Rebuilding the House

by Laurie Graham

A personal account of widowhood and passage through grief describes Graham's sorrow over the death of her husband, publishing executive George Schieffelin, her move to a New Jersey farmhouse, and the restoration process that helped her cope with grief

176 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1991

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was fascinated by the references to so many things currently out of date, and looked up the date of death of her husband. Here is his obituary from 1988 (http://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/02/art...) and, this the reveiw of the book in The NY Times 1990 http://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/08/boo... (I agree with this reviewer that the story of her marriage is stronger than the story of building the house, but you couldn't have had the one without the other.)

One of the best things about this book is the placement of the deathbed scene -- it wouldn't have been tolerable (and dramatically too obvious) if it had been placed in chronological order, at the beginning of the book. Coming when it does near the end, the weight of it is balanced by everything that has come before.

[Nick Woodall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good little book to read. Not only about building, but about life.