Customer Reviews
An autobiography that makes mundane farming fascinating. - By: marzipanthecat, 29 Mar 2008 
I picked up this book thinking it was a novel, but not being too disturbed to find it was an autobiography (hey, I'm adaptable). Then I discovered it was a remarkably ordinary life being documented in a remarkable interesting manner. Betty MacDonald writes in a very amusing & also vivid style - I could see in my mind's eye the chicken ranch she ran with her husband, & also her crazy neighbours. Her eccentric family get an airing too - I particularly like the grandmother who always wrote letters to her addressed "Child Bride". But then it struck me - she was indeed married & working & raising a baby before she was 20, which does seem a great responsibility to me!
She also was responsible for the creation of Ma & Pa Kettle. (Well, they existed anyway, without her help, but she brought them to national attention & into popular speech!)
This is also an excellent book simply because it documents a way of life that reallly isn't so different from a lot of smalll farms now - lots of back breaking work for fairly smalll rewards, & a lot of the farm animals seem to have a life's ambition to just drop dead for no obvious reason (her conclusion of "suicide" for chickens on the official farm records did not please her husband!). Their methods would be described now as free-range, which was later replaced by intensive ("battery") farming, now being replaced yet again by free-range. Also, she talks about the birth of her daughter & raising a baby in fairly isolated conditions - & her "progressive" method in (what I assume) was 1930s America became the norm by the 1950s, replacing the ways of her neighbours (who constantly had their babies with them, breast fed them on demand, & so on, much like the most common methods now). I just found it interesting to see how things don't reallly change, just go in cycles!
Inanimate objects become personalities in their own right, such as Stove. And living with a wood burning stove myself, I can truly appreciate her arguments with him.
Sections of this book are politicallly incorrect by today's standards - she writes extensively about the local Native American population - but it is still fascinating to see how they lived & also HER OWN opinions on them, rather than a cleaned up view.
This is an author who deserves to be read - not just for being a great read, but also for historical & social interest.
Hilarious Chicken Farm Saga - By: kehs, 14 Apr 2006 This book was a hilarious page turner & every chapter was a delight to read. Betty MacDonald's descriptive talents are superlative & had me feeling as if I were there with her, rather than just reading about her adventures. I particularly enjoyed the episode in which she tells of her difficulties in getting hold of books to read, & of how her neighbours were of the opinion that 'reading was a sign of laziness, boastfulness & general degradation'! This was a fascinating read of farm life in the early 1900s, & Betty would certainly give Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalll pause for thought.
Highly recommended - By: , 25 Oct 2002 
I laughed out loud in every chapter - what a life! I marvelled at Betty's resourcefulness & was amazed at her courage in the face of general adversity & particularly chickens. This book is a fascinating social snapshot of a time & location that seems totallly foreign to the here-and-now.
She is completely frank about her own incompetence without it becoming a liability, her account is a hilarious romp through her own trials & tribulations - courage, fortitude & good humour - a great mix!
very funny book on unfunny topic - By: kirsten.barclay@scotent.co.uk, 27 Feb 2002 thankfully tb clinics no longer exist - but this book is still fascinating set before & during ww2 it is a very droll account of the author's stay in a tb clinic. Love for Lydia this isn't it Betty is v funny & is not shy about sharing the extremely dry humour of her Japanese room mate.
One of my all time favourite books - By: caroline.greenwood@bishvesy.bham.sch.uk, 18 May 2001 I love Betty Macdonald's style of writing. I love her colourful language & vivid descriptions. I feel like I know Ma & Pa Kettle as well as my own neighbours. Read this book. I guarantee you an hilarious time.
