Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream

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Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream

by William Powers

3.44 · rating details · 279 ratings · 100 reviews

Part Annie Dillard, part Bill McKibben, this book offers riveting armchair travel through a landscape rich with clues to personal and global healing.

Paperback, 296 pages

Published May 4th 2010 by New World Library (first published 2010)

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Aug 23, 2010

Ancient rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: pop-non-fiction

Should be titled Couscous for the Enviro-Conscious, Culturally Enlightened Liberal's Soul.

Meh. I wanted a book about what real twelve-by-twelve living is all about. This was not that book.

I don't want to cast unfair aspersions on the writing, but it reads like something that could have been manufactured by anyone using a formula designed to appeal to a certain reading demographic. Wise shaman this, Native American Wisdomkeeper that, Buddhism, blah, blah, blah.
...more

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Dec 28, 2011

blake rated it

Shelves: memoir

Powers writes this as a sort of introduction to sustainable and conscientious living, because although he presents the concepts like they are some revolutionary ideas they are really several decades old and have been better said before by many other authors such as Thoreau, Whitman, Emerson, Edward Abbey, Aldo Leopold, Alan Watts, Derrick Jensen, Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, John Zerzan, Robert Pirsig, Carlos Castaneda, Thom Hartmann, Daniel Quinn, Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser and Eduardo Galeano ...more

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Oct 23, 2011

Leslie rated it

As far as I can tell, this book was prominently displayed in my favorite local bookstore in Raleigh because it largely takes place near Siler City. Otherwise, I would probably never have read it.

Nonetheless, it was an interesting exploration of a subculture close to where I lived most of my life, and of which I had been totally unaware. Powers' wonderfully descriptive metaphors and rich adjectives bring his experiences living in "Jackie's" 12' x 12' dwelling to life. The 12' ...more

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Jul 27, 2011

Julianne rated it

Shelves: non-fiction

My feelings toward this book fluctuated during the reading of it. I picked it up because it seemed to deal with topics I care about (environmental degradation, the evils of consumerism, sustainability, self-denial, hope, despair, confusion, simplicity, the big meanings concealed within small things), but I often found myself preoccupied with trying to decide whether I liked the author or not. He and I have a lot in common. We both read labels in the grocery store and think of urban sprawl as a m...more

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Jul 11, 2011

Erica rated it

Shelves: environmental

Personal accounts on living off the grid, starting a small farm or generally breaking away from first world consumptive go-go lifestyles are a dime a dozen these days (see Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; Farm City, The Dirty Life; Growing a Farmer; My Empire of Dirt; City Farmer; Radical Homemakers; etc. etc.). These are all great books and it’s truly heartening to see this genre blossom – I desperately want these ideas to go mainstream – but for a devoted reader one begins bumping up against the sa...morePersonal accounts on living off the grid, starting a small farm or generally breaking away from first world consumptive go-go lifestyles are a dime a dozen these days (see Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; Farm City, The Dirty Life; Growing a Farmer; My Empire of Dirt; City Farmer; Radical Homemakers; etc. etc.). These are all great books and it’s truly heartening to see this genre blossom – I desperately want these ideas to go mainstream – but for a devoted reader one begins bumping up against the same philosophies, the same prescriptions in every book. It can get a bit repetitive.

One certainly bumps into the oft-told noble simplicity mantra in William Powers’ Twelve by Twelve, but I decided to crack open the book because of his unique perspective as a former aid worker. Having been steeped in debates about international development for the past five years, but also having a strong interest in domestic/local efforts in sustainable living, I’m drawn to any writer who attempts to marry these two domains. That’s because there’s something traditionally incongruous about development and sustainability. Powers puts it succinctly:

"When discussing relatively “poorer” countries, we need to make a clear, explicit distinction between people living in a state of material destitution and people living healthy subsistence lifestyles. Terms like poverty and Third World mask this distinction and give license for modern professionals – of whom I’ve long been one – to undervalue, denigrate, and interfere with sustainable ways of live… roughly one-fifth of humanity has too much and is overdeveloped; another fifth has too little and is underdeveloped. Neither of these groups experiences general well-being."

Powers, then, defines developed as those in the middle, not those with so much material wealth. This is an intriguing idea.

