Listening to this audiobook took me back in time to my childhood and to memories of my parents and grandparents talking about 'the good old days'. My relatives' stories about farming before electricity, running water and tractors became standard are similar in substance, but not as wittily told, as Betty's stories of living and working on a farm. They gardened, canned, sewed, tatted and worried about running out of supplies before they could make it to town again. My parents, who also farmed, as well as some of my other relatives, raised chickens, as well as hogs, steers, sheep and milk cows. Betty MacDonald is about the same age as my grandparents. By way of disclaimer, I and most of my forbears grew up on a farm in the Midwest. I listened to the audiobook version of THE EGG AND I and found it as delightful as the movie and print version. The book is narrated by heather Henderson. The book is well written and most enjoyable. Several people filed lawsuit claiming the book damaged their reputations but they all lost. She created the Kettle family and in 1947 they were made into a movie. MacDonald made the other people in the book into composite characters with fictional names to protect their friends and acquaintances’ identities. The book is full of humor some of it farm people will relate to more than a city dweller.

We grew up on a farm so the book brought back memories. The book opens with her childhood but most of the book is about her marriage in 1927 and her life on a chicken farm in the Olympic Peninsula. The book was released in October of 1945 and it was a quirky, semi-autobiographical book about a young woman in the Pacific Northwest during the early decades of the twentieth century. I remember enjoying the book and when I saw it released in audio format I decided to read it again. I remember in 1946 my mother reading “The egg and I” to my sister and I. Oh, I remember those August canning days.

The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald