counters a penny at a time. We smiled in through their cages a nickel at a time. We handed a quarter out our front door. We handed them money along the street. We signed our names on their old papers. We didn’t want money, so we didn’t steal money, and we spoiled them, we petted them, and we humored them. We let them steal from us. We knew that they were hooking us. We knew it. We knew when they cheated us out of every single little red cent. We knew. We knew when they jacked up their prices. We knew when they cut down on the price of our work. We knew that. We knew they were stealing. We taught them to steal. We let them. We let them think that they could cheat us because we are just plain old common everyday people. They got the habit.”
“They really got the habit,” Tike said.
“Like dope. Like whiskey. Like tobacco. Like snuff. Like morphine or opium or old smoke of some kind. They got the regular habit of taking us for damned old silly fools,” she said.”
“The picture of her face, her eyelids, hair, forehead, ears, cheeks, chin, was one of almost complete peace and comfort. Tike saw a trace, a tiny trace, but a trace of ache, pain, and misery there as she licked her lips and breathed. A feeling came over him. A feeling that had always come over him when he saw her look this way. It was a feeling of love, yet a feeling of fight. A love that was made out of fight, the fight that he would fight if any living human hurt or harmed or even spoke low-down or bad words about his Lady. And for a good long time he seemed to get a higher view, somehow, of their life together, their life on this gumbo land in this shack, and even the land and the shack and their cowshed he felt did not really belong to them. No. It all belonged to a man that had never set foot on it. Belonged to somebody that did not give a damn about it. Belonged to someone that didn’t care about the feelings of their cowshed. Somebody somewhere that did not know the fiery seeds of words and of tears and of passions, hopes, split here on this one spot of the earth. Belonged to somebody who did not think that these people were able to think. Belonged to somebody who had their names wrote down on his money list, his sucker list. Belonged to somebody who does not know how quick we can get together and just how and just fast we can fight. Belongs to a man or a woman somewhere that don’t even know that we’re down here alive. It belongs to a disease that is the worst cancer on the face of this country, and that cancer goes hand in hand with Ku Klux, Jim Crow, and the doctrine and the gospel of race hate, and that disease is the system of slavery known as sharecropping.”
“A thousand and one things came back into his mind, things that he ought to be doing, working at, fixing up, getting ready for. His brain commenced to show up moving pictures of all of the jobs he had started, the ones that he had finished, and the ones that had to be started right away. This. That. And the other thing. “This, that, and something else. All of this work, all of these jobs, all of this sweat and good labor poured into a useless bucket and down a senseless drain on a piece of land that did not belong to him, did not shelter Ella May, did not keep them away from the germs, the filth, the misery, did not keep their hides from the heat nor the cold, did not look good to their eyes, and by the law of the land they could not lift a hand to build the place into that nicer one because the man that owned it did not care about all of this. Oh. These. These things. And then a lot of other things came and went, roared and buzzed around in his brain. He tried to dream up some earthly scheme to get his hands on a piece of good farmland to raise up that house of earth on. Ohh. Yes. That Department of Agriculture book was an awful mighty good thing, laying there at her elbow on that hay. But it made their biggest misery even bigger, and their biggest dream even plainer, and their biggest craving ten times more to be craved. A fireproof, windproof, dirt-proof, bug-proof, thief-proof house of earth”
“This was the vast and undying beauty, the dynamic and eternal attraction, the lure, the bait, the magnetic pull that, in addition to their blood kin and salty love for the wide open spaces and their lifetime bond to and worship of the land, caused not only Ella May and Tike Hamlin but hundreds of thousands and millions and millions of other folks just about like them to scatter their seeds, their words, and their loves so freely here.”
“One year. And what is a year? A year is something that can be added on, but it can never be taken away. Yes, added on, earmarked and tagged, counted in signs of dollars and cents, written down the income column and across the page with names, and photos can be taken of faces and clipped onto the papers, and the prints of the new baby’s feet can be stamped on the papers of the birth, and the print of the thumb going back to work can be stamped onto the papers that say it is a good place to work. And a year is work. A year is that nervous craving to do your good job and to draw down your good pay, and to join your good union.
And a year of work is three hundred and sixty-four, or -five, or -six days of the run, the hurry, the walking, the bouncing, and the jumping up and down, the arguments, fights, the liquor brawls, hangovers, headaches, and all. Work takes in all climates, all things, all rooms, all furrows, all streets, all sidewalks, and all the shoes that tramp on them. The whirl and roll of planets do not make a year a year, nor the breath of the trifling wind, changing from cold to hot, forming steam back into ice. Oceans of waters that flow down from the tops of the Smokies and roll in the sea, they help some to make a year a year, but they don’t make the year.
