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My Life in France by Julia Child  |
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Julia Child can easily be credited as the catalyst of the TV food chef personality, paving the way for Emeril, Paula Dean, and their contemporaries, even a whole network. First published in 2006, her autobiography abounds with the enthusiasm only Julia Child could radiate as she details her passion for French cooking and how she brought its art to American cooks. My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme (Anchor Books, 2009) is the newest paperback edition published this summer to tie in with the movie Julie & Julia, released in theaters August 7, 2009.
Late in the year 1948 as a war-ravaged Europe was picking up the pieces and rebuilding after decades of fighting, Paul Child and his wife Julia set sail for Paris, France where he was employed by the United States government to work at the American embassy in Paris promoting French-American relations. During their first night in France, Paul took Julia to a well-respected French restaurant and there introduced her to the delicacies of French cuisine. The flavors that rolled around on her tongue that first night ignited in her a desire to learn the secrets of the art that is French cooking.
My Life in France is full of personal anecdotes, the love of two people, Julia’s relationships with the people that influenced her career—both good and bad—as well as a historical tracking point of the politics that shaped and affected Americans and Europeans post-1945.
Julia was from a privileged background but rebelled against her father’s way of life. The friction between Julia and her father underlies the entire story and provides an unflattering side of her. Paul was the opposite type of man her father wanted her to marry. Paul came from a hard-working middle class background and had worked his way around the world before he met Julia. Their childhoods are briefly relayed in little snippets throughout the book but the story mostly centers on their life together, their passion for each other, and their second passion for food. Paul was there right alongside Julia as a sort of silent partner as she worked her way towards cooking excellence and fame. He of course ate her food and responded to it, and he did some of the photography and artistry that went into her published work and on TV.
The coauthor of the book, Alex Prud’homme, is Paul Child’s grandnephew and both he and Julia wrote introductions for the book explaining their purpose for writing it. The book was published almost two years after her death with Prud’homme finishing the final year on the book without her. There are times where Julia’s voice changes, as it’s written in first person by her, so it’s not a seamless narrative as no one could replicate the energy in Julia’s voice that made her so endearing.
The new Anchor edition was printed to coincide as part of the promotion of the movie Julie & Julia and it lacks the pictures in previous editions. You’ll have to pick up older editions of this book to see the pictures that were originally printed with it.
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