My Life in France

Julia Child's endearing story about love, life, France and cooking. Ultimately more interesting than “Julie and Julia”.

I've been watching Julia on HBO and have been thoroughly enjoying it. When this book was selected for a group read, I was super excited to read Julia Child's own words. I was moderately familiar with her growing up coming from a PBS family on both sides, but I never thought much about her on my own until I was older and then especially when Julia premiered.

Published posthumously, this memoir details Julia Child's life with her husband Paul throughout his career as a U.S. diplomat and some time after. The book largely takes place in France, detailing the food, lifestyle, and friends they experienced in post-war Europe. She also discusses the cookbooks written with her friend Simca as well as her trailblazing show on PBS.

I enjoyed this immensely. It made me wish I could taste the foods she was discovering and take in the ambiance of her surroundings. I also adore her and Paul's relationship. It was so precious and I was glad the way it's been portrayed on Julia seems in line with real life. An all-around lovely read!

This likely would have been better for me personally if I grew up with more exposure to Julia Child or France and French cuisine. This very much romanticizes French everything.

I watched Julia Child when I was young. I found her funny, and interesting, and quirky. Over the years, I had different emotions. Was she a drunk as many tabloids would suggest? Was she a bully? Was she rude and arrogant? I don't know the answers to those questions, but I enjoyed the passion and strength she used to learn to speak another language, learn how to cook, write a book and become the person many know today. If you like food, or maybe just France, this would be a good book to read. RIP Julia

She's got a lot of zingers in here, but at heart, this book succeeds because of its joyous but simple recounting of several food-filled decades.

What I wasn't expecting was to be struck by political commentary in a food memoir. Which is to say Julia ain't no socialist, but there's familiarity in the struggles she had with her conservative father and various folks scared of la différence.

Still, Julia child had some moolah, and while travel is certainly life-expanding, her financial and education privilege does put a damper on some of my aspirational admiration. I will absolutely cook her sole meunière recipe within the month, but reading about her several houses, USIS adjacent or otherwise does put me into that deep millennial/climate-change depression where I imagine international travel and home ownership are generally drifting out of reach.

...also, I love reading books by and about women who did not have children.

The book explains how Child fell in love with food when she and her husband moved to France, because it was just so good. It was so much more thought out and finessed than American food was, and her love affair with it is just delightful to read. The way she describes the tastes and smells had me wishing I could be right there in France along with her, tasting that fish with the perfect buttery sauce.

You learn all about the process of learning to cook for her, in Paris at Le Cordon Bleu. She didn't grow up knowing how to cook, she just learned it all! I hadn't known that. The book also goes through the years-long process of writing her first cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

I gobbled this book up! If you enjoyed watching Child on TV or the movie Julie & Julia or you just love the romanticism of cooking and French cuisine, you'll love this one. Five stars.

See my full review here: http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2017/10/review-life-france/

Heavenly inspiration! I want to be just like Julia Child, not for her cooking but for her enthusiasm for life. She doesn't know things and isn't afraid to ask (huge failing of mine), and when she sets about learning things she does so whole-heartedly. Not just with cooking - she didn't learn to cook a drop until she was 36!! - but in art and world affairs and foreign cultures. Truly, she seems to have said yes to living life, and I think she would have been the best of fun to know.

My favorite bit of advice: “I don't believe in twisting yourself into knots of excuses and explanations over the food you make. When one's hostess starts in with self-depreciations such as “Oh, I don't know how to cook...,” or “Poor little me..,” or “This may taste awful...” it is so dreadful to have to reassure her that everything is delicious and fine, whether it is or not. Besides, such admissions only draw attention to one's shortcomings (or self-perceived shortcomings), and make the other person think, “Yes, you're right, this really IS an awful meal!” Maybe the cat has fallen into the stew, or the lettuce has frozen, or the cake has collapsed - eh bien, tant pis!” (p. 77).

Short review: I loved this book! I highly recommend it. I spent weeks cooking after reading this book because I was so inspired. She had her first cooking lesson at 36!

A longer review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/julia-childs-my-life-in-france/