Saturday mornings are all about lying in bed and reading. This morning I finished reading Julia Child's My Life in France. It was my March selection for the Her Stories Memoir Reading Challenge (read four memoirs in four months).
I'm a little behind.
My Life in France
by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme
Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN:1-4000-4346-8
The French Chef first aired when I was six years old although I don't remember watching it until I was in high school. Julia Child's distinctive voice has stuck with me over the years.
When I opened this book and began reading, I could hear her voice regaling me with her adventures of life in France.
Imagine yourself sitting across the kitchen table while Julia deftly yields a knife to show you the proper way to bone a chicken. This book, however, is not about how-to-cook. It tells the story, which begins in 1948, when Julia moves to France with her husband Paul Child, a U.S. diplomat.
It tells the story of how Julia enrolls in the Cordon Bleu School of Cooking. It tells of the lifelong friendships she made and the adventure of writing two cookbooks. I was amazed at the length of time it took to write each book. Eleven years to write Mastering the Art of French Cooking and almost nine years for volume 2. The cookbooks were a collaborative effort with Frenchwoman Simca Beck.
The publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking opened the door to a new career for Julia. Television. The French Chef first aired in 1963 and continued until 1973. Paul Child had retired from government service and now became a full time, hands on supporter of Julia's writing and television career.
I like reading memoirs not only because they are personal stories of lives, but also because they are windows into various times and cultural events. My Life in France takes the reader from post-WWII France and America through the 1960s and 70s. The amazing changes in society and technology give me a new perspective of my life today.
Favorite quote from the book:
'No one's more important than people.'
This was said when Julia and Paul were exhausted and wanted to cancel a planned visit with friends. It reminds me of my mother saying, "You've got to cultivate your friends."'No one's more important than people.'
Now, can I condense this into a four sentence review for the memoir challenge? I'm not even going to try.
8 comments:
I've been dying to read this book. It sounds wonderful. I do not have "Mastering the ARt of French Cooking" and, some day, I will get it as French food is my favorite. I have the cook book she wrote with Jacques Pepin. Every recipe I've made is delicious and idiot proof. She always acted natural on tv, picking up her food when she dropped it, drinking wine while she cooked. Sometimes flubbing a recipe. She helped demystify cooking.
Thank you for the review. I vividly remember Julia's voice.
This sounds like a really goood book. I'll have to add it to my to-read list.
I like the quote. I love french cooking.
I missed Saturday lying in bed. Sunday's are good, too! I'm thinking French toast (I am lazy today, and it is easy to make).
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Happy blogging!
Just last year I read the autobiography of Julia Child. And I am now madly in love with her! What a wonderful, fun-loving, liberated-for-her-time, brilliant woman she was. I'm really looking forward to the movie with Meryl Streep.
I didn't know about the movie. How exciting! I'll have to check into it.
I have a rec for a different memoir that's quite fun, about coming of age in the '60s: "Cornfield Heiress" by Errollynne Peters. In one book she covers just about everything from Tennessee Walking horses, yachting, corporate women in the early '80s (remember those floppy ties?) bulimia, affairs with married men, carnies ... and, eventually, breast cancer. Needless to say, her approach is to live it up and not let it get her down. Very inspirational, plus it forces you to become more empathetic and understanding of handicaps (she lost the use of one arm as a result of lymphodema.)
You've got four months! Give this one a try.
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