Onions in the Stew

The beloved memoirist recounts the unexpected charms and trials of family life on an island in the Puget Sound in this delightfully witty memoir.

Betty MacDonald first regaled readers with tales of her floundering chicken farm in her 1945 memoir, The Egg and I. As she continued to share her "painfully, barkingly funny" stories of divorce, motherhood, tuberculosis, and other light subjects, MacDonald established herself as one of the great chroniclers of 20th century life in the Pacific Northwest (The Guardian, UK).


In Onions in the Stew, MacDonald's fourth and final memoir, she recounts the twelve years she and her family spent on the rough-and-tumble shores of Vashon Island in the Puget Sound, just a ferry ride away from Seattle. Writing in her signature style—"the tongue is still sharp for a ludicrous situation, a personality quirk and a self-turned jibe"—she tells of making a home despite terrible winters, perilous commutes to the mainland, less-than-loveable neighbors, and two daughters undergoing—yet somehow ultimately surviving—adolescence (Kirkus, starred review).