By Carolyn Roberts
White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Co., 2002.
240 pages; $17.95 paperback.
Reviewed by Bill Roberts
A House of Straw tells a tale many NESEA members will relate to: the story of a homeowner building project. But whether you appreciate this book will depend upon whether you are looking for "how to" information and whether you can get past the whining in the first three chapters.
Although the story follows the author’s construction of her straw bale house near Tucson, Arizona, this book is definitely more "personal journey/memoir" than construction manual. In fact, if you are considering an owner construction project, you might want to hold off on reading this book until you’re done. There are plenty of "don’t dos" throughout this book but precious little useful advice.
What this book is about is Carolyn Roberts’s life and, by building this house, her attempts to assert her control over it. Whether intentional or not, the tale has a "warts and all" character. Roberts sometimes comes across as someone who doesn’t quite comprehend the consequences of her actions, and doesn’t take responsibility for them. To be fair, I did see a lot of the author’s personal growth over the course of the book.
Overall this book is a little too inconsistent and mostly too trivial for me to recommend. If you are into personal drama, go for it. If you are building with straw, check out some other titles from the same publisher. Even better, attend some of the straw bale workshops that occur each year. Check the straw bale list serve solstice.crest.org/efficiency/strawbale-list-archive.
Bill Smith is the owner of Building Diagnostics in Concord, NH.
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