Child, Julia with Alex Prud’ Homme. (2006). My Life in France.  New York: Knopf. ISBN: 978-1400043460

I picked up an advanced copy of Julie and Julia at the ALA Conference in Chicago in the summer of 2005.  However, while I passed it along to several people to read, including my mother, somehow it didn’t catch my interest at the time.  When My Life in France was published, it caught my attention because of the highly positive reviews, but mostly because my library had bought an audio CD copy, and it fit with my new plan to listen to books in the car m way to and fro.

I loved My Life in France.  The descriptions of Paris living, of the process of learning how to cook and then laboring over the culinary masterpiece that became Master the Art of French Cooking was inspiring and enthralling.  Throw in a wonderful marriage that never lost its passion and romance, and a glimpse into the beginnings of cooking on television, and the book becomes more than just a memoir.  I actually blogged the book at that time.  Here’s what I wrote then:

“Of course, there would be no Mario or any of the other All-Star chefs on the Food Network if someone hadn’t figured out how to show cooking on television.  While listening to Julia Child’s My Life in France, I learned that she had the first truly successful and popular cooking show on television but I learned so much more.  About how she worked for United States Intelligence during WWII.  About how she was never a cook until she and her husband Paul were posted to France and she was exposed to such wonderful food and markets and restaurants and cooks.  About her experiences at the Cordon Bleu and writing the classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  But mostly about her love for France, its people, culture, and food.”

My personal policy is that I usually read the book BEFORE I go to see the movie (or television show or whatever.)  However, there are always exceptions to every rule, right?  When it came to the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, I WANTED to read them, I tried to get into them, but I just couldn’t somehow.  But then I saw a few episodes of the (much too short lived) series on the SciFi channel.  I went to the library the very next day and requested the book and this time I couldn’t read it fast enough.  When I heard there was going to be a movie of Julie and Julia, I thought I should finally read the book.  But I didn’t.  I tried, I did, but–no.  Then I heard it was ALSO going to be based on My Life in France, which I loved and still remembered.  And when I heard that Meryl Street was playing Julia, that was it, I had to go.  (I love movies but I don’t watch very many, I usually only get to the movie theater once or twice a year.)

I saw the movie on the opening weekend, and I loved it.  It was refreshing and funny and different.  And the parts about Julia Child were so well done, and the parts with Julie made me want to, have to finally read the book.  I actually picked up the audio book from the library, and was happy that the author herself was doing the reading.  Very funny, very snarky, with lots of I’m almost 30 what am I doing with my life angst.  I also loved how she portrayed her husband, perhaps because it reminded me of mine:  supportive and encouraging to the point where you want to say leave me alone so I can wallow in self pity but instead he gets you to pick yourself up and DO SOMETHING.

The two stories have such nice parallels, and that is part of what made the movie so good.  The only thing that makes me a little sad is that part of what My Life in France possible and so good was the copious letters that Julia and Paul and their friends and family wrote back and forth and somehow managed to save.  Would something like that even be possible today?  Do people save their e-mails, their instant message and other conversations?

Reviewed from public library copies