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The House Beautiful
B.K. Troop — a middle-aged, witty, bipolar, alcoholic homosexual — lives alone in a cramped New York apartment. His life is turned upside down when his best friend, Sasha Buchwitz, dies and leaves him her Manhattan brownstone. To afford the property tax, B.K. turns his new home into a colony for young, struggling artists, to whom he can serve as mentor, if not muse. He christens the place the House Beautiful. The House Beautiful tells the story of a fateful summer when a young man named Adrian Malloy arrives at B.K.'s door, lugging a suitcase and dragging a garbage bag crammed with what B.K. presumes to be odes and sonnets. Overjoyed to have found a new poet, B.K. sweeps Adrian into his home and under his wing. Although Adrian is the spitting image of John Keats, he is not a poet. He is an astronomy student, who has sought out B.K. for very private reasons, which he is reluctant to reveal. At once hilarious, romantic, wise, and lunatic, The House Beautiful tells the story not only of B.K.'s emerging friendship with Adrian, but of all the artists' adventures that summer, as they struggle to make art and love.
- GenresFiction
231 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
1 person is currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
Allison Burnett
18 books72 followersAllison Burnett grew up in Evanston, Illinois, the son of a clinical psychologist and a Northwestern University professor. After graduating from Northwestern, he was a fellow of the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Program at the Juilliard School.
His novels include Christopher (a finalist for the 2004 PEN Center USA Literary Award), The House Beautiful, Undiscovered Gyrl, Death By Sunshine, the Escape of Malcolm Poe, Another Girl, the Ghosts of Normal, and The Last Girl Podcast.
Allison adapted Undiscovered Gyrl for the screen and directed the film, entitled Ask Me Anything, starring Britt Robertson, Martin Sheen, Justin Long, and Christian Slater.
Allison also wrote and directed the sequel, Another Girl, starring Sammi Hanratty.
Allison's latest novel is The Last Girl Podcast. While it stands alone as a thriller, it marks the completion of the Katie Kampenfelt Trilogy.
His essays, stories, book reviews, and poetry have appeared on various websites and in multiple publications.
Allison's screenwriting credits include Autumn in New York, Red Meat, Untraceable, Resurrecting the Champ, Feast of Love, Underworld Awakening, and Gone.
His novels include Christopher (a finalist for the 2004 PEN Center USA Literary Award), The House Beautiful, Undiscovered Gyrl, Death By Sunshine, the Escape of Malcolm Poe, Another Girl, the Ghosts of Normal, and The Last Girl Podcast.
Allison adapted Undiscovered Gyrl for the screen and directed the film, entitled Ask Me Anything, starring Britt Robertson, Martin Sheen, Justin Long, and Christian Slater.
Allison also wrote and directed the sequel, Another Girl, starring Sammi Hanratty.
Allison's latest novel is The Last Girl Podcast. While it stands alone as a thriller, it marks the completion of the Katie Kampenfelt Trilogy.
His essays, stories, book reviews, and poetry have appeared on various websites and in multiple publications.
Allison's screenwriting credits include Autumn in New York, Red Meat, Untraceable, Resurrecting the Champ, Feast of Love, Underworld Awakening, and Gone.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 21, 2020
My friend Allison writes thee best books. Just a good read:)
April 5, 2012
The Further Adventures of B.K. Troop
Allison Burnett has succeeded in creating a literary character so unique and thoroughly painted that in his first novel CHRISTOPHER B.K. Troop emerged as a middle aged, overweight, fussy, alcoholic gay man whose distorted views of his world provided us with some of the finest comic writing of the past few years. Happily, Burnett has given us another installment in what many of us hope will be a continuing saga of this strangely loveable dreamer.
B.K. Troop has just inherited a Manhattan brownstone from his beloved friend Sasha Buchwitz, allowing him to move form his meager quarters into a large house he calls The House Beautiful - with large mortgage payments, payments he can only meet by taking in renters. This event opens the opportunity for Troop to fulfill his dream of being the muse and champion of artists. By advertising the rooms in his new edifice as `low rent' he attracts artists of all types - the sole proviso being that those selected as tenants repay his generosity by actively pursuing their particular art form.
And so we gradually meet his tenants: Carl Alan Dealy is a hygienically challenged actor waiting for audition calls that never come; Michael is a philosopher whose musings on his own character serve as fodder for his writings; Mary Pilago is a lesbian singer-songwriter who concentrates more on transient bed mates than on practicing her guitar and singing; Miranda Buchner is an Expressionist painter waiting for her `big show' while she pines for Michael's attentions; Louise D'Aprix is a writer committed to her typewriter to create the longest novel ever written. Into this hot bed of artists playing their desires for are against their escapades with sensual needs enters one Adrian Malloy, a very young lad carrying a garbage bag of what Troop perceives as vast pages of poetry and writings. In reality Adrian is an astronomy student who has fled to Manhattan to escape his confining Midwest home of his recently deceased parents, people with oddly occult ties to the unknowing Troop!
How Troop influences the lives of these characters (while simultaneously dealing with his new lover, Vietnamese cook Pip who proves to be a truly colorful number!) is the playing field on which Burnett weaves his fascinatingly integrated tales from another city (in some ways related to Armisted Maupin's San Francisco `Tales of the City' series). Troop may be a demanding queen but he is also the loving and caring stimulus for those disparate but co-dependent tenants. His particular devotion to drawing out the `poet' in Adrian is witty and wise and lovely. "A biologist is able to tell you why a fly is able to sustain itself in flight. Only a poet can describe why it annoys you."
