The Egg and I is a funny memoir about a woman who follows her husband on his quest to become a chicken farmer. It was originally written in 1945, became a bestseller, and has been reprinted several times. This was a book chosen for my book club read, and I was looking forward to some good laughs. I have to say there were some really good laugh-out-loud moments and the author is a good writer, but overall, the descriptions of farm life made it a tedious read for me.

The book has a slow start, and the author does not relate the two years or so she spent in the Olympic Mountains in chronological order but rather by seasons. Sometimes this made her story hard to follow. I can pinpoint the accounts she tells of her life that I enjoyed and found interesting, but the details upon details of farm life and especially the chickens had my eyes glazing over or my head nodding off.

What I found disappointing was that although she was pregnant when she first started on the farm that detail is only mentioned almost half-way through! And there is almost no details of her pregnancy, labour or moments with her little daughter. It was all about the farm! The extremely hard work on the farm, the hard weather conditions on the farm, the crazy neighbours and their farms, the Indians and their problems, the chickens on the farm, more about the chickens on the farm and so forth.

She and her husband lived like roommates even though they were newlyweds. She describes their life like workmates. Besides her frustration with her husband's oblivion to her feelings about the farm, the author does not delve deep into emotions, whether for her husband or daughter. It was a superficial read for me. In addition, there is much religious profanity, not on her part, but coming from the neighbours. The ending came abruptly and with no new revelations. The book just ended. I was relieved when it did.

I loved reading The House at Riverton mainly because the author writes beautifully, her characters are well-developed and she has a good story to tell. The story fluctuates between present and past and is so well done I never felt a break in the flow of narrative. I was quickly drawn in from the very beginning as 98-year-old Grace tells about her past-- a past that begins in 1914 at the brink of WWI when Grace is but a 14 year-old servant girl in England, until the roaring twenties when the unraveling of events comes to an end.

Grace's life is closely tied to the aristocratic Hartford sisters, Hannah and Emmeline and their family who live at Riverton House. Then, in the summer of 1924, at a society party, a young poet commits suicide and only the Hartford girls and Grace know the truth. This truth Grace has told no one, but now that she is in a nursing home and getting frailer by the day, she wants to tell her story before she dies.

Although I enjoyed Grace's narrative, I did not always agree with her choices. Sometimes, I wanted to shake her. But the way she tells the story is so compelling. We get an idea of why servants were loyal to their employers, of why the changes that WWI brought were difficult, necessary and pivotal, and how a small mistake can be life shattering. I also thought that the book could have been shorter and that The Game the Hartford children played would have been more important to the plot, but unfortunately it wasn't.

Grace lives through the turbulent postwar years marked by great societal changes that affect the characters and their decisions. I found the author did a superb job of bring this era to life. Alfred, one of the servants, was much affected by these changes and he is the one that was proactive as opposed to Grace. 

Ultimately, there is much tragedy in this novel, however, the story comes to a stunning conclusion, some of which did not totally surprise me except for the role that Grace herself unwittingly played in it. I will definitely read more by this author.