Another element Powers mixes in is a strain of Buddhist philosophy on mindfulness and acceptance in the face of environmental and societal tragedies. I’m always waiting for that moment when a professed Buddhist outlook begins tipping the scales into cheap New Agey feel-good tripe. Powers flirts with this gray area but on the whole I found his observations to be, shall I say, consoling. I identified greatly with his attempts to break through his own despair and found his conclusions helpful. The weight of the world’s problems, the anxiety for the future, is so overwhelming that often the best one can do is live fully and gratefully in the moment. (less)

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Jul 07, 2011

Helen rated it

Shelves: creative-nonfiction-bibliography

This book is obstensibly about living in a 12x12 foot structure in the woods without power or plumbed water, but really that title and premise is something of a hook to intrigue, and then the author blows the subject matter outwards to ecology, globalisation, economics, spirituality, nature, permaculture, relationships...

These are all topics I am passionately interested in, so I devoured the book in two days. I thought the author had a lot to add to the discussion of these topics, al...more

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Jun 07, 2011

Aldra rated it

Twelve by Twelve has nothing, really, to do with living in a small structure. It's a navel gazing exercise by a well-intentioned man that just happens to occur, for a short stint, in a small structure.

Powers tackles important issues--racism, elitism, globalism (pick your ism), yet is shockingly blind to his own racism and elitism. Well, not entirely blind. He does note once or twice the way in which he is a total tool but generally only when comparing himself to someone more disturbi...more

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Mar 07, 2011

Matt rated it

Recommends it for: Nobody

The concept seemed interesting enough: live in a 12x12 structure for a prolonged period of time and tell the tale of it. The problem is that Powers only spends 40 days in the structure (not nearly long enough) and spends most of the pages rambling about his worldview and why it's so much better than yours.

The narrative portions of the book are interesting, and I considered giving this book two stars because of it, but three factors prevented me from doing that.

1: Powers c...moreThe concept seemed interesting enough: live in a 12x12 structure for a prolonged period of time and tell the tale of it. The problem is that Powers only spends 40 days in the structure (not nearly long enough) and spends most of the pages rambling about his worldview and why it's so much better than yours.

The narrative portions of the book are interesting, and I considered giving this book two stars because of it, but three factors prevented me from doing that.

1: Powers compares those who don't share his view of how to take care of the environment to Nazis. He compared the killing of the environment to the murder of Jews under the Third Reich. He compared those who ought to know what happens in agro-business to those who lived near Buchenwald and ought to have known of the camp's horrors. Powers did not only mention this once, but alluded to it frequently throughout the book.

2: Powers thinks he knows what is best for everyone, even people he's never met. He thinks because he went on some worthwhile and productive mission trips to developing countries that he knows what is best for them. He thinks that people in the third world already have "enough." In other words, he calls the Western world overdeveloped and the rest of the world as simply developed. He felt that his "preaching" for better clinics and schools as well as more efficient agriculture to those who desperately need these things was too much; that they already had enough and were happy as they are now. Easy to say from New York City.

3: After reading about 200 pages of Powers' angst and how he is fighting the very society that is killing this earth a la Hitler (of which you are a part), he mentions that he has a daughter in Bolivia. It turns out that he and the mother never really intended to be together and Powers goes on to say how much he misses the daughter. I certainly do not doubt Powers' love for his child, but it's hard to sympathize after 200 pages of condescending prose and Nazi comparisons.

Unless you want to be angered by writing that seemingly sets out solely to stroke the author's ego, I would recommend skipping this book. Close to the end of the book, Powers writes: "Walking the aisles of the organic Adams Market, I looked around and saw what I might become: a holier-than-thou progressive, carving an identity niche out of being so darn responsible." Unfortunately, Powers' use of the future tense here is inappropriate.(less)

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Feb 26, 2011

cat rated it

Shelves: 100-in-2011

2011 Book 24/100

This would be a 2.5 star review if we had that option. I swung back and forth between loving the overall concept of simplicity taken to a 12x12 dwelling extreme (as lived by Dr. Jackie Benton, who this book REALLY should have been about) and hating the, as another Goodreader Eileen put it, "smug yet whiny pseudo-Buddhist ramblings of one of the most entitled writers I've ever read". The author is a white, middle class, privileged male who has been doing fore...more

