A graceful, inspired
memoir about building a home from scratch and discovering a true sense of
self—in just eighty-four square feet—by Dee Williams, a pioneer in sustainable
living and the proud owner of a very tiny house
After a heart condition felled Dee Williams in the grocery
store ten years ago, she initially threw herself headfirst back into her old
life, which included a pricey three-bedroom house, overtime hours to cover
homeowner bills, and a general lack of free time. In the midst of contemplating
her future, a new sense of clarity took hold. What was all this stuff for?
Mortgage payments and the time-suck of homeownership felt like a waste, and no
one has the money or desire to pack it in and live on an island without family,
friends, or health insurance.
Discovering the sustainability movement and building her own
house was just the beginning of building a new life. Williams can now list
everything she owns on one sheet of paper, her monthly bills amount to about eight dollars, and it takes her ten minutes to clean the entire house. It’s allowed her to
slow down, scale back, spend more time with family and friends—and given her
the freedom to head out for adventure, or watch the clouds and sunset while
drinking a beer on her (yes, tiny) front porch. Without escaping to the wilds
or going off the grid, Williams achieved a happy balance of the normal and the radical
and created a new model for simple, practical living.
Part how-to and part
why-to, The Big Tiny is not just a memoir of that “aha” moment
posttrauma but an utterly seductive meditation on what it means to build the
good life and the right life, every day.
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“His was 150 square feet and hers
was 84, but Henry David Thoreau and newcomer Williams find significant common
ground in their little abodes. Though Thoreau didn’t spend a lot of time
regaling us about living in his cabin by Walden, and Williams spends a great
deal of time describing living in hers, they shared the same desire: to pare
down their lives. ‘I imagined,’ she writes, ‘I'd learn something about myself
by stripping down to the basics—by living with two dinner plates, three spoons,
two pairs of pants, a dress, and my wool skivvies’…She chronicles how she found
ancient planks of wood to use as siding, learned how to use her eyes and intuition
when building, joined the ‘flannel shirt club’ and became an all-around
do-it-yourself builder…A lightweight curiosity that will find sympathy with
readers frustrated with the conventional rat race.”
—
Kirkus Reviews