The Plague and I

The Plague and I

You know how sometimes friendship blossoms in the Þrst 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 — <I>click</I> — knew right away that here was a vivacious writer whose friendly, funny, and Þery company I was really going to enjoy. Although MacDonald's Þrst and most popular book, <I>The Egg and I,</I> has remained in print since its original publication, her three other volumes have been unavailable for decades. <I>The Plague and I</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. <I>Anybody Can Do Anything</I> 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 <I>Onions in the Stew,</I> 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.