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Jan 30, 2011

Aspen Junge rated it

Shelves: save-the-world

Powers is an activist getting a bit burned out from his profession of helping Joe Developing Nation when he accepts an invitation to house-sit a twelve-foot by twelve-foot off-the-grid cabin in the woods. The woman who designed and built it and its permaculture gardens used the cabin to live deliberately, with an income low enough to be untaxable so that her labor wouldn't support the defense industry. Despite the horror felt by his middle-class American parents at the prospect, Powers uses the ...more

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Sep 27, 2010

See Elle Oh rated it

Shelves: 2010, faves, enviro-food-eco, nonfic

Here's a book I'd recommend to about 95% of people who love to read. It's thought-provoking without being threatening. The prose is often beautiful and poetic. I also loved the — mostly Eastern — philosophical and spiritual undertones. It reminded me of the things I fell in love with over a decade ago, the things I studied in college, the dreams and ideals that sometimes get buried under world-weary woes and worries.

It made me think of Vonnegut (maybe because Powers drops the title ...moreHere's a book I'd recommend to about 95% of people who love to read. It's thought-provoking without being threatening. The prose is often beautiful and poetic. I also loved the — mostly Eastern — philosophical and spiritual undertones. It reminded me of the things I fell in love with over a decade ago, the things I studied in college, the dreams and ideals that sometimes get buried under world-weary woes and worries.

It made me think of Vonnegut (maybe because Powers drops the title of Vonnegut's A Man Without a Country a half dozen times, curiously without mentioning the work itself), Hesse's Siddhartha, my high school yearning for a more natural and slow-paced lifestyle and a lot of the Eastern thought I studied in college.

I didn't see Twelve by Twelve as a handbook or manual on sustainable living, being green or anything else, really. It's a chronicle, a journal of one person's inner and outer journey. The questions it asks are more important and interesting than the answers it gives.

Powers is very perceptive and thoughtful, and he often nails a lot of the philosophical and physical dichotomies we live with as industrialized societies, but also as humans. The rugged individualism that's so entrenched in our collective American unconscious versus the need to connect with community and be a part of something, help something/someone. But, this isn't just an issue for modern day Westerners; it's something that countless spiritual and philosophical people have struggled with for, potentially, time immemorial. And I like that Twelve by Twelve presents some stories of people who have come to merge individualism and community-ism, showing the two aren't mutually exclusive and that one doesn't have to be either an ascetic or a free-loving commune-dweller to enjoy life and make an impact. It's possible to be individualistic and also work toward a greater good. (Take that, Tea Baggers!)

This isn't to say I didn't have any problems with the book. It can get a little gushy at times and some of the personalities are less than rounded out, in ways that seem a bit like conscious glossing over and a bit like absence of true depth in experiences. And there are some practicalities and realities that Powers doesn't attend to — like the fact that if you refuse to pay your taxes, you're not only making a chink in the war coffers, but also in important social programs that benefit the very people those like Dr. Jackie Benton worked to help (the poor, the underserved, the unheard, etc.). And nowhere does the issue of health insurance and other necessary safety nets come up in regard to any of the 12 x 12 dwellers. Again, though, Powers can get away with this because Twelve by Twelve is a memoir, not an instruction manual.

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Jul 02, 2010

Tami rated it

William Powers was at a crossroads in his life. A long time activist, William was questioning his ability to make real change in the world. He could see himself making sacrifices and not quite holding true to himself in order to do some greater good.

Then, as sometimes happens when we are lost, he was given a unique opportunity. This opportunity came as a 12X12 foot one room shed where he lived for a time. A place built with love interwoven into the surrounding ecosystem but without ...more

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Oct 09, 2011

Irene rated it

Shelves: books-on-sustainability

This book is a memoir chronicling the time that Powers spent in a 144-square-foot cabin in the woods, somewhere in rural North Carolina. Powers' story has been compared to Thoreau's time at Walden Pond, and I agree that they are similar (although I never managed to get through Walden; I like this book a lot better). The story is more about Powers' spiritual journey than it is about, say, the challenges of living simply, but the setting and the details about Powers' neighbors made the story a lot...more

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Oct 17, 2010

Yvonne rated it

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Aug 15, 2010

Caren rated it

Shelves: adult-nonfiction

OK, I have to admit that , although I was intrigued by the author's experiment in living in a 12x12 cabin, off the grid, and by his neighbors, who were also living lifestyles outside of the American mainstream, I was often a bit put off by his navel-gazing. What really did me in was the fact that he left his little girl, whom he loved and missed, in Bolivia, in order to come back to the USA to do all of this hand-wringing and introspective angsting. I admire that he is attempting to live his con...more

