The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald; narrated by Heather Henderson | May 2015; originally published October 1945 | Post Hypnotic Press | Audiobook $19.99
In 1945, Betty MacDonald’s first book, The Egg and I, took first America, and then the world, by storm. Writing about her adventures as a young wife on a chicken farm on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state, the book was a breath of fresh air to a world that, in the wake of WWII, sorely needed it. From 1927 to 1931, Betty lived with her first husband near Chimacum, Washington – a newlywed doing her best to adjust and help operate their small chicken farm.
The Egg and I enjoyed enormous success, selling over 1,000,000 copies within ten months of its original publication. It was adapted for stage, radio, and screen. Betty MacDonald wrote three other memoirs, as well as the still popular Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series for children, and is recognized by many as an important America humorist.
I decided to read this one for my Classics Club challenge because I have fond memories of reading the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series as a kid, but I didn’t want to overfill my to-read list with literature for children (a real possibility if I gave in to my nostalgia for all the books I devoured in my youth). This book is a classic in its own right, both as an early 20th century example of domestic humor and as the source material for later popular media.
Overall, it’s a charming book and there’s never a dull moment. I quite enjoyed listening to it while traveling to and from work; I even actually looked forward to my commute some days, which is really saying something because I hate driving. Betty MacDonald was able to take what was probably in reality a very trying time in her life — being a young newlywed with a boorish husband, a townie girl suddenly thrust into an isolated rural situation — and make it sound endearingly funny.
I’m glad I got a chance to read it. There are a couple of caveats, though, that would make me hesitate to recommend reading it to everybody.
First, the humor is often dependent on very sharply poking fun at other people — at times crossing the line into being just plain mean. It sometimes reads like “punching down” for comedy. Though I enjoy a good snark and feel that most humans can be poked fun at for all kinds of goofy behaviors, there is a point at which that ceases to be good-spirited and becomes churlish. I assume that the author was just attempting to construct funny caricatures out of real people, and at times she went a little overboard with it.
Second, the humor also sometimes centers on racist depictions of Native Americans. This is not surprising at all, given the time period and place of the story. Honestly, I would have been more surprised if the author hadn’t said anything racist by modern standards at all. What was unwelcome was just how much of the story centers on supposedly-humorous depictions of indigenous people acting stereotypically “savage” — an extension of the author’s attempt to make funny caricatures out of real people, probably. Even considering the book in the context of its time, and considering that the story is based on the author’s real-life experiences, it’s kind of a lot and detracts from the humor.
I waffled on assigning stars in this review because of these issues, but ultimately settled on 3 stars because I found the story engaging enough to also listen to Betty MacDonald’s later memoirs, The Plague and I, Anybody Can Do Anything, and Onions in the Stew (all read by the same wonderful narrator, thankfully).
The author’s snark in these subsequent books is more moderate and the racism is not nearly so blatant. I have to wonder if she received some significant feedback about it after her first book; in several instances, she makes an effort to write sympathetically about Black and Japanese characters — the latter being notable mainly because the stories take place just before, during, and just after WWII.
I would recommend this book to folks who like domestic humor or who enjoy early 20th century memoirs, with the aforementioned caveats regarding meanness and racism. If you do decide to read this book and find it funny, I can also recommend that you check out Betty MacDonald’s later memoirs as well, which in my opinion, are even more charming than the first.
Links:
- The Betty Bard MacDonald Collection at the University of Washington Libraries
- Entry for Betty MacDonald in HistoryLink, an online encyclopedia of Washington
Publication information: MacDonald, Betty. The egg and I. Vancouver, Canada: Post Hypnotic Press, 2015. Audiobook.
Source: Public library, via Hoopla.
Disclaimer: I am not compensated, monetarily or otherwise, for reviews of books or other products.
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