Tike had said to Ella May once before they were married, “What a year is, is just another round in our big old fight against the whole world.” What he meant was his fight against the weather and against other men, and sometimes against his own self. But in his own words he was very close to right. He had a right, in a way, to say, “Our fight against the whole world,” because it had always looked to him that his little bunch of people out there on the upper plains were fighting against just about everything in the world. He did not mean that, I, Tike Hamlin, am fighting against the world and all that is in it.....
.....And so the year went around. The wheel of time rolled down the road of troubles. They had the same things hit them day after day. The same cows bawled to be milked every sunset, and bawled to be milked again at every sunrise.”
Review also @http://more2read.com/review/house-of-earth-by-woody-guthrie/
March 8, 2013
"I wish you'd think up some kind of a way to get us a piece of nice good farmin' land, with an adobe house on it, an' a big adobe fence all around it."
Imagine the same words, not just published in this decade but written in it, by a living author. Take the same setting, characters, plot, book cover and the dustbowl colloquialisms. Remove the names Woody Guthrie and Johnny Depp: it is unlikely that you would have read even this far. But Guthrie wrote presciently, breathtakingly of a topic that would not rest and will never rest: the science of homebuilding. Only recently have we affixed the term sustainable construction, but the problem has been around as long as domiciles have. Without the names Guthrie and Depp House of Earth would be confined to the vast archives of genre fiction. But indeed those names are affixed. And should we read it? Absolutely.
House of Earth is slow with heat, sluggish with drought. We can count the number of scenes on one hand. In the first half of the book wheat sharecroppers Tike and Ella May Hamlin work, make love, and watch cars on the nearby Highway 66. She compares the vehicles--minuscule with distance--to termites. Their wood-framed house sags with rot: "You little ole rotten p*ss soaked b*stard," Tike curses. (The reader soon recognizes any discussion of rebuilding as pillow talk. Ella May and Tike speak of a hypothetical adobe farmhouse the same way modern couples speak of early retirement in Tuscany.) The book's second half is set a year later. The rotting wood house sags ever further. Ella May is pregnant, and an old injury to her breast courses with pain. There is a worrisome spot where for months she believed herself only to be bruised. Her midwife is running late, and there is a blizzard on the way.
As mentioned above, Guthrie handles the dialects unapologetically. Ella May says of a leg massage, "Gosh dern whiz a might gee ohh. Tike, you've not got the least idea how good the feel of your hands is." Elsewhere Tike, failing to define superstition, says "It's th' words of th' dead civilizations an' th' civilizations that ain't even been born yet." The sex scene, for those who count the first grope to the last gasp, is over 40 pages long. It is startlingly personal, too, what with Tike's baby talk and Ella May's play-by-play commentary. Guthrie's intention here is clear. The return to dried earth homes--which are "fireproof, windproof, dirtproof, bugproof, thiefproof" and rotproof--is a return to paradise, and to the incorruption of childhood. But there are no easy answers or clear allies. Farm owners build houses meant to weaken and fall, government officials suggest farmers grow smaller crops, and the bankers foreclose on exactly those plots of land they find most alluring. Private ownership means pride in efforts, but also exploitation and greed. Dirt brings produce, but chokes cattle during dust storms. Wind carries seed, but kills, destroys, erodes. (Neither is the metaphor of bodily fluid as seed lost on the author or his boorish main character.)
There are moments when Guthrie's prose means sheer beauty: "spirits of the dead carrying their own dirt, howling, begging, crying somewhere on the upper plains to be born again." Watching the Hamlins struggle against nature--human or otherwise--is nearly as agonizing as watching Ella May struggle with her health. When these three factors come together, the book is simply unstoppable: "there are a few people that work to hurt, to hold down, to deny, to take from, to cheat the rest of us. And these few are the thieves of the body, the germs of the disease of greed, they are few but they are loud and strong." Guthrie died after composing hundreds of songs but only one novel. And as one-offs go, House of Earth is unforgettable.
Imagine the same words, not just published in this decade but written in it, by a living author. Take the same setting, characters, plot, book cover and the dustbowl colloquialisms. Remove the names Woody Guthrie and Johnny Depp: it is unlikely that you would have read even this far. But Guthrie wrote presciently, breathtakingly of a topic that would not rest and will never rest: the science of homebuilding. Only recently have we affixed the term sustainable construction, but the problem has been around as long as domiciles have. Without the names Guthrie and Depp House of Earth would be confined to the vast archives of genre fiction. But indeed those names are affixed. And should we read it? Absolutely.
