Earth House [Paperback]

Jeanne DuPrau (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Fawcett (1992)
• ASIN: B002JLKS28
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Jeanne DuPrau is the author of The New York Timesbestseller The City of Ember and its companion The People of Sparks. She lives in Menlo Park, California, and drives a hybrid car that runs on a combination of gas and electricity.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Graceful and thought-provoking -- a Great Book!, October 14, 2001

By 

Lori L. Lake (Twin Cities, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Earth House (Hardcover)

This book was enlightening and bittersweet. The story of the narrator trying to build a home with her partner Sylvia is deceptively complicated. The structure is elegant, the writing beautiful. It ends up being a meditation on life, death, grief, and compassion. Quietly, the story built in power. I loved this book and have read it twice since I first discovered it. It's a gem of a story, and I highly recommend it.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books in the world, July 17, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Earth House (Hardcover)

The Earth House is Jeanne Duprau's account of her mid-life search for meaning, her attempt to build a house in the Sierra foothills, and the loss of her lover. It is simple, moving and uplifting, full of truth. The Earth House is a wonderful book.

I have sent and recommended The Earth House to numerous friends and relatives, all of whom loved it. I also had the opportunity to record a chapter of it for a friend who was blinded by AIDS. Like fine poetry, it was even better when spoken aloud; I was overwhelmed by the luminance and flow of its prose. Don't miss this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overlooked Classic, April 23, 2005

By 

Guy M. Newland (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Earth House (Paperback)

Saying what this book is "about" (building a house, losing a partner, practicing Zen) really misses the point.

One of us humans has looked into the Great Matter (life-death) and said something, as clearly as she can, from the heart. I can't say what is the "best" book in the world, as another reviewer has. I would say that this is a book that is, in a sense, perfect. Of course it can be embarrassing when someone opens like a clam and shows you their guts. The Library Journal reviewer had to avert her eyes.

I had the same thought as the reviewer who wonders: Why have I never heard of this? I found it only 13 years afer publication, and then only because I enjoyed the City of Ember and its sequel, and I was looking for something else by the author. This seems quite odd. My hypothesis is that this book somehow has fallen between the cracks. Should we catalog and market it a grief memoir, like C.S. Lewis' A Grief Observed? Or is it more like Joko Beck's American Zen talks? Or is it work that belongs in the lesbian-feminist section of the store, simply because it involes a same-sex relationship? Is it like Gary Snyder (who figures indirectly as a minor character)? Is it like Thich Nhat Hanh? Shut up.

I write this as it snows here in April, tears streaming down my face.