Chicken Every Sunday: My Life with Mother’s Boarders by Rosemary Taylor ~ 1943. This edition: Blakiston, 1945. Hardcover. Illustrated by Donald McKay. 307 pages.
My rating: 6.5/10.
A nostalgic trip down memory lane. This fictionalized autobiography fits well into the “humorous memoir” genre so popular a half-century ago. If you enjoyed Cheaper by the Dozen (Galbraith), and The Egg an I (MacDonald) you will find this a pleasing read. The rating feels a bit low, but it’s not meant to be a snub, just a reflection of where this book fits in with other similar works which I have read and enjoyed over the years. It’s pleasant enough and I will happily recommend it if you come across it “cheap and easy”, but I doubt I would deliberately search it down unless I were particularly interested in the era and setting.
*****
I purchased this old hardcover recently, for a reasonable $5, at Second Glance in Kamloops, B.C. – a WONDERFUL secondhand bookstore, by the way, for any of us local enough to visit it in person. The title rang a faint bell in deepest memory, and once I dipped into it I realized that I had indeed read it years ago. It must have been as part of my mother’s library, though she no longer owns it – it obviously did not survive her many give-ways as she prepared to move from her huge house (two stories plus a packed-full attic) to the much tinier “granny house” she lives in now.
I’m a bit mystified as to why Mom parted with it, as it is just the kind of light memoir she generally enjoys, so I’m going to surprise her with it the next trip in to town with a box of books. At a physically frail 87, one of her few remaining pleasures is reading, and she keeps me busy searching my own shelves and scouting the secondhand emporiums for reading material; a chore I must admit I take on with great pleasure – an excuse to book shop! How much better does it get than having permission from your mother?!
The setting is Tuscon, Arizona, during the first decade of the 2oth Century; the boarding house that the author’s mother ran with such success was built in 1906, “far out in the country”, though, as predicted, the city soon came out to surround it during the boom times of the “roaring twenties”.
The father of the family was quite the wheeler-dealer; finances swung like a pendulum as deals succeeded or fell through; the mother decided to take matters into her own hands to ensure a steady enough income to feed the family, so she began to take in boarders. The book details the succession of quirky characters that passed through the Drachman family doors, as seen through the eyes of young Rosemary.
The incidents are well-presented and the characters are well-portrayed; I did enjoy reading this period piece and I will be keeping it (once my mother finishes with it) with my largish collection of similar works. The humor works most of the time; I smiled (rather than full-out laughed) throughout; the writing is more than competent. The author wrote another book of memoirs focussed on her father’s many enterprises (Ridin’ the Rainbow: Father’s Life in Tuscon, 1944), and several novels.
Apparently very popular at its time of publication, the book inspired a comedic 1944 stage play and then a 1949 movie of the same title, starring Dan Dailey, Celeste Holm, and a young Natalie Wood. (I see that the movie gets lackadaisical reviews on the few online sites I browsed through; I’ve never seen it and don’t plan on searching it out, so that’s all I can tell you.)
Leaves & Pages 
I read this book several years ago. I have since lost my copy (sadly in a house fire) but I recall enjoying it very much.
Have read this book a couple of times now. It was given to my Mother many years ago by a friend who visited USA during WW11 and we read it to Mum last year when she was in hospital.
I am planning a trip to USA and will visit Tuscon to see what remains from the book. Hopefull, but not expecting to be able to trace much.
Yes, I suspect there wouldn’t be much left of the scenes described in the book. Or perhaps there may be? Glimpses here and there, and of course the broader landscape and atmosphere would be fascinating and help to furnish the scene in one’s mind. I believe there was at least one other memoir by this writer delving into her father’s life; I’ve been meaning to track it down. Thank you for the comment and the nudge. 🙂
You’d never guess what I found yesterday when I ducked into a local antique shop for a quick breeze through their tiny book section – another Rosemary Taylor book. This one is called Harem Scare’m, and details Rosemary’s adventures as a newspaper correspondent in Morocco in her twenty-something years. Amazing coincidence, just after you commented on this other book of hers! 🙂
[…] stumble-upon books. I had read and written about Rosemary Taylor’s Arizona childhood memoir Chicken Every Sunday back in 2012, and then, just recently in March 2014 had received a comment on my post, which […]
[…] was a rather unusual memoir, narrated by the author to journalist/memoirist Rosemary Taylor (Chicken Every Sunday, Harem Scare’m) for the very good reason that the subject was paralyzed from the neck down […]
In 1944 I was 12 years old & already an avid reader. I became a sort of favorite of our small-town librarian & often got “first pick” of new books. So it was with Chicken Every Sunday. Many years later I chanced to meet with the author at a medical clinic & was able to thank her in person for her books. We had a nice visit. She was as delightful in person as in print. I still have two autographed copies of her books & treasure them.
What a wonderful thing to hear; what a nice memory to have. Rosemary Taylor does seem like she must have been a charming person to talk to. I just re-read her 1951 memoir of travel in the Middle East when she inadvertently ended up as a war correspondent (of sorts) during the Riff War in the 1920s. Funny and very likeable is how she comes across; not too sweet, though! I keep meaning to search out some more of her autobiographical books; she wrote another one focussed on her father which I can’t recall the name of at this moment. Thank you for the comment; much appreciated.
Her second best-seller memoir was “Ridin’ the Rainbow.” It and “Chicken” were two books Rosemary sent, autographed, after our brief meeting. I was an audiologist, & tested her hearing. She was elderly by then. Suddenly, in mid-test it occurred to me that my patient was the author I had enjoyed in childhood! When the test was over, as I removed her earphones I had a big smile as I told her, “I know who you are,” and we had a nice chat & I think I said, “I may have been your youngest fan in those days.” Later, I returned her to her companion in our waiting room & I heard her say, as they walked away, “He knew who I was!” She seemed so pleased, but I was even moreso.