American Foursquare

An American Foursquare is a kit house from the turn of the 20th Century, which any man "of average ability" could build himself. This novel follows one such house in Lawrence, Kansas, as it is built and homed with a poor, violent family for generations. The house falls in love with the Pentecostal church/cult that gets built next door as the story follows the tragic best friendship of the house's son and the church's daughter. They witness a crime in their teens which ends their friendship, and the novel follows them as they reunite as adults.