Innside Nantucket, by Frank Gilbreth Jr.

I know this is a month late, but I simply couldn't let this little gem slip by without remark. (If someone already reviewed it and I just missed it, then my abject apologies. I don't recall reading any discussion on it yet.)

This is written by one of the co-authors of the charming classics Cheaper By the Dozen and Belles On Their Toes. While those two books focused on the adventures of the Gilbreth family, this one stars the youngest brother Bob, now grown up, and his young wife Barbara. In fact, the story is written from the first-person perspective of Barbara, which must have been fun for Frank to write.

Nantucket is, of course, where the Gilbreths spent all their summer vacations growing up, and it retains a special place in their memories. So Bob is thrilled to sell out of their fast-paced lifestyle in New York and make a go of it running an inn on Nantucket Island. Barbara, not having the same nostalgic connections to her childhood, is more aware of the drawbacks of the high price of living and the primitive conditions. This book is a very humorous chronicle of their first year or so.

Aside from being a fun read about the Gilbreths (who come into it somewhat marginally), this book is just another heart-warming young-couple-making-a-go-of-it-in-tough-conditions story, but I always like those kinds of stories if they're well done and take care not to stray into the sappily sentimental, the impossibly dreary, or the extremely unlikely. This book succeeds very well.

It's full of the witty dialogue and clever references that I love from Cheaper and Belles. It reeks of the charm from another era. The one thing I do find a little sad about the Gilbreth family is that all of the kids chose to have only one or two children of their own. I wonder why that happened, since they obviously had such a good experience growing up in a large family; perhaps it was the cultural expectations of the times?

Anyway, it was a wonderful little book and highly recommended reading for those who love the originals.