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Jan 29, 2011

Judy rated it

A friend sent a postcard saying, "Do yourself a favor, read this book." Okay, then it just happened to be right in front of me while searching for a book at the library. The writer is invited to use his physician friend's cabin in North Carolina while she's away so he can experience living without any modern conveniences, like she has decided to do. After finishing the book, I had mixed feelings about his whole philosophy - one minute thinking he's just an irresponsible "hippy"...more

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Jan 24, 2011

Eileen rated it

Full disclosure: I could not bring myself to pick this up again after the first few days of endless bullshit, so my review is based totally on the first third or so of the book.

I was expecting this book to be in the "reasonable thought about the author's experience/how to reduce one's footprint in the face of American cultural expectations" line. Instead, I found the smug yet whiny pseudo-Buddhist ramblings of one of the most entitled writers I've ever read. Powers had wh...moreFull disclosure: I could not bring myself to pick this up again after the first few days of endless bullshit, so my review is based totally on the first third or so of the book.

I was expecting this book to be in the "reasonable thought about the author's experience/how to reduce one's footprint in the face of American cultural expectations" line. Instead, I found the smug yet whiny pseudo-Buddhist ramblings of one of the most entitled writers I've ever read. Powers had what sounds like an excellent career in third world nonprofits, with ten years of supplying crucially needed medical supplies under his belt. So when he comes back to the US in the grip of an early midlife crisis, does he use his knowledge and experience to continue working for the benefit of others? Does he perhaps expand his influence by getting involved in national nonprofits, lobbying in Washington, founding his own organization?

No. Instead, he befriends a pseudonymous doctor who lives in a 12x12 house, surrounded by plants. She invites him to live in her house while she travels. Slotting her neatly into the "wise teacher" role, he comes and lives in the house, ready to be enlightened. Ok. Maybe you need some time and space to deal with your situation and decide what to do next. Fine. However, you do not need to highlight your ignorance and shallowness of mind by gaping in astonishment at everything you discover. After so much time in third world countries, how could living in a small and nontechnological space possibly be surprising? How could anyone emerge from TEN YEARS of this experience and still speak in a wholly privileged American voice? But apparently this is exactly correct.

As Powers' friends and relatives come to visit him, he shows them being converted, one by one, from astounding thoughtless ignorance to open-mouthed, Rumi-quoting marvel at the wonder and simplicity of his life. If I were any of the people in question, I would be So Angry at this depiction. Gracious me, all Americans are certainly alike! We are incapable of discovering the problems with a media/product-driven way of life without the benefit of a wise teacher. No one is at all capable of changing their lives! OF COURSE NOT.

Really? What about the teacher herself? What about the small farmers depicted in the book? They slaughter their own chickens, and you're shocked and horrified! What about the guy who keeps bees on the roof of his apartment building in my old neighborhood in Brooklyn? What about my family--we live in California, and yet we are quite happy not to own a car. What about my father-in-law, who built a 6x6 foot compost pile and a backyard full of raised beds in suburban Michigan? What about the Homegrown Evolution dudes, who farm their entire Los Angeles yard and go around rescuing feral bee swarms? What about all the families using their food stamps to shop at the NYC farmers' markets? People ARE trying to change their lives. It's not easy to change, especially considering the predominant American cultural mindset, but the subculture is already here. The US is not one big brick of homogenous people, and it never has been. By treating your audience like thoughtless, useless beings, driving around in SUVs, unaware of environmental issues or international news, you thoroughly alienate us.
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Mar 17, 2011

David M. rated it

Shelves: non-fiction

William Powers took a break from his career as a globetrotting do-gooder to crash for a while in a 12′×12′ cabin in North Carolina. The cabin’s owner, a doctor and activist who is pseudonomized for the sake of her privacy in the book as “Dr. Jackie Benton,” is a war tax resister who chose the small-cabin, off-the-grid, radically simplified lifestyle as a way of both avoiding income taxes and living a life in solidarity with people worldwide who are less resource-depleting than the typical Americ...moreWilliam Powers took a break from his career as a globetrotting do-gooder to crash for a while in a 12′×12′ cabin in North Carolina. The cabin’s owner, a doctor and activist who is pseudonomized for the sake of her privacy in the book as “Dr. Jackie Benton,” is a war tax resister who chose the small-cabin, off-the-grid, radically simplified lifestyle as a way of both avoiding income taxes and living a life in solidarity with people worldwide who are less resource-depleting than the typical American.

