Building a Story

When I finally finished House, even though I knew where it would end up, I was still glad that we got there safely.  Even with stories where the outcome is known, we still want to find out what happens next.  On House's cover, there are quotes from reviewers. People Magazine said the book was "a suspenseful, gripping tale!" The New York Times declared it "the stuff of real drama." Such comments would seem to describe a novel rather than a non-fiction narrative, but it's the book's novel-like features, I think--the way it's crafted to resemble a fictional narrative with plot, characters, setting, conflict, point of view--that make it compelling reading. 

Crafting shows up in a variety of ways: the author may have changed events to fit a more compelling plot, or he might've manipulated details to present a person in a more or less attractive light.  Often, dialogue that is not recorded or witnessed must be approximated or imagined, and people's feelings and thoughts described as if the author were privy to them the way a fictional narrator would be. Unfortunately, each of these techniques might make a narrative diverge from, as Anita puts it, "the literal truth" (comment to 12/28 post).  So we can't blame the book's real people (whose names, as the author tells us in his acknowledgments, have not been changed) if they fret over how they and their story are portrayed in a book that millions of people will read.

I must say that I think Tracy Kidder has "authored" these people to a certain extent in that he has subtly shaped our perceptions of them as they progress through the construction of the house. The builder Jim Locke opens the first chapter, and indeed, he and his carpenters do seem to be the protagonists of this story.  At the same time, the Souweines and the architect, Bill Rawn, slowly emerge as the antagonists. The conflict between these two opposing groups is what propels the action of the plot, and what keeps us reading. 

And because we are meant to see the builders as the "good" guys and the architect-owners as the "bad" guys, we are not given a balanced view of either group.  Early on, I noticed myself getting irritated with the wealthy owners and their attempts to get the builders to relent on price and materials, while feeling warm and fuzzy about the honest, hard-working builders; I'm sure that was no accident. 

The author helps create that feeling by how he describes the people in the story.  Each person gets a little biography and a description of his or her appearance and personality, habits and philosophy, but I noticed that the builders get more paragraphs, and that what we learn about them is more positive.  Again, not by accident, I believe.  Not until close to the end do we get a little more personal information about the Souweines, some of it quite sympathetic. Perhaps by then Kidder feels confident we are involved in the story and he can risk a bit more compassion for the "enemy."

Of course, that's just my take on the book.  And the bias, once I caught on to it, really didn't detract from my reading pleasure. I still found House a rich, compelling narrative.  And I learned a lot about building a house from scratch, something that isn't done much anymore. Even the giant McMansions that are built today are standardized, not unique, not custom-made just for their owners.  Custom housebuilding could be a dying art, unlike the art of writing, which Tracy Kidder seems to be perfecting with each new book.

The Music of Making

With the book House, I've been noticing this second time around that Tracy Kidder focuses on individuals with an eye toward bringing them together later in scenes that are often contentious. The effect is almost like a concerto, a musical composition in which individual instruments have solos, then they are all brought together to play in concert. Here is one definition of concerto from The Free Dictionary:

Musical composition for solo instrument and orchestra. . . . Nineteenth-century concertos were often conceived as a kind of dramatic struggle between soloist and orchestra; many later composers preferred that the soloist blend with the orchestra.

Wikipedia makes this contribution:

The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have origin from the conjunction of the two Latin words concert (meaning to tie, to join, to weave) and certamen (competition, fight): the idea is that the two parts in a concert, the soloist and the orchestra, alternate episodes of opposition and cooperation in the creation of the music flow. (Concerto)

That last bit--the idea of alternating "opposition and cooperation in the creation of the music flow"--is very similar to what Kidder is doing in House.  Each person involved in the house building has a section where we learn about him or her--what he or she thinks, what each person looks like, acts like, his or her speech, history, vices and virtues, almost as if the author is doing a character study. Then those individuals come together for a few pages. Like a concerto, there is the solo performance, then the ensemble, back and forth, over and over.

Once we start to get to know the people in Kidder's book (or as the writer has allowed us to know them), we try to anticipate how they will behave in group settings, how each will react to the moves of the others.  Such anticipation increases the tension in the story; we wait to see how things will turn out.  Will Jonathan, the owner and successful lawyer, manage to get a concession in price from the "rigid" builder? Will the carpenters feel like they're getting suitable compensation for their hard work?  Will the architect solidify the plans in time to begin framing?

Like a concerto, though, there is not always opposition; sometimes there is cooperation.  The exciting part is that you (the reader) never know which it's going to be. That's how Tracy Kidder keeps us reading, how he makes a seemingly mundane subject like building a house into a "dramatic struggle."

From House to House

Merry Christmas, everyone!  It's a quiet morning here in Cincinnati, Ohio.  It snowed a little last night, just enough to give the world a bit of white frosting. No one's up but me, so I thought it would be a good time to post another report on my reading progress . . .

Having finished The Gun Seller, by the man who plays House on TV, I decided to switch to something different, this time a non-fiction book by one of my favorite authors, Tracy Kidder.  That book, entitled House, is about an actual house, the kind that gets built and people live in.

Published in 1985, House is the story of the building of a custom-designed house in Amherst, Massachusetts, from conception to completion.  Kidder introduces us to all the people principally involved in the project--owners, architect, builder, carpenters--and we get to know them over the course of the book.  That might sound like a dull story, but it's actually quite interesting.  Tracy makes it into a suspenseful narrative because of all the problems that arise, both practical and interpersonal.

I started reading this book about 15 years ago, but didn't get past the middle, so I'm having to start over to remember all the people and events.  But again I'm involved, with the project and the people, to the point where I'm waiting to see what happens.

So far, the plans have been made, the ground has been broken, and the builder is trying to come to an agreement on price with the owners.  There are negotiations, with the builder trying to stand firm on his price and the owners trying to get him to come down.  There's discussion about fundamental differences in the way people view how such deals should be made--the old "dicker vs. non-dicker" controversy.  Some people hate to dicker; other people live for it. That conflict comes up early in the book.  At this point, I don't know how they're going to resolve it.  I'll keep you posted.

This is the second of Tracy Kidder's books; the first was The Soul of a New Machine, published in 1981.  That was the story of a group of computer designers, back in 1978 when computers were still big and mysterious.  It's a fascinating look at that culture and gives readers insights into how our computer revolution came about.  I really enjoyed it.  In fact, remembering it now makes me want to read it again. 

Tracy Kidder writes about people in their environment, always with intelligence and compassion.  He's written about school teachers, residents of an old folks' home, small town police, crusading doctors, and even his Army detachment in Vietnam.  His latest is about a Haitian doctor.  I've read all but two--the Vietnam memoir and the latest.  I've started and will eventually finish the book about school teachers, Among Schoolchildren.  It's on my list.