Hammer. Nail. Wood.: The Compulsion to Build

by Thomas Glynn

Hammer. Nail. Wood. is not quite a novel and not quite a construction manual, but it's a great read that will entertain and amaze while passing along a bounty of helpful information about how a post-and-beam house is put together. Readers who are experienced builders will grin with recognition, while aspiring builders will be given fresh insights into the joys and frustrations of the self-building process.

220 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1998

About the author

American author of four novels (two of which were edited by Gordon Lish), a hybrid novel-cum-carpentry manual, and uncollected short stories.

Reviews

[Tom Veale · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a charming little book ostensibly about building. It really picks up about 40 pages in and once it gets going it doesn't stop. I say ostensibly about building because, yes, the skeleton of the book is about a somewhat idealistic man building a house, but the meat of the book is all about this idealistic man spinning a yarn about the contemporary provincial ontology in prose that's as good and zany and touching as William Gass was in "In the Heart of the Heart of the Country".
I hope more people read this book.

[roseaj · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much how-to manual, not enough insight.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the language in this book to be vivid and intoxicating. In one chapter, "Raising the bents," there is a nice long sentence about all the stuff that emile thiebout carried on the back of his flatbed truck!