The 12′×12′ size also falls under the line that defines the sort of habitable dwelling that, according to local laws, must pay property tax, have sewer and electricity hookups, and so forth.

Benton herself is off doing activist work around the Nevada nuclear test site, and her role in the book is mostly as a distant, inspirational guru figure — imagine a sort of ghostly Obi Wan Kenobi smiling and uttering some profound aphorism about The Force from his afterlife perch in the realm of the midichlorians.

The book is mostly about the things that William Powers thinks about as he’s living in the cabin, exploring the area, and meeting the other people in his neighborhood. He thinks about his place in the giant machine that is the global economy and what influence he has over its actions, he tries to learn how to just be in a culture that seems all about do and have, he pines for the daughter he left behind in Bolivia after one of his do-gooder jaunts, he worries, he wonders, he discovers astonishing things about human nature, he makes resolutions.

The book didn’t do much for me. It felt to me like a book too many in this genre, a sort of muzak version of Walden. It skips lightly over a broad swath of the contemporary simple living zeitgeist, pointing out the usual tourist attractions along the way, but never stops anywhere long enough to really dig in and teach us anything new. “Does our culture sometimes value production over life and alienate people to the point where mental illnesses deepen and going postal becomes routine?” You can’t just drop a question like this into a paragraph and then move on to the next thing. Either address it with the depth it deserves or admit that you’re just juggling progressive tropes and use the other end of the pencil for a while.

Maybe I’ve just read too many similar things for me to be able to see the best side of this book. If it were the first such thing I’d read, I might feel differently. (less)

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Feb 22, 2011

Linda Robinson rated it

What an absolutely human account of being human in the wild and wacky 21st century. There are lessons on every page, which a human reader - me being one in my spare time - will forget in the next paragraph. But that, too, is human. How does one leave the shopping, bulldozing, mindless dystopian world of gimme/gimme-more, and still live sanely, without her spirit dropping out and hitchhiking to Shangri La? How can one live sustainably, off the grid, wholistically and holistically, with the stench...more

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Feb 24, 2011

Bonnie G. rated it

Shelves: goddamn-hippie

Wow. I am now in a 450sq foot home and I love it. We are all burdened with too much shit, you know? I mean, I understand having backyard and space and wanting room of ones own...but I learned a lot about peace and desire and the danger of life meditating and feeling self righteous. I have leant this book to numerous people and I would be happy to lend this book to YOU if you ask! It is damanged, inky, wet from readin the bath. Yup. IN the bath YO. I bought this book as a recommendation at Anti...more

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Aug 21, 2011

Hillary rated it

Weaving together narrative and politics, Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream, by William Powers, will appeal to fans of authors like Barbara Kingsolver, Michael Pollan, and Derrick Jensen. Powers, an international humanitarian aid activist, uses his time spent alone in a twelve-foot by twelve-foot cabin in rural North Carolina to ponder the effects of industrialized living on international politics and on the world. Topics range from institutional and ...more

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Jun 13, 2011

Robin Hyman rated it

I'll have to say this one caught me a little off guard. In the beginning I was getting put off by the self-righteous arrogance of the eco-do-gooder. But I still wanted to hear ( or should I say "read") what Mr. Powers had to say. And although I do not agree with his philosophy as a whole, there were bits and pieces I could take home with me. In the last few chapters, I felt redeemed and perhaps the author, too as he revealed his final understanding that the world is perfect as it is. W...more

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Apr 05, 2011

Jenneffer rated it

Finishing this book leaves me with a glow of peace and hope. It is an honest reflection of satisfaction with life; the northern developed life of stuff juxtaposed with the southern world of have nots, examining happiness, comfort and the effects of it on our environment. One appeal is the lack of preaching and condemnation. Another is accessibility of the writing. It is clear, personal, and deeply thoughtful. It surprised me to find it was not i had thought, a treatise on green living. Rather, i...more

