Onions in the Stew | 
 enlarge | Author: Betty Bard Macdonald
Publisher: G. K. Hall & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy Used: $12.11
You Save: $11.84 (49%)
Used (6) from $12.11
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 928589
Format: Large Print
Media: Paperback
Edition: Largeprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 341
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 1
ISBN: 0783891075
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780783891071
ASIN: 0783891075
Publication Date: August 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
You know how sometimes friendship blossoms in the rst few moments of meeting? “Something clicked,” we say. Well, that's what discovering Betty MacDonald was like for me: I happened to read a couple of pages of one of her books and — click — knew right away that here was a vivacious writer whose friendly, funny, and ery company I was really going to enjoy. Although MacDonald's rst and most popular book, The Egg and I, has remained in print since its original publication, her three other volumes have been unavailable for decades. The Plague and I recounts MacDonald's experiences in a Seattle sanitarium, where the author spent almost a year (1938-39) battling tuberculosis. The White Plague was no laughing matter, but MacDonald nonetheless makes a sprightly tale of her brush with something deadly. Anybody Can Do Anything is a high-spirited, hilarious celebration of how “the warmth and loyalty and laughter of a big family” brightened their weathering of The Great Depression. In Onions in the Stew, MacDonald is in unbuttonedly frolicsome form as she describes how, with husband and daughters, she set to work making a life on a rough-and-tumble island in Puget Sound, a ferry-ride from Seattle.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
Perhaps the best of her books November 29, 2007
I first met Betty McDonald when I read The Egg and I, back in high school in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1960s, and I was completely enthralled. First of all: she writes extremely well. Her sentences are terse and well-formed, and she has a knack for shaping quips of all kinds: the quick laugh, the sudden surprise laugh line, and the careful set-up gag. Most of all, though, I find myself laughing aloud (she's one of the few authors who makes me laugh aloud while reading) at the perfection of a sentence which is at the same time witty, perfectly balanced, completely appropriate, and completely unexpected.
You will find all this - in spades - in Onions in the Stew. It is a mellower book than the others, for many reasons; she was older when she wrote it - and, I think, happier in her second marriage; also, her already considerable skill at writing had grown. Her descriptions of Vashon Island in the 1940s are utterly perfect: beautiful, clever, and bittersweet all at once. Her descriptions of her husband and daughters - and others in her family - are full of warmth, and are at the same time completely clear-eyed and unsentimental.
Frankly, comparing Betty to Erma Bombeck is like comparing Julia Child to Rachael Ray. They can both cook - but, oh boy, I know whose house I'd like to visit for lunch . . .
Who Couldn't LOVE Betty MacDonald! January 6, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I first read Onions in the Stew almost thirty years ago, in a Reader's Digest Condensed Books version, and I never forgot it. What a JOY to receive the complete version as a gift years later, along with The Plague and I, and Anybody Can Do Anything, when they were reissued by The Common Reader. I absolutely devoured them, passed them around among my friends & loved ones (keeping track of who had them, very uncharacteristic but they're the kind of books you never want to lose!!!!) and agree with every five-star reviewer here, especially "pony-express," that Betty is the best friend you never met. Also enjoyed the comment about how much fun heaven will be, to drink strong coffee & yak with Betty MacDonald. She is still as witty today as when she wrote her books, utterly classic and fresh, laugh-out-loud and tremendously endearing without EVER being cloying. Such a cut above. Her other books are equally wonderful, and I just wish more people were exposed to her; she's a tonic for stress, an antidote to depression. So glad there are others out there who love her as I do!
Her Memoirs December 1, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I've just finished the fourth Betty MacDonald memoir. Thank you Amazon for the access to all these out of print books!
I now know what's going to be fun in Heaven - chatting with Betty over strong cups of coffee.
These books were like discovering a new best friend. I've never been so entertained by reading. What a gal!
Much better than. . . June 28, 2005
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
"The Egg and I." As I said in my review of the earlier book, although I found parts of "Egg" charming, the chapter on Indians made my part-Cherokee blood boil, and that other parts seemed rather mean-spirited as well.
There is none of the mean-spiritedness in "Onions", probably because, in spite of the various toils and tribulations of life on the island, Betty was basically happy there, as opposed to "Egg" where she was mostly miserable.
I loved the part about the small woman who loved to curl up on soft, comfy places like sofas, armchairs, and other women's husbands' laps. I wondered, though, why Betty didn't just ask her to step out into the garden and then drop-kick her across the straight to Seattle? I'm sure she could have gotten some of the other women in their circle of friends to help.
Many of the events she tells of show us that teenage girls have always been a handful, whatever they say. However, in spite of all the complaining and whining, the girls were willing to pich in; how many girls their age nowadays would have something like stuffed pork chops waiting when their parents came home from work?
While "Egg" left me wondering why anyone in their right mind would want to run a chicken farm in the middle of a howling wilderness, "Onions" made me wonder if living on an island might not be fun.
 What a pleasant surprise! August 28, 2002
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Having finished my previous book and waiting for Amazon's free shipping promo to buy more, I picked up this book collecting dust in my book closet. I was pleasantly surprised. It is smart and funny and so down-to-earth that you have to instantly like Betty as your best friend. Althouhg I am not a big fan of women titles (those seems to dominate the New York Times bestsellers list these days), I laughed out loud on a plane from Washington DC to Houston on a business trip. Who knew that everyday domestic issues can be so light and funny? Anyway, just try it. You will find it more enjoyable than you want to admit.
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