Anybody Can Do Anything

Comedy is probably not the first thing that springs to mind when we recall the Great Depression, but when Betty MacDonald recounted her experiences of that "hard" and "dreary" era in Anybody Can Do Anything, she found lots to laugh about. Chronologically, this book takes place after her misadventures on a chicken ranch—the subject of Betty's first book, The Egg and I—and before her account of a year spent in a tuberculosis sanatorium, recounted in The Plague and I. Despite the hilarity with which she described her time spent chicken farming, she was unhappy in her marriage and terribly lonely. Anybody Can Do Anything opens with her leaving the farm and her husband and making her way with her two children back to Seattle and the bosom of her family, just as the Depression begins. Some of the sentiments and words Betty uses are, arguably, dated and not politically correct. Still, they afford us an interesting window into our recent past and a glimpse of what life was like before the various civil rights movements, women's rights, and political correctness. Betty is worth listening to just for the sheer entertainment value she provides—a wonderful combination of beautiful writing and laugh-out-loud humor—and for those who want more, her reflections can teach us much about coping with adversity.