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Jan 30, 2012

Nicole rated it

Recommends it for: Alicia Dunlap; Jodi Hart

Here are things that I marked as I was reading:
p. 44 "Sociologists point out that American kids today can identify a thousand corporate logos but less than ten native plants and animals that live around their homes."
p. 48 Jackie's approach to living in very simple terms: see, be, do
p. 50 Use a warrior presence to be fully present in the moment.
p. 56 He reflects on his work in the Global South feeling guilty that he had been punishing people for living sustainabl...moreHere are things that I marked as I was reading:
p. 44 "Sociologists point out that American kids today can identify a thousand corporate logos but less than ten native plants and animals that live around their homes."
p. 48 Jackie's approach to living in very simple terms: see, be, do
p. 50 Use a warrior presence to be fully present in the moment.
p. 56 He reflects on his work in the Global South feeling guilty that he had been punishing people for living sustainably & came to a realization that maybe the end result of that "help" was really trying to turn "them" into "us" who live beyond our means with too much.
p. 60 "All material possessions are subject to habituation, a waning interest with repeated uses. So the cliche that "money doesn't buy happiness" is grounded in this phenomenon, habituation." Me: I thought of my car after reading this. I remember how wowed I was when I first got it & now I just don't give much thought to it anymore!
p. 74 "For a moment, I was certain that the world would slip, inevitably, into a genetically altered, overheated place of lost uniqueness and forgotten joy." This was about how box stores have resulted in local business drying up.
p. 144 "Growth in nature happens not in a linear manner but rather through a series of pulsations, it is gentle and reaches out tentatively into the new terrain. Rumi quote: "Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds' wings."
p. 151 "Most of the so-called impoverished beneficiaries of my programs were better off than me. That is to say, their cultures had come up with a way of living in the world that contributed more to happiness than my culture. In the Biswas-Diener survey, 96 percent of Columbians defined themselves as content with life (so darn happy) which is curious only when one equates higher material living higher levels of well-being. Most rich nations rank miles below."
p. 152 He decided that the regions he was helping were in fact developed nations & that we are an unhealthily overdeveloped nation with unwanted environmental and psychological side effects.
p. 157 Value time more than money
p. 158 Live well instead of forever striving to live better
p. 204 "We cast powerful votes for the kind of world we want to live in whenever we fish out a twenty or click BUY on the Web."
p. 206 Slow Food USA
p. 208 We exchange our life energy for money. "Do we want to spend our time and energy earning money and contributing to the market economy, or fostering creative pursuits, our relationships, and community, and contributing love?"
p. 210 Safeway has cheap prices because the costs to the environment are not included
p. 258 People should strive to live on less and closer to the earth, turning away from a life of excess(less)

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Sep 19, 2010

Joshua rated it

Shelves: ay10-11, hermitage, hippie

I didn't like this book as much as I wanted to. This book consists primarily of the author (an upper middle class foreign aid worker) navel gazing about the state of his life and mankinds treatment of the environment, while name-checking various sustainability "technologies" (broadly defined). It would have been a much better and informative book if the Dr. Jackie character played more of a role, or if he had interviewed the sustainable realestate developer/permaculture teacher, Brad...more

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May 30, 2011

Carin rated it

Shelves: book-club, memoir

When you read my review, you'll likely be tempted to ask, Why did you bother to finish this book? Simple answer: book club. I certainly wouldn't have otherwise.

It sounds like an intriguing concept: a guy goes to live in a 12' x 12' shack in the woods, to reduce his carbon footprint and live more simply. However, Mr. Powers just wasn't the right author. While I agree with his ideas and his reasons for performing this experiment, he was not a pleasant companion for the ride. Utterly co...moreWhen you read my review, you'll likely be tempted to ask, Why did you bother to finish this book? Simple answer: book club. I certainly wouldn't have otherwise.

It sounds like an intriguing concept: a guy goes to live in a 12' x 12' shack in the woods, to reduce his carbon footprint and live more simply. However, Mr. Powers just wasn't the right author. While I agree with his ideas and his reasons for performing this experiment, he was not a pleasant companion for the ride. Utterly convinced of the rightness of his ideas and the wrongness of all others, his sanctimoniousness made the book nearly unbearable. He proudly mentioned his other books so many times that I lost track, he doesn't really acknowledge that he's freeloading (if I could freeload off friends, I could live on a lot less too but that isn't very practical on a large scale, nor is it an admirable quality.) The woman he's sponging off of, Jackie, might have been a better subject for the book. She's a doctor who has built this shack - at this size it's not considered a "house" and therefore she doesn't have to pay property tax - and she has also had her salary reduced to $11,000 so she doesn't have to pay income tax, as a protest against the War Department (her shack is available for Mr. Powers because she is out West, protesting nukes.) However, property taxes don't go towards war, and as a fellow North Carolina resident I am pretty dismayed at her callous unwillingness to support our schools (among many other things state taxes pay for, but that's the biggest.)