House of Earth is slow with heat, sluggish with drought. We can count the number of scenes on one hand. In the first half of the book wheat sharecroppers Tike and Ella May Hamlin work, make love, and watch cars on the nearby Highway 66. She compares the vehicles--minuscule with distance--to termites. Their wood-framed house sags with rot: "You little ole rotten p*ss soaked b*stard," Tike curses. (The reader soon recognizes any discussion of rebuilding as pillow talk. Ella May and Tike speak of a hypothetical adobe farmhouse the same way modern couples speak of early retirement in Tuscany.) The book's second half is set a year later. The rotting wood house sags ever further. Ella May is pregnant, and an old injury to her breast courses with pain. There is a worrisome spot where for months she believed herself only to be bruised. Her midwife is running late, and there is a blizzard on the way.
As mentioned above, Guthrie handles the dialects unapologetically. Ella May says of a leg massage, "Gosh dern whiz a might gee ohh. Tike, you've not got the least idea how good the feel of your hands is." Elsewhere Tike, failing to define superstition, says "It's th' words of th' dead civilizations an' th' civilizations that ain't even been born yet." The sex scene, for those who count the first grope to the last gasp, is over 40 pages long. It is startlingly personal, too, what with Tike's baby talk and Ella May's play-by-play commentary. Guthrie's intention here is clear. The return to dried earth homes--which are "fireproof, windproof, dirtproof, bugproof, thiefproof" and rotproof--is a return to paradise, and to the incorruption of childhood. But there are no easy answers or clear allies. Farm owners build houses meant to weaken and fall, government officials suggest farmers grow smaller crops, and the bankers foreclose on exactly those plots of land they find most alluring. Private ownership means pride in efforts, but also exploitation and greed. Dirt brings produce, but chokes cattle during dust storms. Wind carries seed, but kills, destroys, erodes. (Neither is the metaphor of bodily fluid as seed lost on the author or his boorish main character.)
There are moments when Guthrie's prose means sheer beauty: "spirits of the dead carrying their own dirt, howling, begging, crying somewhere on the upper plains to be born again." Watching the Hamlins struggle against nature--human or otherwise--is nearly as agonizing as watching Ella May struggle with her health. When these three factors come together, the book is simply unstoppable: "there are a few people that work to hurt, to hold down, to deny, to take from, to cheat the rest of us. And these few are the thieves of the body, the germs of the disease of greed, they are few but they are loud and strong." Guthrie died after composing hundreds of songs but only one novel. And as one-offs go, House of Earth is unforgettable.
December 10, 2018
Woody Guthrie's songs stir me, but I was amazed at how beautiful his novel is. His writing about what it's like to be a poor farmer in barren country in the 1930s is amazing. The wind sings in his words. This is a hymn to the land and the people who live on it.
His characters, Tike and Ella May Hamlin, have poetry in their souls and only a shack to live in. They dream of building an adobe house that would keep out the wind, but the man who owns the land won't sell them what they need. Frustration burns them. But they love each other. Their words, especially Tike's, can be coarse, but they are lyrical course, they are real. Gurthrie's writing has made me care deeply about Tike, a person who I would shy away from in real life. If there is a "hillybilly elegy," this is it. And because it's written by Woody Guthrie, it's radical, it's full of anger and the rich and the capitalist system.
There are intense sex scenes from the husband's perspective, but they are full of caring about Ella May's pleasure and trying as much as possible to ensure that she has it.
The editors say that Guthrie, because he came from the people of Oklahoma, understood their language and their lives better than Steinbeck did and wrote about them even better than he did. I think that's true. I strongly recommend this book.
His characters, Tike and Ella May Hamlin, have poetry in their souls and only a shack to live in. They dream of building an adobe house that would keep out the wind, but the man who owns the land won't sell them what they need. Frustration burns them. But they love each other. Their words, especially Tike's, can be coarse, but they are lyrical course, they are real. Gurthrie's writing has made me care deeply about Tike, a person who I would shy away from in real life. If there is a "hillybilly elegy," this is it. And because it's written by Woody Guthrie, it's radical, it's full of anger and the rich and the capitalist system.
There are intense sex scenes from the husband's perspective, but they are full of caring about Ella May's pleasure and trying as much as possible to ensure that she has it.
The editors say that Guthrie, because he came from the people of Oklahoma, understood their language and their lives better than Steinbeck did and wrote about them even better than he did. I think that's true. I strongly recommend this book.
