Ripe for a Comeback

The Housing Shortage Is Nothing New, Really

What do the Berlin Stories, Valley of the Dolls, Tales of the City, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s have in common?

A genre so obscure it doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page!

All four of the aforementioned stories—and many more—are set in shared housing. The older books take place in boarding houses; for example, Isherwood’s Berlin Stories takes place during the hyperinflation and the housing shortage of Germany following WWI. The point-of-view character bumps from rented room to rented room, sometimes sharing a room, but always meeting other characters. In Valley of the Dolls the three main characters meet during the WWII housing shortage in New York City, and are forced to share a small apartment. The two newer examples take place in small apartments cut up from former single-family houses. As a genre, they’re all called “boardinghouse stories.”

Every time housing is in short supply, the boardinghouse genre reemerges, filled with quirky characters thrown into close proximity in shared accommodations. It’s a perennial form of fiction. Paths cross repeatedly. Relationships escalate because of such close quarters. Tempers flare. People fall in love.

Once housing becomes plentiful, the boardinghouse story falls out of favor.

In this world of van life and tiny houses and roommates, right now seems like the perfect time to tie together a bunch of characters under the same roof. Just a thought. Do you have a bunch of plot lines that need unification? If so, take a look at the classic form of the boardinghouse story.