Sure, I also could have a smaller footprint if I had my girlfriend drive me around and mooched off businesses' electricity for my computer, but he doesn't acknowledge that neither of those things actually reduces his footprint as the gas and the electricity are still consumed by him - they just reduce his need to pay for those commodities. Additionally, the constant digressions to esoteric philosophies, and unrealistic conversations had me perpetually exasperated. Who calls their girlfriend - having ridden a bike to a pay phone because cell phones of course are too gauche - to ask, "What is sin?" The fact that Leah likes him definitely proves the adage, there is a lid for every pot. And when he finally - more than 200 pages in! - revealed that he had a 2-year-old daughter in South America, his self-righteous denial of a cell phone (or land land) went from annoying to irresponsible. And I did not believe his protests about how much he missed her and how much he wanted to spend more time with her. He was choosing to live in a shack and do nothing - what was keeping him from his daughter exactly? And not mentioning her for over 200 pages also doesn't convince me of how much he misses her, no matter his protests that his complete lack of a mention of her is due to the great pain he feels upon even thinking about her.

I wanted to like this book. It has an interesting concept and politics I believe in (if not this extreme). However by the end of it, I wanted to turn on every light in my much-too-big condo, overpay my taxes, and microwave frozen food from a multi-national conglomerate, just counteract all his do-goodery. Naturally, I won't in fact do any of that (except perhaps the microwaved food, mmmm) but he was so self-righteous and prideful of his earth-saving that it completely turned me off. Only my common sense that this feeling will pass has kept me putting my recyclables in the proper bin. I wish Mr Powers well and he does good things in the world, but I was glad when this book was over.(less)

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Mar 21, 2011

Rebecca rated it

Despite the overwhelming shortcomings, Twelve by Twelve offers brief glimpses of pure gold. Some are ironic, like when the characters absolutely refuse to remain upon the pedestals on which they were placed. Other gems are poetic. And the richest are both ironic and inspirational, as in the midst of the book's many harsh judgements Powers shares a simple and compassionate method for attempting to not judge other people. It's a good lesson that will require daily practice. Refraining from ju...more

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Feb 26, 2011

Melody rated it

I found this book far more annoying than edifying. The authorial voice drips with entitlement and inexpertly concealed superiority. I should be right smack in the center of the target audience for this book, as it's an extended meditation on values and stewardship of our precious resources.

However, Powers failed to engage me on a visceral level and lost me entirely when he revealed, after almost 200 pages, that he'd left his 2 year old daughter behind in Bolivia while he jetted arou...moreI found this book far more annoying than edifying. The authorial voice drips with entitlement and inexpertly concealed superiority. I should be right smack in the center of the target audience for this book, as it's an extended meditation on values and stewardship of our precious resources.

However, Powers failed to engage me on a visceral level and lost me entirely when he revealed, after almost 200 pages, that he'd left his 2 year old daughter behind in Bolivia while he jetted around gazing into his navel and helping the downtrodden. I understand that there are all sorts of ways to make a family, and any number of models of same. But I can't take seriously some overprivileged sprat who natters on and on about the way love transforms his life while his only child is growing up without him, thousands of miles away. The fact that he moves back to be near the child at the end of the book made me feel a little better. Not that it's my business, but it sure colored my opinion.

The revelations that Powers has while living in a small space in the US strike me as pretty banal, especially in view of the fact that he's one of those flying-to-disadvantaged-areas do-gooders. It felt disingenuous that he got all these insights during the 40-day time frame he claimed. I also felt like he talked down to the reader throughout. And he didn't give Annie Dillard credit for being the author of a book he discusses at some length- which is a small quibble, but a valid one in my eyes.

Here's the bit that made me realize I didn't *not like* the book, but I actively *hated* it (italics mine):

"Beside [the woodpile] was the first all-terrain-vehicle, or ATV, I'd seen in Pine Bridge. He told me excitedly that it was the first of two ATVs their grandma was sending them from Florida. She'd traded a Bobcat- evidently another kind of machine- for the ATVs."