February 18, 2013
There were some fine moments in this book, times when the prose was rich and gripping, when the characters' hopes and dreams could be easily sympathized with, when Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" and even "The Pearl" were sometimes drawn to mind. But there were also times when the prose seemed painfully forced, when the dialogue seemed redundant (the use of interjections by Tike and nicknames used playfully by Ella May). It is a good work of fiction at its core, the central theme being the couples' hope to build a house of earth to protect against the harsh elements of the Dust Bowl, seeking a better home for their child and an escape from the life of sharecropping, where greed is the driving force. It speaks to humankind's deepest desires for security. It probably could have been a bit more polished than it was, but I think that upon re-discovering this work, publishers found it opportune to release it to coincide with the Woody Guthrie centennial.
April 17, 2013
I really loved this book and so I will leave you with a quote and few thoughts. This book is not for prudes though; there are some fairly graphic sex scenes which I am sure were way ahead of their time for 1947.
This book really celebrates life despite all of its obstacles. It celebrates love and hard work and hope when you have nothing but a dream and that dream carries you through day after day after day. The language in this book is wonderful and poetic and musical just like you would expect something written by Woody Guthrie to be.
Here is the quote:
"Just what you said. Because the earth house is so strong that it will stand for two hundred years. Because it is warm in the winter, cool in the summer. Because it is easy to build and does not require any great skill to build it. Because it does not eat nickels and drink dollars, and because it needs no paint, because you do not have to your heart and soul away and carry every penny into town to lay on top of Mr. Woodridge's desk."
This book really celebrates life despite all of its obstacles. It celebrates love and hard work and hope when you have nothing but a dream and that dream carries you through day after day after day. The language in this book is wonderful and poetic and musical just like you would expect something written by Woody Guthrie to be.
Here is the quote:
"Just what you said. Because the earth house is so strong that it will stand for two hundred years. Because it is warm in the winter, cool in the summer. Because it is easy to build and does not require any great skill to build it. Because it does not eat nickels and drink dollars, and because it needs no paint, because you do not have to your heart and soul away and carry every penny into town to lay on top of Mr. Woodridge's desk."
February 8, 2013
I received an advance review copy of this book, so perhaps some of what I will bring up has been corrected. Regardless, I did not enjoy this book.
The first thing that turned me off was the too-long introduction at the beginning, that took up about 1/5 of the book itself! It probably should have just been added as a discussion at the end for readers who actually cared to know any of the back story of the author.
Then, the story just didn't work for me - usually I love stories about the plains states and survival, but something about this story felt too off to really grab my attention. Perhaps it was the raw sexuality.
Regardless, despite my best efforts, I ended up giving up about halfway through and not finishing this book.
The first thing that turned me off was the too-long introduction at the beginning, that took up about 1/5 of the book itself! It probably should have just been added as a discussion at the end for readers who actually cared to know any of the back story of the author.
Then, the story just didn't work for me - usually I love stories about the plains states and survival, but something about this story felt too off to really grab my attention. Perhaps it was the raw sexuality.
Regardless, despite my best efforts, I ended up giving up about halfway through and not finishing this book.
February 28, 2013
Woody Guthrie gave us some of the best songs about this great country. He was an outspoken advocate for the poor and lowly who were struggling to survive. His words and songs gave us greats like Seeger, Dylan, Springsteen and others. That is why I wanted to read House of Earth.
Guthrie has a way with words, which I know is an understatement. For the first couple of pages it felt like I was reading a long lost Steinbeck novel (And Steinbeck is one of my all time favorite writers), but then it turned into something I wasn't expecting, but I probably should have. I will admit, it wasn't really my cup of tea, but I must respect the author and his legacy.
Guthrie has a way with words, which I know is an understatement. For the first couple of pages it felt like I was reading a long lost Steinbeck novel (And Steinbeck is one of my all time favorite writers), but then it turned into something I wasn't expecting, but I probably should have. I will admit, it wasn't really my cup of tea, but I must respect the author and his legacy.
February 3, 2024
Well the Grasshopper says to that landlord
You can drive your tractor all around
You can plow, you can plant, you can take in your crop,
But you cain’t run my earth house down, down, down!
No! You cain’t run my earth house down!
Earthy.
This story grew on me. Tike Hamlin is zealous to cultivate the mud and clay of the very earth that is blasting his family with dust and blizzards and to receive from the very government which covets his property, to build a legacy on that land: a house of earth.
I’ve only listened to a bit of Guthrie’s music but I was amazed at his masterful control of language. The novel was written in 1947 and went lost and unpublished until 2013. When the editors presented it to Guthrie-loving Bob Dylan before publication, even he was “‘surprised by the genius’ of the engaging prose”
Guthrie’s ability to describe breathes life into this novel. The characters hop off the page. Their speech isn’t the speech of characters in a book but the speech of real people.
