Betty MacDonald

“Getting tuberculosis in the middle of your life is like starting downtown to do a lot of urgent errands and being hit by a bus. When you regain consciousness you remember nothing about the urgent errands. You can’t even remember where you were going.” Thus begins Betty MacDonald’s memoir of her year in a sanatorium just outside Seattle battling the “White Plague.” MacDonald uses her offbeat humor to make the most of her time in the TB sanatorium—making all of us laugh in the process.

The Plague and I

When Betty MacDonald married a marine and moved to a small chicken farm on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, she was largely unprepared for the rigors of life in the wild. With no running water, no electricity, a house in need of constant repair, and days that ran from four in the morning to nine at night, the MacDonalds had barely a moment to put their feet up and relax. And then came the children. Yet through every trial and pitfall—through chaos and catastrophe—this indomitable family somehow, mercifully, never lost its sense of humor. A beloved literary treasure for more than half a century, Betty MacDonald's The Egg and I is a heartwarming and uproarious account of adventure and survival on an American frontier.

The Egg and I

Sarah Sammis

Although I can read fast, I don't tear through every book I'm reading. Take for instance, The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald. I read it slowly, only about ten pages a week for ten months.

I read a review of The Egg and I at the start of 2010, I think on The Pioneer Woman blog, but I'm not sure. Shortly after adding it to my wishlist I spotted a copy at the Friends of the Library sale. Bonus! (Yes, I really think like this when finding books.)

So anyway, the book is a memoir and was made into a movie. Chances are I've seen the movie but I don't remember seeing it. The memoir is about life on a run down chicken ranch in Chimacum, Washington. There's the stove that works only when it wants to, the house that needs constant repair. And so on and so forth.

The book's divided into seasons and each one goes into lengthy detail about how the seasons affect the work on house, the work in the garden, the attitudes of the neighbors and the author's basic attitude towards life.

While I enjoyed the book, reading it at about a pace of two pages a day, I can't say it's perfect, or even close. The author is annoying and whines throughout about one thing or other. She takes out her frustrations on everyone and everything but never bothers to admit that she made the mistake of agreeing to move to that run down farm in the first place.

The Plague and I

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