Burnett's gift (and a superb writer he is!) lies in his ability to create strong characters, exploring each of them thoroughly while very carefully maintaining an interaction among all of them. Each artist contributes at times inadvertently but always cohesively to the changes that occur in the summer of communal living. But always at the helm is the wholly engrossing B.K. Troop, besieged by misadventures in love, at times hilarious but with equal portions of compassion as a true Impresario. Think Diaghilev, Tennessee Williams, Divine, with a dollop of Gertrude Stein and Troop begins to come into focus. Burnett knows his craft well. He is simply wildly entertaining while remaining a highly literate and brilliant writer. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp
Allison Burnett has succeeded in creating a literary character so unique and thoroughly painted that in his first novel CHRISTOPHER B.K. Troop emerged as a middle aged, overweight, fussy, alcoholic gay man whose distorted views of his world provided us with some of the finest comic writing of the past few years. Happily, Burnett has given us another installment in what many of us hope will be a continuing saga of this strangely loveable dreamer.
B.K. Troop has just inherited a Manhattan brownstone from his beloved friend Sasha Buchwitz, allowing him to move form his meager quarters into a large house he calls The House Beautiful - with large mortgage payments, payments he can only meet by taking in renters. This event opens the opportunity for Troop to fulfill his dream of being the muse and champion of artists. By advertising the rooms in his new edifice as `low rent' he attracts artists of all types - the sole proviso being that those selected as tenants repay his generosity by actively pursuing their particular art form.
And so we gradually meet his tenants: Carl Alan Dealy is a hygienically challenged actor waiting for audition calls that never come; Michael is a philosopher whose musings on his own character serve as fodder for his writings; Mary Pilago is a lesbian singer-songwriter who concentrates more on transient bed mates than on practicing her guitar and singing; Miranda Buchner is an Expressionist painter waiting for her `big show' while she pines for Michael's attentions; Louise D'Aprix is a writer committed to her typewriter to create the longest novel ever written. Into this hot bed of artists playing their desires for are against their escapades with sensual needs enters one Adrian Malloy, a very young lad carrying a garbage bag of what Troop perceives as vast pages of poetry and writings. In reality Adrian is an astronomy student who has fled to Manhattan to escape his confining Midwest home of his recently deceased parents, people with oddly occult ties to the unknowing Troop!
How Troop influences the lives of these characters (while simultaneously dealing with his new lover, Vietnamese cook Pip who proves to be a truly colorful number!) is the playing field on which Burnett weaves his fascinatingly integrated tales from another city (in some ways related to Armisted Maupin's San Francisco `Tales of the City' series). Troop may be a demanding queen but he is also the loving and caring stimulus for those disparate but co-dependent tenants. His particular devotion to drawing out the `poet' in Adrian is witty and wise and lovely. "A biologist is able to tell you why a fly is able to sustain itself in flight. Only a poet can describe why it annoys you."
Burnett's gift (and a superb writer he is!) lies in his ability to create strong characters, exploring each of them thoroughly while very carefully maintaining an interaction among all of them. Each artist contributes at times inadvertently but always cohesively to the changes that occur in the summer of communal living. But always at the helm is the wholly engrossing B.K. Troop, besieged by misadventures in love, at times hilarious but with equal portions of compassion as a true Impresario. Think Diaghilev, Tennessee Williams, Divine, with a dollop of Gertrude Stein and Troop begins to come into focus. Burnett knows his craft well. He is simply wildly entertaining while remaining a highly literate and brilliant writer. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp
September 3, 2007
I first learned of The House Beautiful on KCRW's Writer's Block.
I was hooked from the start.
This book is WHY I READ.
Allison Burnett definitely has a way with words.
It's poetic, almost.
This book will charm and titillate you on it's many paths.
The words are so flowing and beautiful.
They seem to roll right off my tongue.
You soon learn through a peeping tom (and main character), that the artists of house beautiful aren't perfect.
However,
The House Beautiful is The Book Beautiful!
I was hooked from the start.
This book is WHY I READ.
Allison Burnett definitely has a way with words.
It's poetic, almost.
This book will charm and titillate you on it's many paths.
The words are so flowing and beautiful.
They seem to roll right off my tongue.
You soon learn through a peeping tom (and main character), that the artists of house beautiful aren't perfect.
However,
The House Beautiful is The Book Beautiful!
September 30, 2010
Disclaimer: I met Allison Burnett at a book fair this weekend and liked him so you could think I was predisposed to liking his book. But I am sincere in my appraisal - this was very funny! Very approachable literary fiction. This is a sequel of sorts to his first novel, which I haven't read and don't think you need to in order to enjoy. I loved his protagonist, BK, who is only quasi-sympathetic as a narrator. Burnett pokes gentle fun at BK's bloated ego and middle-aged body. Really crackling turns of phrase - love that!
July 19, 2015
Allison Burnett really, really, REALLY wants to write like David Sedaris but he doesn't. Not even remotely.
I will admit that a couple of moments did make me chuckle, but not enough to save the book.
I will admit that a couple of moments did make me chuckle, but not enough to save the book.
December 28, 2012
A fun little story that doesn't tax the brain.
A different narration style so if you don't like the first chapter stop reading ... it doesn't change.
A different narration style so if you don't like the first chapter stop reading ... it doesn't change.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews