NONFICTION - Nov. 17, 1991

THE WALLS AROUND US: The Thinking Person’s Guide to How a House Works by David Owen (Villard Books: $21; 320 pp.). It’s a wonder, really, why a book like this hasn’t been published before--a how-to with charm. Then again, a book like “The Walls Around Us” requires a special combination of talents, for the writer must get to the heart of numerous technical subjects--plumbing, electricity, roofing, etc.--without getting lost in the details. David Owen, a staff writer at the New Yorker, has admirably avoided the pitfalls, for two reasons: because he emphasizes the whys of construction as much as the hows, and because he’s very funny. Owen is master of the Fun Fact: We learn, for example, that the closest living relative of the termite is the cockroach (to which Owen appends the thought, “Nice family!”). “The Walls Around Us” is the literary equivalent of a circular saw: a luxury, until you use it . . . and then wonder how you ever got by without one.