THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 15, 1996 TAG: 9609170511
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY WENDY CLARK
LENGTH: 58 lines
ON A STREET CALLED EASY, IN A COTTAGE CALLED JOYE
A Restoration Comedy
GREGORY WHITE SMITH AND STEVEN NAIFEH
Little, Brown. 321 pp. $23.95.
Gregory White and Steven Naifeh were New York authors looking for a little excitement in their lives. Forget the glamour and intrigue of living in the Big Apple. They craved the excitement that only those who are debt-ridden, mortgage-burdened and plaster dust-covered can identify with. They wanted to own a house. And not just any house.
White and Naifeh, the Pulitzer Prize-winning authors of Jackson Pollack: an American Saga and The Mormon Murders, wanted a house that was a showplace. They pored over magazines like House and Garden and Architectural Digest and visited Sotheby's in New York to study real estate listings. They were looking for the perfect house. And, one day, they found it. All 60 rooms of it.
Their ``perfect house'' was the former home of the Whitneys - of Whitney Museum fame - who summered, like so many wealthy New Yorkers at the turn of the century did, in Aiken, S.C. Now that the authors had found their dream home there were only some minor problems confronting them: One, the price was totally out of their league. Two, the house was in such poor repair that plaster fell from the ceilings whenever it rained. And, three, all of their friends were asking, ``How does one live in Aiken, S.C.?''
Most people would have given up, but not these guys. In an amazingly short period, they were the proud owners of Joye Cottage. And that's when the fun began.
In On a Street Called Easy, in a Cottage Called Joye, Naifeh and Smith entertainingly detail their experiences living in the midst of major renovation, and their encounters with characters larger than life. The ``characters'' include Eugene, the master plasterer and former Mafia chauffeur; ``Lucky'' Dale, the ``posterboy of Chimney sweeps''; Lee, the painter who agrees with everything you say (a typical conversation: ``Should we use. . . '' Lee: ``Absolutely.'' ``Latex or. . . '' ``Latex.'' ``. . . acrylic?'' ``Acrylic.''); and riches-crazed treasure hunters determined to find the ``Lost Whitney Silver.''
The authors also must adjust to the South and the passing of everyday pleasantries and polite exchanges that ``turned every trip downtown into a mini-reunion - Mr. Rogers goes shopping.''
They identify this danger as ``Bedford Falls Syndrome,'' after the movie ``It's a Wonderful Life,'' and hilariously describe a visit to the hardware store to get some keys copied. The scene, rich in the ``oh, sugars'' and benign smiles back and forth that are the daily routine of Southern life, is one that anyone from above or below the Mason-Dixon line will read and treasure.
Happily, the authors say that Joye Cottage is almost done. They even added one room to their 60 during the renovation. Theirs, and ours, it seems, was time well-spent. MEMO: Wendy Clark, formerly of Roanoke, is a librarian in Austin, Texas. by CNB