Describing Ella May’s laughter:
“And Ella May would laugh. She always laughed. She laughed in a way that was easy for her. She laughed best, most times, when the crops, the winds, the debts, the worries, the fears and doubts of the world, splashed their highest. This laugh was not a laugh that made fun of a slim lady for being slim, a fat lady for being fat, or an ugly person for being ugly, it was not a laugh of this kind, not of the kind that makes fun of you because you are you. It came across her face, in her throat, from her stomach, her whole body at the same time, and she had a way of doing it in such an easy manner that the whole country just called it "Ella May's laugh." Other ones tried to add a little bit onto it, and said, "There's that Ella May flying in the wind again." "Ella May's ticklebox has blowed over." "Things must be pretty tough over at her house, she's laughing again." As a little girl, she had used her voice to make herself heard in the face and teeth of high hard winds, sand, gravel, straw, papers, all sorts of dry, brittle, noisy things that fill the air with loud sounds as they get taken into the winds of the plains. More than any kind of a laugh, it was a way that she had of raising, lifting her voice, and saying, "Whooooo," or "Wheeee," or "Tiiiikkkee!" Or "Graaannn'paw!" Or "Looookkkyy!" She always shouted out this first word, whatever it was, that she was thinking about, or if she was working all alone with the livestock, chickens, or the tractor, or the harvesting, and then the laugh came, after that, she would all at once remember that other people had heard her, and like she was, in a way, and in the same breath, making a little bit of fun of her own self, and all of her earthly sorrows in one breath. People for a mile on the windward side of her could hear her on her first few words and they strained their ears to hear what was coming next, but naturally they couldn't catch what it was.”
You can drive your tractor all around
You can plow, you can plant, you can take in your crop,
But you cain’t run my earth house down, down, down!
No! You cain’t run my earth house down!
Earthy.
This story grew on me. Tike Hamlin is zealous to cultivate the mud and clay of the very earth that is blasting his family with dust and blizzards and to receive from the very government which covets his property, to build a legacy on that land: a house of earth.
I’ve only listened to a bit of Guthrie’s music but I was amazed at his masterful control of language. The novel was written in 1947 and went lost and unpublished until 2013. When the editors presented it to Guthrie-loving Bob Dylan before publication, even he was “‘surprised by the genius’ of the engaging prose”
Guthrie’s ability to describe breathes life into this novel. The characters hop off the page. Their speech isn’t the speech of characters in a book but the speech of real people.
Describing Ella May’s laughter:
“And Ella May would laugh. She always laughed. She laughed in a way that was easy for her. She laughed best, most times, when the crops, the winds, the debts, the worries, the fears and doubts of the world, splashed their highest. This laugh was not a laugh that made fun of a slim lady for being slim, a fat lady for being fat, or an ugly person for being ugly, it was not a laugh of this kind, not of the kind that makes fun of you because you are you. It came across her face, in her throat, from her stomach, her whole body at the same time, and she had a way of doing it in such an easy manner that the whole country just called it "Ella May's laugh." Other ones tried to add a little bit onto it, and said, "There's that Ella May flying in the wind again." "Ella May's ticklebox has blowed over." "Things must be pretty tough over at her house, she's laughing again." As a little girl, she had used her voice to make herself heard in the face and teeth of high hard winds, sand, gravel, straw, papers, all sorts of dry, brittle, noisy things that fill the air with loud sounds as they get taken into the winds of the plains. More than any kind of a laugh, it was a way that she had of raising, lifting her voice, and saying, "Whooooo," or "Wheeee," or "Tiiiikkkee!" Or "Graaannn'paw!" Or "Looookkkyy!" She always shouted out this first word, whatever it was, that she was thinking about, or if she was working all alone with the livestock, chickens, or the tractor, or the harvesting, and then the laugh came, after that, she would all at once remember that other people had heard her, and like she was, in a way, and in the same breath, making a little bit of fun of her own self, and all of her earthly sorrows in one breath. People for a mile on the windward side of her could hear her on her first few words and they strained their ears to hear what was coming next, but naturally they couldn't catch what it was.”
May 25, 2021
"Αναρωτιέμαι αν ποτέ το πράγμα φτάσει σε ανοιχτή μάχη. Μερικές φορές το ελπίζω. Μακάρι όλες οι οικογένειες που ζουν στο χρέος σε όλη τους τη ζωή σε αυτά τα κονσερβοκουτια για σπίτια να ενωνονταν και να πολεμούσαν για να βγουν από αυτή την αθλιότητα."- Γούντι Γκαθρι, Σπίτι από γη, μτφ.Α.Καλοφωλιας, ΑΙΟΛΟΣ ΥΓ..ένα πραγματικό γεγονός, μια απλή ιστορία, ένα κείμενο "φωτιά" και μια σκηνή τοκετού όμοια με αγώνα επιβίωσης και αγάπης ❣ Η μετάφραση κενταει!
