MR. BLANDING BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE

by Eric Hodgins ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 30, 1946

This was reported on page 406 of the August 15th bulletin when scheduled for fall publication. Its choice by the Book of the Month Club as a January co-selection indicates a wider audience than this type of book would ordinarily have- and its present placement in this section of the bulletin. ""* The article in Fortune created quite a stir and merited this expansion into book form record of the horrors and hurdles of houseowning, building and real estate tangles, as the abysmally ignorant Blandings find their dream of country life turned into a nightmare of mounting coats. In spite of critical caution from a hardheaded lawyer, of warnings from their final architect, they go ahead in a lovely blur until as time and money pass and everyone becomes a villain, they find their sanctuary for old age an endless pit of wornout hopes, countless checks. Do Nots in saline solution as the various wrongs of the residential construction system, from the buying of property to the finishing of a house are reviewed in the Blandings' career as homeowners. They emphasize the Samuel Johnson dictum ""To build is to be robbed""- and omit no jet nor tittle along the way,--legal rights, expert opinions, contractors, artesian well, local opinions, gossip, and extras, extras, extras... The narrative technique gives added color to this wetblanketing of the fiery fevers of houseowning and clearly indicates, in amusing satire, all the dangers for the would-be man of property"".

Pub Date: Dec. 30, 1946

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1946

Categories: NONFICTION