House of Earth

Woody Guthrie's only full-length novel, written in 1947, languished in a closet until ferreted out by author Douglas Brinkley and actor Johnny Depp, who edited it and brought it to publication.  The interesting backstory is available in a NY Times story and a very nice piece from NPR.

The novel tells a bit of the story of the dirt-poor,  farming couple Tike and Ella May Hamlin.  Tike and Ella May are struggling to make a home for themselves, struggling against the harsh midwest dustbowl conditions and the even harsher exploitation of bankers, politicians and landowners.

The book is one of the most interesting, least interesting books I have ever read.  It falls into the category of least interesting because there is very little plot - essentially nothing happens for 150 pages, until the story of Ella May's childbirth is told - which ends the book.  The cornerstone of the book is the dream of building a house of earth - one made from the very earth they live on, out of adobe bricks, as described in a government pamphlet that never leaves Tike's body.  The thick, solid walls of the house of earth would provide protection against the elements  - and also insulation from the exploiters, as it could be built at little cost, through their own labor.  At the conclusion of the book, the house of earth remains a dream, though perhaps one that could be realized in the future.

Of least interesting books, though, House of Earth is one of the most interesting!  The voice of Woody Guthrie is very distinctive - descriptive words and events are strung together in near rhyming, streams of consciousness - and these drones of words sometimes convey powerful emotions or evocative portraits of the land and life of Tike and Ella May.  It is also surprising that the 1947 book is very frank, sexually.  Not lurid, but definitely earthy and very human.  Interestingly, one of the thousands of songs written by Woody Guthrie is entitled House of Earth - and this song asserts that prostitutes play a valuable role:

Come here to my house of good rich earth if you

Would like me teach your wife a thing or two.