So, yesterday was the official kick-off of the Keep Portland Weird festival here in Paris, which meant that I had a reading/screening in the...
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"The Egg and I" has never been out of print since it first appeared in 1945, and when you read it you'll readily see why. Its author, Betty MacDonald, ranks with Wodehouse and, perhaps, even with Twain for the comedic insight and pure lyricism of her writing. Her account of life on a chicken ranch in the early years of her first marriage is as fresh and witty today as it was when first published.
Interestingly, this book gave us Ma and Pa Kettle, protagonists of the classic films starring Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride. They were considerably sanitized for their movies; here you will meet them in their original, and not always flattering, incarnation.
Warning: Some of Mrs. MacDonald's observations on the Native Americans of the Northwest will strike the present-day reader as harsh and racist. Apart from this disappointing feature, however, "The Egg and I" is still worth reading and laughing out loud over.
In case you're eager to see the Claudette Colbert-Fred MacMurray film after you've read the book, don't bother. Wonderful actress though she was, Miss Colbert was simply too glamorous for the role of a chicken-farmer's wife, and the bowdlerized script can't compare to the wit and zing of the original, either.
Mrs. MacDonald wrote three more autobiographical books before her tragically early death from lung cancer in 1957: "The Plague and I," chronicling her recovery from tuberculosis; "Anybody Can Do Anything," describing her struggles during the Great Depression; and "Onions in the Stew," a recounting of family life on Vashon Island.
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The egg and I
Kevin Beuret, November 29, 2007
"The Egg and I" has never been out of print since it first appeared in 1945, and when you read it you'll readily see why. Its author, Betty MacDonald, ranks with Wodehouse and, perhaps, even with Twain for the comedic insight and pure lyricism of her writing. Her account of life on a chicken ranch in the early years of her first marriage is as fresh and witty today as it was when first published.Interestingly, this book gave us Ma and Pa Kettle, protagonists of the classic films starring Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride. They were considerably sanitized for their movies; here you will meet them in their original, and not always flattering, incarnation.
Warning: Some of Mrs. MacDonald's observations on the Native Americans of the Northwest will strike the present-day reader as harsh and racist. Apart from this disappointing feature, however, "The Egg and I" is still worth reading and laughing out loud over.
In case you're eager to see the Claudette Colbert-Fred MacMurray film after you've read the book, don't bother. Wonderful actress though she was, Miss Colbert was simply too glamorous for the role of a chicken-farmer's wife, and the bowdlerized script can't compare to the wit and zing of the original, either.
Mrs. MacDonald wrote three more autobiographical books before her tragically early death from lung cancer in 1957: "The Plague and I," chronicling her recovery from tuberculosis; "Anybody Can Do Anything," describing her struggles during the Great Depression; and "Onions in the Stew," a recounting of family life on Vashon Island.
(3 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)