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This Damn House
This Damn House
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In This Damn House, talk-radio personality and journalist Margo Kaufman blazes a trail for all would-be home renovators with her piquant brand of humor that proves both lighthearted and perceptive. Lacking Martha Stewart's practicality and Bob Vila's ability to mastermind improvements, Kaufman and her husband, Duke--like most ordinary people--rely on the so-called services of others to renovate their bungalow on Venice Beach, California. More apropos, they succumb to their services.
Fundamentally, Kaufman's story is about soliciting contractors, evaluating bids, and asserting her rights as a client, and it is one that hinges on the greatest paradox of all: the protagonist herself is ensnared by consumer culture while at once being intellectually repelled by its implications. Decorous displays at IKEA (a Swedish furniture store) beckon, paint hues entice, tile shades lure, light fixtures coax, all it would seem in a devious plot to get the author to spend even more money!
The panoply of characters is as colorful as the denizens of Venice Beach whom the householders attempt to keep at bay while witnessing the mayhem that only builders can wreak. Everyone's on the make, from the architect, whose aesthetic visions translate into budgetary revisions that seem to benefit his wallet only, to the sensitive contractor, who expects cash every Friday but quibbles over "minor" repairs, to the painters, who ridicule the customers' color scheme with forthright abandon. The comedy of errors tries both the author's patience and her personal relationships, not to mention putting her freelance career into jeopardy.
Throughout the book, Margo threads an element of suspense that makes for a seamless account of remodeling's foibles: will the end of the project be reached before the author reaches the end of her wits?
While negotiating with sundry external forcesÑpompous architects, dubious subcontractors, her husband's whims, and their balance book--the author referees an internal wrestling match with her own profligate nature, persnickety tastes, and the side of her that knows better than to fall for every fad thrust upon her. Injecting wit into common scenarios, Kaufman makes the ordinary extraordinary. If there is humor in tragedy, then This Damn House has it in spades.
Jayne-Plymale Jackson is a freelance reviewer in Athens, Georgia.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.
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