May 3, 2022
Gutherie’s songs were fabulous. I was delighted that this novel was excellent as well. I am surprised though that it isn’t a better known title. Such a beautiful book written about the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression.
December 22, 2012
3.5/5
I had a terrible time getting into this book set during the Dust Bowl days and, in fact, fell asleep reading it every day for about a week.
Had I not made it to the final section of the book (and I did consider abandoning House of Earth numerous times), I would have missed the best part. In the beginning, Tike and Ella May Hamlin muse about their dream to buy a parcel of land on which to farm and build an adobe house, even while having sex -- for about 32 pages or so. And, then pretty much all they talk about is the farm, their dreams, work that needs to be done and sex, sex, sex. There is one point, when Tike shouts at the house, that you get the initial hint that this moment is not about the house alone but an expression of his frustration at being stuck in a dead-end cycle of poverty, living as a share-cropper and renting a falling-down house from a wealthy man who is not about to sell a workable piece of land and lose his regular income. I confess I may not have caught the meaning at that point, if not for the introductory notes, although eventually the symbolism is clarified. At any rate, Ella May is happy, even though she's taken a major step down in the world by marrying Tike and later you'll find out why.
The first 2/3 or so of the book are so buried in Tike's sexual urges and Ella May's cutesy responses that I found it difficult to see through to the purpose of the story. But, in the final section a year has passed. Ella May is bursting with child. It's winter and Ella May is fiercely determined to make a new life for the family. Now, sharecropping is no longer a tolerable inconvenience but a danger for her coming child, who will have to live with dust and wind coming through the walls. During that final portion, it seemed to me that the that all the symbolism buried earlier in the book went from fuzzy to overt and I could look back at the story and understand how the adobe house not only represented their dreams but the concept of self-sufficiency as a basic tenet of life that all people deserve to attain with hard work.
However, Tike was so very, very irritating that I can't bear to go above an average rating, even though I felt like House of Earth was deeply meaningful, in the end. The huge amount of sex talk was exhausting. No wonder I kept falling asleep. I was so startled by the clarity of the final section and how it pulled everything together that I considered giving the book a high rating on that basis alone. But, I decided in hindsight it would be crazy to give a high rating to a book that fell into the sedative category till the final 40 pages.
I had a terrible time getting into this book set during the Dust Bowl days and, in fact, fell asleep reading it every day for about a week.
Had I not made it to the final section of the book (and I did consider abandoning House of Earth numerous times), I would have missed the best part. In the beginning, Tike and Ella May Hamlin muse about their dream to buy a parcel of land on which to farm and build an adobe house, even while having sex -- for about 32 pages or so. And, then pretty much all they talk about is the farm, their dreams, work that needs to be done and sex, sex, sex. There is one point, when Tike shouts at the house, that you get the initial hint that this moment is not about the house alone but an expression of his frustration at being stuck in a dead-end cycle of poverty, living as a share-cropper and renting a falling-down house from a wealthy man who is not about to sell a workable piece of land and lose his regular income. I confess I may not have caught the meaning at that point, if not for the introductory notes, although eventually the symbolism is clarified. At any rate, Ella May is happy, even though she's taken a major step down in the world by marrying Tike and later you'll find out why.
The first 2/3 or so of the book are so buried in Tike's sexual urges and Ella May's cutesy responses that I found it difficult to see through to the purpose of the story. But, in the final section a year has passed. Ella May is bursting with child. It's winter and Ella May is fiercely determined to make a new life for the family. Now, sharecropping is no longer a tolerable inconvenience but a danger for her coming child, who will have to live with dust and wind coming through the walls. During that final portion, it seemed to me that the that all the symbolism buried earlier in the book went from fuzzy to overt and I could look back at the story and understand how the adobe house not only represented their dreams but the concept of self-sufficiency as a basic tenet of life that all people deserve to attain with hard work.
However, Tike was so very, very irritating that I can't bear to go above an average rating, even though I felt like House of Earth was deeply meaningful, in the end. The huge amount of sex talk was exhausting. No wonder I kept falling asleep. I was so startled by the clarity of the final section and how it pulled everything together that I considered giving the book a high rating on that basis alone. But, I decided in hindsight it would be crazy to give a high rating to a book that fell into the sedative category till the final 40 pages.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 2, 2016
It's called "a sort of hillbilly Finnegans Wake" -- which is true -- but I'm going to also call it "a sort of dust-bowl Henry Miller." (Nevermind that this book was written long before Tropic of Cancer. Maybe the explicit sex scenes are the reason Guthrie didn't try to get it published in the 1930s?)