Seriously? Kid's worked in South America (or as he calls it, The Global South) and Africa for 15 years and has never seen or heard of a Bobcat? *snort*

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Aug 26, 2010

Beth rated it

Shelves: partially-finished

I didn't get this book finished, but may do so at a later time (it's actually a book that's best read slowly - but I need to return it to the library). This book is subtitled: "a one-room cabin off the grid & beyond the American dream." The author, William Powers, had recently returned to the U.S. to help his aging parents after living many years abroad doing humanitarian work in Third World countries. He experienced culture shock coming back home where there is so much, both materi...moreI didn't get this book finished, but may do so at a later time (it's actually a book that's best read slowly - but I need to return it to the library). This book is subtitled: "a one-room cabin off the grid & beyond the American dream." The author, William Powers, had recently returned to the U.S. to help his aging parents after living many years abroad doing humanitarian work in Third World countries. He experienced culture shock coming back home where there is so much, both materialism and the 24/7 media circus, and was struggling to find a way to fit in. He then met and interviewed a woman doctor, Jackie Benton, living in North Carolina off the grid in a tiny 12 x 12 foot cabin. He was absolutely fascinated by her life and later, when she went away on a trip, she invited him to stay at the cabin for some weeks. Benton owned acres of land on which she had created a permaculture that was self-sustaining. She also had a smaller cultivated area on her property with gardens and fruit & nut trees and she kept bees. She kept her salary purposely low to avoid paying income taxes. Also, to avoid property taxes, she lived in a structure, the 12 x 12, that was too small to be taxed. The cabin had no electricity or running water. Jackie didn't give Powers any instruction about how to live in the cabin before he went there - he more or less figured things out on his own. For instance, the tiny cabin had a partial upper loft for sleeping. There were kerosene lamps for light and Powers found himself adjusting his schedule to daylight. There was a propane stove for cooking. He used an outside solar shower for bathing. He disposed of waste by burying it in the woods behind the cabin. For food, he gathered food from the garden or foraged from the land, and purchased chickens from neighbors with an organic farm. He has a surreal visit to a large Gold Kist poultry factory where he is exposed to the questionable treatment of chickens that are bred to be sold and kept confined to cages. Powers starts out feeling pretty lost, and spends lots of time walking and thinking. Benton left several inspirational sayings in the cabin that he reflects upon. The book has been described as a modern day Walden. I got about half way through the book. It looks like in later chapters he talks a lot about eating locally (farmer's markets, etc.), and the slow movement, globalism, and living life at a more leisurely pace (what he calls the Idle Majority), and in general the importance of getting to a place of enough. This book should appeal to people who want to learn more about alternative lifestyles.

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Jul 23, 2011

Liralen rated it

Shelves: non-fiction, 2011, reviewed, houses

Not really what I expected.

I was looking for a book about, you know, living in a twelve-by-twelve cabin, or perhaps a book about building one (I seem to be going through a read-about-house-restoration stage). This book was much more about sustainable living, small farms, etc. Still interesting, but a bit misleading.

The other thing - he was only there for a month and a half, and he did no work associated with growing one's own food and the like. As far as I'm concerned, th...more

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About William Powers

William Powers hails from Long Island, NY and has worked for over a decade in development aid and conservation in Latin America, Africa, Washington, D.C., and Native North America. From 2002 to 2004 he managed the community components of a project in the Bolivian Amazon that won a 2003 prize for environmental innovation from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. His essays and commentari...more

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Books by William Powers

Hamlet's Blackberry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age

Blue Clay People: Seasons on Africa's Fragile Edge

Whispering in the Giant's Ear: A Frontline Chronicle from Bolivia's War on Globalization

Chronicles of Border Warfare, Or, a History of the Settlement by the Whites, of North-Western Virginia, and of the Indian Wars and Massacres in That S

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“Think how nature makes things compared to how we humans make things." We talked about how animals don't just preserve the next generation; they typically preserve the environment for the ten-thousandth generation. While human industrial processes can produce Kevlar, it takes a temperature of thousands of degrees to do it, and the fiber is pulled through sulfuric acid. In contrast, a spider makes its silk - which per gram is several times stronger than steel - at room temperature in water.” — 1 person liked it

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