Customer Reviews

A Barn in New England: Making a Home on Three Acres

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just completed the relishing of Joseph Moninger's , A Barn. Agreeing with anothers veiwpoint of too much flowering descriptions I ignored a few choice lines and skipped to new paragraphs; yet with respect I know I would never have enjoyed the parts I did read if they had not been described with such love and experience. I am one of those "wanna be barn owners"; ever since I was eight years old and watched the people two streets over gut, renew and live in this massive building with huge windows and sturdy walls. I fell in love. Amongst all the eloquence this book offers; it is the underlying theme; the reason I did not read it, that leaves me speechless and in awe. It is in the storyline that Monninger weaves the secondary and yet primal thread of family and the fact, as he states, that he realized that he and Wendy were creating thier son's past. What a beautiful, thought provoking, loving and spiritually filled knowing. As they were focused on integrity during the ever present process of renewing this structure; they also were creating sustanance, substance and stablitiy for Pie. My son is twenty-three and if I ever get another opportunity to go around with him again; I pray that I rememeber that once we become parents; however that is gifted to us; that in our present we are creating our childs past.

If you read this, Joseph Monninger, Wendy and Pie; thank you.

I bought this book several years ago from the bookstore at Winterthur Gardens and Galleries, the Du Pont estate, in Wilmington, Delaware. I have read, and re-read, this book more times than I care to remember, which is more than I can say for some of the best-selling gardening or nature books in my library.

Some people write about nature with authority, some with wonder, and others still with love. Monninger does all this and more. His tone is reminscent of Wordsworth who was detached observer of nature and smitten lover all at once. Contrast Wordsworth with Shelley's awe-struck and hushed ruminations on nature, and you will know at once what I mean and, perhaps, better identify Monninger's unique voice as a nature writer.

But this is more than a book about nature outside us. It is also about the ecology of relationships - between a man and his dog, a man and his wife, and a man and his son, and, not least, about their collective relationships with one another as they settle into their lovely home, a barn, in New Hampshire. The self-help books are full of techniques about making marriages and child-rearing work. I couldn't help thinking, after reading this book, that perhaps the secret of a rich and stable family life is really quite simple: one needs two things: a shared vision of the life the family wants and then the shared burden of working towards it. So, even when there are nice paychecks, a handsome roof overhead, and a kitchen bursting with all the bounties of food, a family can still fail, except not really. Families do not fail. They just stop trying to work together. When I need to reawaken to this simple, yet profound truth, I read Monninger again and invariably, I am rewarded with a new raft of insights on love, family and nature.

I grew up in New York City, but have lived for the past 10 years on seven acres in a semi-rural part of New Hampshire. I am also in the process of building a barn (next to the house the we actually live in). So when I saw this book, I had to buy it.

However, within a few chapters I was starting to have some concerns that Monninger was missing the point, and the more I read the more it was confirmed. What he has written is a New Yorker's view of life in New Hampshire. When I got to the point in the book where he describes how he used to live on Central Park West, I understood my concerns, but also really lost touch with the book.

He describes expansive fields with levels of gardens and myriad flora and fauna. In my mind's eye I was picturing a real expansive New Hampshire farm, but then I was drawn back to the fact that he is talking about three acres, abutting on the town school. Three acres is a lot of land in Manhattan, but if you live in New England for a while you will understand that it is just a back yard. Monninger catalogs every plant and every bird he finds, with the child-like glee of someone who has never seen nature before, but he is so lost in the details that he can't get beyond that fact that he is writing a New Yorker's view of New Hampshire for other New Yorkers.

I also found it annoying that he does not describe the impact of having on job on his ambitious renovation project. It would be great if I could have the amount of free time that he seems to have, both to spend with family and work around the house. It comes off as an idealized view of life, and does not describe the realities of what he has undertaken. He also makes a few attempts to add local color and local history, and I feel the book would have been better if he had had more of that.

From a literary standpoint, he really does overdo the metaphors and descriptions, but I can imagine how difficult it must be to accurately convey the feeling of spring in New England, or the size of a large structure. He would do better though with more description and less attempted poetry.

I can see how this book might be an interesting read for someone in a large city imagining life in the country, but it is not really an accurate or well written portrayal, and it left me, now a committed New Hampshirite, frustrated.

