Toil: Building Yourself

An unvarnished look at the frustrations, hazards and rewards of building a house, this journal doubles as a search for self. Procter, who died in 1998 at age 55, was a carpenter, novelist, essayist, performance artist, actor and TV producer. A Harvard graduate from an old Boston family "saturated with New England Puritanism," he rode the countercultural wave to California in 1968, where he remained until he moved to Oregon in 1991. In this diary of a seven-month house-building project (1994-1995), Procter, a recovered alcoholic and drug addict, meditates and recites prayers while nailing down particleboard and learning self-acceptance and humility as "a $10-an-hour grunt carpenter." Along with a candid account of the on-the-job obstacles he has facedAa bad back, bouts of depression, fear of heights, grinding routine, a vandal who leaves his graffiti signatureAmuch of the drama comes from the friction among the members of his construction crew. Procter's boss, Vern, is a dour Vietnam veteran, suspicious of the ex-hippie author. Bud, Vern's son, is surly and attends to his year-old daughter undergoing cancer chemotherapy. Brian, Procter's co-worker and sometime ally, is macho, bossy, and talks and sings incessantly. Somehow, the houseAbuilt alongside a golf course with Plexiglas shields to protect windows from stray ballsAtakes shape, despite screwups, accidents and occasional disputes with the client, an acupuncturist and painter. This self-absorbed journal convincingly describes work as an attempt to achieve a state of flow, a rare balance between materials, tools, mind, heart and the task at hand. (June) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.