House of Earth
A Novel
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3.4 • 28 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
New York Times Bestseller
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Guthrie's multifaceted legacy lives on (and combines beautifully with his affecting 1930 autobiography Bound for Glory) with this posthumous Texas plains novel set during the Dust Bowl era. The story is prefaced in a long-winded introduction by Brinkley, a media historian, and Depp, who polished the rough manuscript. Spearheading this tale of woe is Tike and Ella May Hamlin, a hardworking farmer and his pregnant wife, both subsisting in a rickety shack on land prized by a sharecropper. Tike dreams of building an adobe home to circumvent the use of pricey lumber and avoid the bank. The couple's interactions, including graphic, extended erotic scenes, form the crux of a highly resonant, symbolic novel rife with themes of nature's wrath, the misery of poverty, and the proletarian's struggle against the churning machines of commerce. With dialogue rich in "hillbilly" vernacular and a story steeped in folk traditions, Guthrie's drought-burdened, dust-blown landscape swirls with life. The book is finely supplemented with a biographical time line, companion discography, and artwork licensed by the Woody Guthrie Archives. His heritage as folksinger, artist, and observer of West Texas strife lives on through these distinct pages infused with the author's wit, personality, and dedication to Americana.
Customer Reviews
It’s worth the effort to get to the end!
Woody was a Wordsmith! In House of Earth he will never use one word when twenty-six would do. Never just use one descriptive phrase or sentence when he could use nine.
This is one of the strangest, most frustrating books I have ever read. It took tremendous effort to stick with it and not just throw it against the wall and holler to him to just stop, I’ve got it! The wind is blowing hard. The Banker is a $&)@;/?! Stop describing them!
But stick with it, potential reader. Guthrie creates two great characters and describes their lovers’ interplay in a unique and highly authentic and silly dialect that is a joy to hear. He takes you into their heads and their dreams and yet weaves a life and death drama around their filthy hovel and crude lives.
You will congratulate yourself if you finish it and be thankful to Woody, Ole’ Tike and Ella Mae for taking you on the ride. Four stars!