This is a great book that offers to show us a different way of life than most of us live. Having grown up in the suburbs of California, the oldest house I lived in was 30 years old. I never had to worry about heating, or beams falling apart things that are very real concers to Joe and his family.
In addition to the general information about "barn" living, we see what it is like to integrate three lives into one new one. The stories of the deepening relationship between Joe and Pie are heartwarming and touching, as are the moments of closeness between Joe and Wendy.
Mr. Monninger gives us a wonderful insight to barns, New England, and creating a new life with people that you love.

This is a wonderful book about a settling into a new place, making it your own, and becoming a family.
The characters became real to me and I felt like I was there living all the hardships and joys with Joe, Wendy and Pie. A must read for anyone who has ever bought a house, is buying a house, or thinking about buying a house.

"A Barn" is an outstanding true story that will hold your interest from start to finish. At first glance one would think the book is simply about renovating a barn.....but once you start reading - it becomes evident that the book is about more....a whole lot more. The reader enters the lives of Joe, Wendy, and Pie (oh....can't forget D-Dog) and often feels a part of the project and the lives. Monninger does an outstanding and accurate job of describing small-town living, life in New Hampshire, and the hardships associated with a project of this type. The book leaves me satisfied...and happy to be a New Englander. This should be required reading for New Englanders as well as those who often vacation up here.....or anybody who loves "the country".

This book documents the first year of living as a family for Monninger, his partner, and his partner's son. The book begins with the first day Monninger and his partner went to look at the barn that would become their home together and follows them for one year as they establish their new life as one family in their home in the barn. Monninger describes how each person adapted to living in the 6000 square foot living area inside the barn, how they remodeled some rooms, added heating stoves, and rebuilt the kitchen. It tells how they melded their furniture together, choosing one person's or another's best pieces, and purchased some new items specifically for the new space. After a summer of settling in, the barn finally began to make the transition into feeling like a home when extended family came to visit for the holidays.

The title and cover photo of the book may be a little misleading- -this is definitely not a barn story. Although Monninger relates in passing some of the history of the barn, this isn't an ode to country traditions or barn lore. It is much more a story of a family, of taking unrelated individuals, each with prior lives involving other relationships, and constructing a new unity together. Monninger describes how he and his partner are quite satisfied to construct their family without a marriage ceremony. He also tells us how close he feels to his partner's son, and how much this relationship means to him. In reading Monninger's story however, I can't help but wonder if the young boy is as contented with his parents' unmarried state as they are. How secure can he feel in his relationship with his would-be stepfather if his mother and this man are unwilling to formalize their commitment? It may be perfectly acceptable for two adults to freely establish a home together without the benefit of marriage, but when children are involved, the story becomes much more complicated, and their interests should be seen to first. Monninger is a gifted writer and tells a magical story of intentional family creation in this book, but it's not clear from this tale that he has fully taken responsibility for all he has set in motion.

Where's the plot? The barn's already been converted into a house. There are no really big adventures to deal with and no real excitement unless you consider insulating a building exciting. (Just keep imagining the pulsating punch of the staple gun and maybe you'll get deeply into it...) The other big problem is that the author can't restrain his desire to describe everything in terms of a big, somtimes unbelievably cloying, metaphor. I wanted to scream, "Enough already! Just describe it succinctly and move on."

A charming story of three nice people becoming a family as they undertake the renovation of a gigantic barn. I was awed by the amount of work the author and his lady friend were able to accomplish in one year. One irritation, though: the author's misuse of "lay" as the past tense of "to lay," as when he notes that he "lay the planks across the bed of the truck." (It should be "laid" across the truck. "Lay" is the past tense of "to lie," not the past tense of "to lay." I notice this same error cropping up in lots of supposedly literary books.) It's a consistent mistake throughout an otherwise erudite and often memorable narrative.

This is a slow, boring, monotonous play by play of almost every minute of this mans boring life.

It was so hard to get through because the book has no story to it at all. It isn't even worthy of a proper review.

Being the glutton for punishment that I am, I am now trying to read another book of his. So far it is just as bad! People keep giving him such high praise that I am trying hard to find something good out of all of his works. So far its not happening!

On the up side, I did buy this at a $1 dollar store (that alone should have told me how good the book was going to be) so thankfully I am not out any money! Don't waste your time or money!

By the 9 whole reviews before me, it shows that not a whole lot of people are reading it anyway. But if you do feel compelled to read it~ rent it from the library!