Tike and Ella May live in the barren Texas panhandle with dreams of building a house out of earthen bricks, and getting out of the falling-down crate they're renting from a banker in town. Of course, it all depends on whether the banker will sell them a square of unfarmable land...which he keeps saying he won't. Dreams take a long time to die out there, though, so they keep hoping for a better life. Honestly, hope is the only thing they have; at rock bottom, the only way to go is up...right?
Guthrie, poet and songwriter, brings it all to his one novel. I can't remember the last time I read a 10-page sex scene that actually worked, but Woody nailed it. The way he describes labor and childbirth is perfect. Here's Tike, waiting on Ella May to give birth: "His head was in such a storm that he had to sit down on the bottom step and hold it in his hands. He brushed his hair with his fingers, patted out tunes with his feet, and he felt his life rise and fall with Ella May's moans and sighs. Tired of pacing the floor, tired of sitting with his jaws in his hands, tired of trembling like ice on a stem, he stood up and started across the floor to the bed..."
I'm sure my love of Woody Guthrie casts a pretty light on how much I liked this book, but it's a great story, and the writing is beautiful like his songs.
Tike and Ella May live in the barren Texas panhandle with dreams of building a house out of earthen bricks, and getting out of the falling-down crate they're renting from a banker in town. Of course, it all depends on whether the banker will sell them a square of unfarmable land...which he keeps saying he won't. Dreams take a long time to die out there, though, so they keep hoping for a better life. Honestly, hope is the only thing they have; at rock bottom, the only way to go is up...right?
Guthrie, poet and songwriter, brings it all to his one novel. I can't remember the last time I read a 10-page sex scene that actually worked, but Woody nailed it. The way he describes labor and childbirth is perfect. Here's Tike, waiting on Ella May to give birth: "His head was in such a storm that he had to sit down on the bottom step and hold it in his hands. He brushed his hair with his fingers, patted out tunes with his feet, and he felt his life rise and fall with Ella May's moans and sighs. Tired of pacing the floor, tired of sitting with his jaws in his hands, tired of trembling like ice on a stem, he stood up and started across the floor to the bed..."
I'm sure my love of Woody Guthrie casts a pretty light on how much I liked this book, but it's a great story, and the writing is beautiful like his songs.
February 24, 2013
This long-lost Woody Guthrie book tells part of the story of Tike and Ella May, living in what is not much more than a shack in the Texas panhandle during the dust bowl times, and dreaming of more. Their dream doesn't go an awful lot further than building an adobe house and owning an acre of land, but it seems that even that small dream is probably beyond their reach.
There's not an awful lot of plot to the book, but that's OK, because its strengths make up for it. The two characters are really well-drawn and their love for one another (even if Tike has a wandering eye) is palpable. The first 30 pages of the book, in fact, tell of an erotic encounter between the two that is exciting and realistic.
The other joy of the book is the language. I suspect some of Guthrie's language games are a side-effect of the disease he had which was getting worse by the time this book was written. Be that as it may, Guthrie has a love of language that really jumps off the page, and makes the characters all the more real.
I'd give it 5 stars if it had more of a plot, and I may come back and do that later; we'll see how it lives in memory.
There's not an awful lot of plot to the book, but that's OK, because its strengths make up for it. The two characters are really well-drawn and their love for one another (even if Tike has a wandering eye) is palpable. The first 30 pages of the book, in fact, tell of an erotic encounter between the two that is exciting and realistic.
The other joy of the book is the language. I suspect some of Guthrie's language games are a side-effect of the disease he had which was getting worse by the time this book was written. Be that as it may, Guthrie has a love of language that really jumps off the page, and makes the characters all the more real.
I'd give it 5 stars if it had more of a plot, and I may come back and do that later; we'll see how it lives in memory.
November 7, 2013
I must admit to not knowing much about Woody Guthrie beyond the folk songs he sang and of course, "This Land is Your Land." I suspect though that the synopsis of this book would have intrigued me no matter the author. Sadly, I think the only reason this book was published is BECAUSE it was written by Woody Guthrie.
It is ostensibly a story about a man wanting a better life for his family. He thinks that building an adobe house is the answer because it will stand up the the ravages of the weather. It ends up being a four section, slow moving chronicle that mentions adobe houses at the most absurd times. The first chapter has a somewhat graphic and at the same time exceptionally boring sex scene and in the middle of it adobe houses are discussed. They are discussed in the middle of labor. They are discussed ad nasueum. I get it - he wants an adobe house. Enough already.
