The nice people at Post-Hypnotic Press gave me some codes for review copies of their Betty MacDonald audiobooks… approximately forever ago. I listened to The Egg and I (which I’d previously read) and finally remembered that the codes were still kicking around somewhere – so I recently downloaded and listened to The Plague and I (1948). As with The Egg and I, it was narrated by the excellent Heather Henderson.
I did a little poll on Twitter to try and establish whether ‘plague’ rhymes with ‘egg’ in American English – it sort of does when Henderson says it – to work out whether or not the title was intended to be a pun on The Egg and I. Jury’s out. But the ‘plague’ in question in TB. Back in the days when this was a much more real threat in America, Macdonald caught it from a man in her office – who, it turned out, had known he had TB and hadn’t bothered to do anything about it. The only cure is to go and rest in a sanatorium – not in the Swiss alps, as one might imagine, but in an American facility that was free to those who couldn’t afford the enormous bills of most places. As a young single mother, Macdonald was shunted high up the waiting list.
But we don’t get there for a while. I’ve discovered that Macdonald likes to ramble around a topic for a while before she gets to the gist of a book. And so we hear all about her family’s history of hypochondria and illness for a while – for rather too long a while, in my opinion, as by the time we get to the main point of The Plague and I, it feels as though we’ve been waiting impatiently in the wings for hours.
Once we get there, though, The Plague and I is dependably funny – Macdonald writes wonderfully about all the different roommates she has – but also rather harrowing at times. Fans of The Egg and I will know that Macdonald can write very amusingly about hardship, but there is a distinction between calamitous events on a farm and the Kafkaesque cruelty of the sanatorium. On the one hand, they are trying to save their patients, and perhaps have to be cruel to be kind. On the other hand, there are so many draconian rules (no talking, no coughing, no using the bathroom) – that they won’t tell people until they break them – and patients never have anything explained to them. To be suddenly moved into solitary confinement, or taken for an operation without being told what it will be – it must have been terrifying, and Macdonald manages to convey that, while also finding (with hindsight) the ridiculous in each situation, and laughing at it.
Her fellow patients include Kimi, a Japanese girl who is kind, delivers occasional sharp humour, and forever mourns that she is too tall to find a husband. I could have done without Henderson’s impersonations of a Japanese person – it felt a little uncomfortable – but I don’t really know what is usually done in such situations with an audiobook. And then there’s another sympathetic patient, whose name escapes me for the moment – who complains a lot, but is intelligent, and sees Macdonald as a comrade in arms. Besides them, most of the others get short shrift from Macdonald – whether the femme fatale type, forever talking about how sleepy she is, or the young woman who doesn’t take any of it seriously.
We know, of course, that Macdonald survived TB – but, from within, she never knew how long she’d be there, or how well she was. The whole experience sounds maddening and horrifying, but she turns it into an entertaining and often laugh-out-loud book. Henderson’s narration wonderfully judges the frustration, bonhomie, and nervousness that make up Macdonald’s persona in The Plague and I. If you haven’t read this, or any Macdonald memoir, I very much recommend listening to the audiobook.
Yes, plague rhymes with egg as usually pronounced in American English, so the title is a take off on the very successful Egg and I. Put another way, “egg” in The Egg in The Egg and I is pronounced to rhyme with to rhyme with plague, rag, nag, bag.
I lived in the US for 27 years and I have never heard plague rhyme with egg. Betty MacDonald is from Washington state, though, and I’ve never lived there. That said, I love this book.
I was in a sanitarium in England at 16 years of age and we were all told by the doctors that we would never marry have children or get better if it were not for the Americans or Russians discovering strep they would have been correc I am now 92 and enjoying life in California God bless scientists and my four children agree with that
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Native Californian who has lived all over the US (14 states; now in Texas, y’all) and has never heard plague rhymed with egg. Rather, it’s a long a, as in age, stay, and obey. I’ve never heard rag, nag, or bag rhymed with egg or plague (I learned to pronounce them sound like the a in stag, plaque, and tack). Then again, I haven’t lived in every state and I’m not a linguist.
I remember reading this book when I was around 12 and being especially impressed with the restrictions on coughing and urinating (my mother was appalled, and my library choices were more closely scrutinized for months). Thanks for bringing it to my attention, Simon. I’ve added it to my Audible wishlist
Never heard plague to rhyme with egg either (play-g, and egg-like-leg), but still it’s a clear pun on her earlier book title. As it happens, Betty Macdonald didn’t survive her TB long; she died at only age 50. The book of hers that I’ve enjoyed by far the most is Onions in the Stew, her account of her pioneering life on gorgeous Vashon Island, Washington. A real sense of place, and not so much rambling.
I’ve heard egg said to rhyme with plague, when I was living in Maryland. I had to ask the person to repeat three times before I understood.
Hahahaha well there’s hot controversy in the comments about whether plague and egg rhyme, I see! This Louisiana girl doesn’t rhyme the two, and my New York parents don’t rhyme it either, for whatever that’s worth. Regardless, that’s a pretty good slant rhyme slash pun — when I discovered recently that this book existed, I laughed out loud because that’s such a good pun. What a cool lady.
I’m sorry. Life-long west coast of the US-er here (CA, HI, WA) and I have no idea how people are possibly pronouncing egg (aygg) and plague (playgg) in ways that they DO NOT rhyme. How is that even a thing? (Eh-gg? Yuck.)
Also, I really hated the racism (sometimes casual, sometimes not-so casual) in The Egg and I so I suspect that this is not the book for me. It’s too bad because she’s rather funny … until she’s not. And I read the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books over and over as a kid but now am afraid to ever revisit them in case there is casual racism in them that I was too young to notice.
Haha! I’m loving the different views on the rhyme situ. Weirdly, the audio is more like ‘egg’ and ‘plegg’. Where ‘egg’ rhymes with ‘beg’. Unless that also rhymes with ‘plague’ in the way you say it… I give up, this is too hard! (I know that ‘Craig’ tend to rhyme with ‘beg’ in American English, right? Here, it rhymes with ‘vague’.)
Anyway – this book isn’t racist (unlike The Egg and I), which is nice. The only non-Caucasian character is Kimi, and there isn’t anything offensive written about her. My qualms were more with the impersonation of a Japanese voice in the audiobook!
Oh, that’s good to know! Your description had me worried. I was just so disappointed with the first book. A bad racial voice in an audiobook is easy to avoid.
I read this last year – I read a whole host of books set in sanatoria, and the whole lost world of it was fascinating but horrible. I didn’t find this as funny as some people do, just because I found the situation so upsetting. In general I do like Betty MacDonald, though she could have done with a good editor.