The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 20 February 1998
by Donald Harington
This reader has a hard time imagining a better way to write about architecture than this highly entertaining novel. The story is the long life of the small Ozark town of Stay More, Arkansas. Founded in the early years of westward migration by Jacob and Noah Ingledew, with the help of the native Fanshaw, Stay More is nestled in the Northwest corner of that state. The people are funny, strange, smart, weird, perverse, sexy, and full of a life that belies their collective name, Stay Morons. Each chapter is headed by a drawing of what one might call "vernacular architecture". But soon the architectural descriptions (often focussing on the "bigeminality" of the buildings) drift into the further adventures of the Ingledews. When Jacob finally passes on, though, we miss him to the point of not being as interested in his descendants. Clearly, though, the author has a lot of love for the Ozarks and the Ingledews. The book is full of all sorts of wonderful images of the past century and a half, but also evoked many longing recollections of this reader's own past. The book is long on stories, and spiced with history and a touch of building. What goes on within the walls of our architecture is life itself. Harington's buildings evoke the memories of what happens there.
Also by Harington: [Let Us Build Us a City]
[Other Books set in the American South]