I just didn't enjoy the book. I didn't enjoy the characters, I didn't enjoy what little plot there was and I'm pretty sure I don't want an adobe house. It's a shame because the foundation for a great book was somewhere in there, the clay to make the bricks just didn't solidify into anything usable.
It is ostensibly a story about a man wanting a better life for his family. He thinks that building an adobe house is the answer because it will stand up the the ravages of the weather. It ends up being a four section, slow moving chronicle that mentions adobe houses at the most absurd times. The first chapter has a somewhat graphic and at the same time exceptionally boring sex scene and in the middle of it adobe houses are discussed. They are discussed in the middle of labor. They are discussed ad nasueum. I get it - he wants an adobe house. Enough already.
I just didn't enjoy the book. I didn't enjoy the characters, I didn't enjoy what little plot there was and I'm pretty sure I don't want an adobe house. It's a shame because the foundation for a great book was somewhere in there, the clay to make the bricks just didn't solidify into anything usable.
March 9, 2013
I don't know whether to attribute my perseverance with this book to my admiration of Woody Guthrie or of Johnny Depp
I don't think I've ever read an introduction that had four chapters.
The male lead was not very likeable. If he'd been my spouse, I'd have backhanded him across the farmyard.
There were times when I wanted to throttle the author and insist he take out about ten nouns from his sentences. Alright, I got it already. Stop! It's a book, not a song!
Why they wanted a house of earth was interesting and made sense. The rest....I don't know. It's not an era or area of the country I understand.
I really wanted to like this whole thing more. It was like reading an assigned book that allegedly had great meaning and mostly made me nod off. I feel like I failed the class.
I don't think I've ever read an introduction that had four chapters.
The male lead was not very likeable. If he'd been my spouse, I'd have backhanded him across the farmyard.
There were times when I wanted to throttle the author and insist he take out about ten nouns from his sentences. Alright, I got it already. Stop! It's a book, not a song!
Why they wanted a house of earth was interesting and made sense. The rest....I don't know. It's not an era or area of the country I understand.
I really wanted to like this whole thing more. It was like reading an assigned book that allegedly had great meaning and mostly made me nod off. I feel like I failed the class.
April 8, 2013
Sooooo, Woody Guthrie wrote this novel in the late 40's. He sent it off to documentary filmmaker Irving Lerner to make a movie out of it. Lerner stashed the manuscript away, bless his heart, doing Woody Guthrie a favor bigger than he would ever know. This book was not or is not ready for the world. Years later, Johnny Depp and Douglas Brinkley publish it, with a big huge introduction written by the movie star. Woody lovers like me see the venerable names of Woody Guthrie and Johnny Depp together on the dust jacket and buy it up--hardback. Some readers, I'm convinced, get caught up in the excitement and gush over House of Earth as if it were Grapes of Wrath. It ain't.
January 26, 2015
I didn't know what to expect when I opened this book. Sure, I know Guthrie's songs and music but I didn't know if his wonderful writing ability would extend to fiction. Fortunately, it did.
This is very good storytelling. It's warm, tender, occasionally joyful, and shot through with humor. It is also infused with Guthrie's passion for justice and his hatred of the forces that belittle and undermine people who are trying to make a decent life for themselves. Guthrie uses Ella May and Tike as vehicles for his own anger, but this is no poorly-written piece of agit-prop. This is a sensitive portrait of a couple under enormous pressure.
This is very good storytelling. It's warm, tender, occasionally joyful, and shot through with humor. It is also infused with Guthrie's passion for justice and his hatred of the forces that belittle and undermine people who are trying to make a decent life for themselves. Guthrie uses Ella May and Tike as vehicles for his own anger, but this is no poorly-written piece of agit-prop. This is a sensitive portrait of a couple under enormous pressure.
March 12, 2013
234 pages written in 1947
This is a story of a couple who live in Oklahoma during the dust storms. Their struggles with life, yet have some fun. I found my self struggling with them, particularly when it was time for the birth of the kid.
the house of earth is the adobe home where no termites live, dust can get in and the wind does not blow through the cracks. this couple dreams about building one on their own land.
Woody Guthrie wrote a lot of folk songs, one of which is , this Land Is Your Land, pertaining to the poor people in the lower Midwest.
i like it
This is a story of a couple who live in Oklahoma during the dust storms. Their struggles with life, yet have some fun. I found my self struggling with them, particularly when it was time for the birth of the kid.
the house of earth is the adobe home where no termites live, dust can get in and the wind does not blow through the cracks. this couple dreams about building one on their own land.
Woody Guthrie wrote a lot of folk songs, one of which is , this Land Is Your Land, pertaining to the poor people in the lower Midwest.
i like it
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