The Kitchen Sink Papers: My Life as a Househusband

by Mike McGrady

McGrady, Mike, Kitchen Sink Papers, My Life As A Househusband

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

185 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[RYCJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed The Kitchen Sink Papers. It wasn't a big book, yet I dined on it all week. It's been a long time coming across a read as humorous; a read that has helped me finally identify to a sobering default what separates writers from those who've written a book. Writers (like McGrady) can spin a tying shoelace diary into a laced up boot page-turner. He hit all the corners assessing marriage, raising and feeding a family, and not least of all, what it means to work inside the home.

My favorite spots. Him assessing the costs of that hospital stay. A riot. Or was that a ride? The dinner parties and exchanges between guests inquiring about `what he was up to'. The bit on Claudia's visit...now that was just too beautiful of a treat, as well as all the lessons he learned, and parallels concocted revaluing the duties of a homemaker. But where I laughed the hardest, to the point where I thought I'd never stop laughing, and that was him drawing out the laundry detail and that one `red plaid hunting shirt'.

The Kitchen Sink Papers really is a slipping off a bar stool finger lickin' tool.

[RebL · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this rapidly-becoming-brittle paperback among my mom's books. Published in 1974, arguably the zenith of the women's lib movement, a successful columnist quits his job to be a househusband for a year while his wife launches her own business. Of course he gets his newspaper to underwrite the whole project so he hasn't *really* quit his job, he's just not going to work for a year. Is this the first-ever "I did this for a year and then I wrote a book about it" project? McGrady makes a big deal about their finances, even dropping some numbers so everyone knows his socioeconomic status at the outset, so here it is broken down exactly what it takes to be the househusband for a year: $35,000 annual income (when adjusted for inflation the equivalent of $146,540 today), $70,000 house ($341,927 today), wife's income $10,000-20,000 ($48,846.75-$97,693.51, not too shabby for what he considers a "hobby job"), her (and then his) weekly allowance for groceries and whatnot $100 ($488.47 today). And boy does he whiiiine about having to make do with his allowance. I need more moooooooney. I'm not sorry I read the book, but it came off as a little condescending and kind of pissed me off at times. I can only hope it was a hugely popular book in 1974 and caused lots of other men to change their attitudes about their wives' jobs and/or what they did at the house with the kids all day. Long out of print, you can still find it through Interlibrary Loan or on Amazon used for $1.88 (38¢ in 1974 money).

[Treasure Island Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mr. Mom account from the seventies when gender-specific norms made it unusual for a wife to choose to be the breadwinner while a husband stayed home to cook, clean, and do laundry. How times have changed! Full-time homemaking is rare; both partners generally have to contribute and maintain the homestead. Some of the opinions expressed in this book feel misogynistic today.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a library discard that I've finally gotten around to reading. Written in the 1970s, Mike McGrady recounts his year as a "househusband," giving up his job at Newsweek, while his wife goes to work full time expanding her plastic wares business. I liked his writing style, and it was fairly interesting, so reading this was enjoyable.