The final of the Betty MacDonald audiobooks from Post-Hypnotic Press is 1955’s Onions in the Stew – the fourth of her four autobiographical books. And it’s just as enjoyable as the others, even if Anybody Can Do Anything remains my favourite of the series.
No chicken farms or TB wards in this one – rather, it documents MacDonald moving to Vashon Island with her new husband, Donald MacDonald. As always (always!) MacDonald meanders around vagaries connected with the topic before getting into the topic proper – but ultimately they decide that they can’t live in Seattle or the surrounding suburbs, but could make a home for themselves on one of the islands,
MacDonald does seem to make a rod for her own back. She describes her difficulties and obstacles extremely amusingly, but moving to an island that is often inaccessible, and to a house that doesn’t have a road leading to it, is hardly conducive to ease.
As in all the other books, MacDonald encounters any number of odd characters. There is a feeling of unity on the island, but the odd fly in the ointment – such as the woman who palms off her (many) children on anybody who’ll house and feed them, then makes out later that she has been horribly offended and abused by said person. In MacDonald’s writing, though, the incident is funny rather than traumatic – with just that dark edge to it to set it off. The most appalling character seems to be her angry and bellicose dog Tudor.
MacDonald does self-deprecation so well. It’s so fun, for instance, to read about her family’s attempts to manoeuvre a washing machine by boat. Her daughters make a proper appearance here, having been mysteriously absent from her previous memoir, and join in the family’s amiability and ineptitude.
As for Vashon Island – I was rather surprised to learn, from Wikipedia, that the population is over 10,000. I don’t know what it was in the mid-century, but I rather got the impression from the book that it was a few hundred. I suppose 10,000 is still a smallish place, but I live in a village of about 150 people, so everything’s relative.
I’m sad to have got to the end of MacDonald’s oeuvre, and enjoyed hearing Heather Henderson narrate them so well. But I do have all the books on my shelves, so next time around I can read them the old-fashioned way.
I absolutely love the cover! I will have to check out this set of books–I’m sure it will be very nostalgic for me. Betty McDonald sounds a lot like my mother–enterprising, energetic, self-effacing, willing to try anything.
I visited Vashon Island during one of my visits to the Puget Sound area to visit my daughter when she was in college in Tacoma, and loved driving around it. I thought at the time that it seemed like a lovely place to live.
Oh how nice – to know the area you’re reading about would be lovely.
I’m sure the population of Vashon has gone way up since MacDonald’s day (as has the entire Seattle area). I think it was indeed rather remote at the time. As a former resident of the lovely Pacific Northwest, I’m so glad you enjoyed these glimpses at PNW life.
Ah, that makes sense! And it certainly seems like a lovely place, from this book.
Betty MacDonald is beyond criticism – any half-decent editor would have a stern word with her about the way her books are structured, but presumably she had such success with The Egg and I that no-one ever did. But that said, I still love them. She is very very funny, and the books are full of unexpected details of life. I said in my post on this book – she constantly comments on how poor they were, but cashmere sweaters, dishwashers, staff and cars abound. I don’t think it was quite like that in the UK in that era.
I used to live in Seattle, so again the settings are familiar, which adds to the enjoyment.