The Crack in the Pictu...

by
John C. Keats

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The Crack in the Picture Window

by John C. Keats

4.25 of 5 stars 4.25 · rating details · 4 ratings · 3 reviews

This is an angry, brilliantly funny but deadly serious report about the housing developments that are blighting the landscape and souls of America’s suburbs. The misfortunes of John and Mary Drone, who “bought” a nothing-down, life-time-to-pay box on a slab in Rolling Knolls, are simply extensions of the problems that beset nearly everyone who exists on the fringes of a ci...more This is an angry, brilliantly funny but deadly serious report about the housing developments that are blighting the landscape and souls of America’s suburbs. The misfortunes of John and Mary Drone, who “bought” a nothing-down, life-time-to-pay box on a slab in Rolling Knolls, are simply extensions of the problems that beset nearly everyone who exists on the fringes of a city. Even if the nearest development seems safely zoned from your front door, you will find the Drones and their neighbors disturbingly like your own.

The new suburban slums, by concentrating young couples of similar background, income bracket, and outlook in rows of inadequate houses, have made a stultifying unnatural community. The frustrated residents, anchored to their tiny yards by their colossal mortgages, seek desperately for some form of self-expression.

They try to amuse themselves with the wonderful gadgets of our civilization, but the easy credit is hard to pay and their debt becomes ever more burdensome. Surrounded by friendly neighbors, but no true friends, they attempt anything from handicrafts to neighborhood sex to relieve their boredom. But the only way out is to move out and that’s economically impossible.

Who is responsible for this situation? The builders, whose most useful tool is the chisel? The banks, who are getting the frosting from this miracle-mix cake? The federal government, who by guaranteeing veterans’ mortgages has put a solid base under the whole shaky construction? The local communities, whose lack of zoning laws has permitted these excrescences? The suckers who have bought the houses?

Keats discusses every aspect of life in a development. His account is supported by solid facts and figures but it is presented in personal terms to show you an existence that combines all of the worst aspects and none of the advantages of suburban living. If you ever wondered what goes on under those regimented roofs, this book will tell you. And if you already know, it will make you want to get up and break something. Fortunately the book also tells you how to put the pieces back together.

An ex-reporter for the Washington Daily News, John Keats has managed to avoid the worst traps of the suburban home owner, but he writes with the authority of one who has himself looked on the hunted face of America’s new suburbs.(less)

Paperback, 198 pages

Published 1957 by Houghton Mifflin (first published 1956)

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May 18, 2013 jw468 rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The major theme of this book is how housing developments, by drawing people with similar backgrounds and tastes, create monotonous situations that are not truly communities. As each person attempts to find something that differentiates his or her self from the neighbors, that something is consumed by the neighbors, rendering it no longer unique. At some point, gadgets bought on time begin to be used as a way to alleviate the monotony, leading to a vicious cycle.

Through all this, the inhabitants...more

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Aug 12, 2010 Rock rated it 4 of 5 stars

We are living in the suburban future predicted in this book, and we have lived to see perpetuated the shoddy construction, environmental devastation, mortgage fraud, runaway debt, inner-city decay and congestion detailed in its infancy by this book. Keats' sardonic wit is fun to read, and he peppers the text with supportive quotes from sociologists, government studies and news articles to add credence to his fictional example. Come on publishers - what more do you need besides a housing crisis t...more

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May 14, 2012 Blane rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-fiction, classics

This book is so relevant to what is happening today, despite the fact that it is over 50 years old. I am absolutely shocked that it is not back in print. If you are interested in the ongoing housing crisis during our seemingly endless the Great Recession, find a copy of this book!

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About John C. Keats

Often confused with English poet John Keats, John C. Keats was a newspaperman and social critic whose often biting commentary skewered American trends of the 1950s and 1960. The "second" Keats claimed to be a descendant of the poet, and one of his author photos showed him standing before the Keats-Shelley House in Rome, Italy.

After serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps in the Pacific Theater during W...more Often confused with English poet John Keats, John C. Keats was a newspaperman and social critic whose often biting commentary skewered American trends of the 1950s and 1960. The "second" Keats claimed to be a descendant of the poet, and one of his author photos showed him standing before the Keats-Shelley House in Rome, Italy.

After serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps in the Pacific Theater during WWII, Keats worked as a reporter for the Washington Daily News and later went on to become a freelance writer. His articles appeared in over 44 publications in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain and West Germany. In America, he contributed to Field & Stream, True, Outdoor Life, The Saturday Evening Post, Life, Esquire, Playboy, The National Geographic, Look and Vanity Fair.

He was the author of 13 books, some New York Times Best Sellers, with translated copies appearing in nine languages. Although perhaps best known for satirical social criticism leveled against post-war housing, automobiles and schools (The Crack in the Picture Window, Houghton, 1956; The Insolent Chariots, Lippincott, 1958; Schools Without Scholars, Houghton, 1958; The Sheepskin Psychosis, Lippincott, 1965;) he also wrote biographies (Howard Hughes; The Biography of a Texas Billionaire, Random House, 1966; and You Might As Well Live; The Life and Times of Dorothy Parker, Simon & Schuster 1970) as well as history (They Fought Alone, Lippincott, 1963; and Eminent Domain, Charterhouse,1973 )and two semi-autobiographical works (The New Romans, Lippincott, 1967; and Of Time and an Island, Charterhouse, 1974.) His love of travel and of the old wooden boats that passed his riverfront home prompted two additional works (See Europe Next Time You Go There, Little, Brown, 1968 and The Skiff and The River, Herrick Collection, 1988).

During his career Keats received the Washington Guild Front Page Award for best human interest story, June 2, 1949, in the Washington Daily News; The Literary Achievement Award from the Georgia Writers Association for non fiction in 1958 for his book, Schools Without Scholars; The Sydney Hillman Foundation Award for the 1962 television documentary, "Conformity" appearing on WCAU-TV in Philadelphia; a Colonial Dames of America Citation in 1977 for his book, "Whatever Happened to Mom's Apple Pie?" (Houghton, 1976) and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1961 to pursue his writing and research work for "They Fought Alone."

From 1974 until retiring in 1990, Keats taught magazine writing at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, in upper New York State. Proud of his ability at having earned a living as a writer, during lectures Keats was fond of echoing the famous lexicographer Samuel Johnson's dictum that "Only a blockhead writes for anything but money." He urged his students to aspire to obtain assignments from high profile, reputable publications and "not those that are commonly used to wrap fish."

Upon retirement, Mr. Keats resided part time in Italy; Savannah, Georgia; Washington, D.C., and Kingston, Ontario. He always maintained his summer home on the St. Lawrence River between Alexandria Bay, New York and Rockport, Ontario.

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They Fought Alone (Classics of World War II: Secret War Series)

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