Blandings' Way

By: Eric Hodgins

In the late 1930s, Eric Hodgins wanted to find a country house that would provide a tranquil escape from the pressures of his job as an executive with Time Inc. But when he and his wife began to build a place in New Milford, Connecticut, they found that the project drained their sprits and their bank account with frightening speed. Hodgins was forced to sell the house two years later. But he went on to write two popular novels about his trials as a homeowner - Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House and Blandings' Way, a fictionalized account of his family's brief time in Connecticut. The delightful Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House came out in new edition in 2004 that reproduces the wonderful original illustrations by William Steig. Blandings' Way is darker but just as funny and, though out of print, worth tracking down online or elsewhere. The theme and tone emerge early, when Jim Blandings admits to his lawyer that he needs "a haven" from his work at a Madison Avenue advertising agency: His boss believes in "Peace Through Advertising" and wants Blandings to support it by writing an "open letter" to Joseph Stalin. But Blandings's lawyer doubts the soundness - and perhaps the sanity - of the move to the country. "You're not my idea of the rural type," he says. "If you're going to play at that, for heaven's sake take it slow and easy. ... Don't sponsor a zoning ordinance. Have nothing to do with dairying in thought or in deed. Don't decide to buy the local newspaper and be its country-gentleman publisher." These, of course, are all the things Blandings will do. In Blandings' Way he ricochets his way from one crisis to the next with hilarious results, keenly aware of his own failings. He's smart enough to see how wrong things could go in the country but not smart enough to resist the possibility that they could go right. And his motives are always decent and honorable.

• Format: Hardcover
• ISBN: B005XJG5CK
• Release Date: January 1950
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Weight: 1.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.6" x 9.1"