Encouraged to do so (as I am sure many have been by the Julie and Julia movie) I just finished Julia Child's "My Life in France". It is basically an autobiography heavily weighted towards the influence of food and the career it spawned in Julia Child's life.
First the good: The book made me want to own JC's encyclopedic "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"; although when I recently looked up her recipe for beef bourguignon (a recipe prominently featured in the movie) I was stunned at the amount of time and money that the dish required (we opted for a crock-pot version that was as-we-say in our social circle: "cheap and yum").
Now the not-so-good. Like her cookbook is reported to be, "My Life in France" was longer than it should have been. I found the book fascinating up to the point that she published "Mastering" but then she slogged on regarding "Mastering II" etc. I did find much of the later chapters interesting but didn't feel that they needed as full a treatment as they received. Still, when I laid the book down, I was glad to have read it all the way through.
If you find Julie and Julia to be a good movie, if you enjoy cooking and like hearing other people describe foreign lands that they adore, "My Life in France" might be for you (well, the first 3/4ths, anyway).
2 comments:
I like that you highlight books you've read. Just a couple weeks ago I checked again to see if the paperback had come out yet for Empire of the Summer Moon. Nope...still waiting.
I read that book some time ago and was not thrilled with it. However, I LOVE the movie Julie and Julia. I think the biographies of Julia and even the book of Julia and Paul's letters would be good to read too
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