Other editions of book A Place in the Country

A second memoir by the author of the acclaimed Sleeping Arrangements, Laura Shaine Cunningham's quest for the perfect country house is both hilarious and touching. The New York Times hailed this book as a New York Times Notable Book and The New Yorker published an excerpt...The New York Times Book Review promised would give as much joy as the classic "The Egg and I." Hilarious yet poignant.Having grown up as a city child- 7 people to 3 rooms- she always longed for green acres and a romantic Colonial style house. Her search takes her on many adventures- to a kosher "Country Club" in the Catskills to a movie set on a dilapidated farm where she must enact a survivor of a nuclear holocaust- to a rented castle in gated Tuxedo Park and then at last- to the estate of an English Lord that exceeds her fantasies but features many surprises. She finds herself raising a fat flock of geese, two demented goat sisters and falling in love with the herd of Holsteins whose life is a gustatory march to an endless lunch. Lugging 50 pound sacks of Chow, she gets little product from her lazy livestock but loads of pleasure.

For anyone who has ever wanted a country house, or a different kind of home than the one they have, this account of a young woman from the Bronx improbably finding her place in the country, a rambling early 19th century house called The Inn, is a breath of fresh Atlantic air. But it goes way beyond the tourism of so many other accounts about buying houses, because it delineates a whole life, beginning with a young child's weekend outings looking at real estate with her romantic mother, while living in cramped quarters in various relatives' houses, including for some time under an aunt's dining table. This is a lovely and lyrical account, filled with charm and wit, and of finding one's true home.