February 6, 2009

"We are both architects in a way. We both deal with structure, we are both artists, and we are both egomaniacs. I have worn a cape."

"There is where we end."

Says T.C. Boyle about Frank Lloyd Wright, the subject of his new novel. Boyle actually lives in a Wright house, the George C. Stewart House in Montecito. Here's a photo of the house, and looking closely at the windows, I believe this portrait of Boyle at his website shows a detail of the house. Here's another portrait of Boyle from his website. I think it's interestingly phallic.

ADDED: If you buy the book — "The Women" — using this link, you will be making a contribution to this blog (without paying extra).

17 comments:

Ann Althouse said...

Photo links fixed (in case you tried them in the first couple minutes of this existence of this post).

john said...

Ned would get a Rise out of some of those photos.

Bissage said...

I found Mr. Boyle’s modesty endearing: "I was on the roof, hose in hand, while [the Tea Fire] played monstrously over the hills, as if my laughable will and the puny stream of the hose would do any good."

Still, he should buck up.

It’s not the size of the stream, it’s the motion of the hosin’. Anyone who has ever cleaned the toilets after house guests knows that.

Meade said...

a "venal dirty insufferable little coward."

yeow! Someone felt someone did someone wrong...

Wright?

Bird rock said...

Boyle's Water Music, which I read years ago, was one of my favorite books. And I've always been interested in Wright, having ploughed through 1000 pages of Merle Secrest's bio of him. I'll have to put this book at the top of my reading list.

A couple of years ago, while considering a pssible move to San Diego (La Jolla, actually) I looked at a lot of houses out there. One of them was a house designed by Wright's son John. It was very much in the Wright style and had some wonderful elements including two courtyards, one that got morning sun and one that got afternoon sun. There were lovely views of the ocean from every window. My husband was ready to buy it on the spot since it was enchanting but it was also tiny. It was so small that it felt like being on a ship. And I just didn't think it would work at all for a family of four. So we didn't buy it but I still think about that house often.

Bird rock said...

Actually, it was World's End that I really loved but Boyle did write Water Music as well.

George M. Spencer said...

"What you and I are doing is so antiquated it's like being a blacksmith watching the Model T rolling by."

There were 9,500,000 horses in America in 2006, according to the United Nations.

In 1900, there were 4,000,000 horses in America.

38,000,000 hooves mean jobs! Jobs for blacksmiths. Jobs for farriers.

The Dude said...

During an ice storm a few years ago I read a large collection of Mr. Boyle's short stories. Now that I read that article about him, I like his work even less - he has fallen for the overpopulation/hydrogen powered car leftist meme. Kill yourself, if you truly think there are too many people on the earth. Kill your family. For god's sake man, be a person who stands up for his beliefs!

ricpic said...

It amazes me that an artist would choose to live in a house built by another artist. The clash of egos and all that.

paul a'barge said...

...Lately, Boyle has been in the midst of restorations on the structure -- which he bought in 1993 and where he has created some of his best-known work -- and can talk linseed oil, creosote and primer like the most possessed weekend do-it-yourselfer.

Don't mistake him, though, for a preservationist savior: "I just keep it from falling down. If the cantilevers ever go, I'll have to get my own federal bailout to fix it."


I think the mutt should sell the house to the organization that wants to restore and maintain it.

Following one of the links I learned that they're sitting dormant with funds, waiting for the house to come up for sale.

There are only so many of these. How sad.

XWL said...

I'd love to support this blog by clicking on a link to buy a book, but I've read enough TC Boyle to know that I've read enough TC Boyle.

Meade said...

I'm with XWL. But this might be a good time to make my annual $10 (CHEAP!) donation to this blog through PayPal.

Thanks, Althouse, for all your sleepless nights worrying about your poor hapless readers and obsessive commenters and keeping a light on while we're out way past our curfews!

chickelit said...

I wonder if Boyle pays his bills. FLW had a terrible reputation with the locals for not paying his bills--artistic license you see.

Ann Althouse said...

Please, only buy the book if you want it. I'm just saying that if you do want it, using my link will contribute to me without costing you anything. If you just want to give me money, use the PayPal button, so I get it all. But the blog is free, and I am extremely grateful to have readers. Imagine if one could buy 20,000 daily readers for a year. A very high price could be charged.

XWL said...

I understood the suggestion for buying at the link as voluntary and predicated on a pre-existing desire to read the book (which if it were a different author writing about FLW, I might be interested in), and I didn't mean to suggest you implied otherwise, I just wanted to say something snarky about TC Boyle, cause I got his works assigned a few too many times in college, and a few of his novels I found not only poorly written, but down right offensive in their construction and worldview (Tortilla Curtain, namely, probably the 2nd worst book I had been assigned more than once in college, 2nd only to the craptacular Color Purple).

(and apologies for the Greenwaldian length of the above sentence)

Ann Althouse said...

@XWL I didn't really think you did, but I want to make sure no one thinks I'm squeezing them for money. I'm truly grateful to have you for readers and in no way regard readers as freeloaders. But if you guys are buying something anyway, it would be nice to think of me. There's an Amazon button in the sidebar, which, if you use it when you buy whatever, gives me a percentage.

Wince said...

We are both architects in a way.

I don't see architecture coming from you.