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DiscountDelight - My Life in France
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List Price: $25.95
Our Price: $11.99
Your Save: $ 13.96 ( 54% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Knopf
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9781400043460
ISBN: 1400043468
Label: Knopf
Manufacturer: Knopf
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: 2006-04-04
Publisher: Knopf
Release Date: 2006-04-04
Studio: Knopf
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Almost as good as having Julia back with us
Comment: It was Julia Child who taught a generation of us how to cook, and my, how we still miss her. This lovely book, wonderfully edited by Alex Prud'homme, is a collection of Julia's recollections, mainly from France, in the early years of her culinary exploits. As such, it is a fascinating read and a delightful experience. Amd Paul Child's photographs of the younger Julia and Paris in the 1960s alone is worth the price, almost. My only qualm with the book is that I wonder how much is actually Child and how much in Prud'home. Certainly, with any book published posthumously, one must wonder. But it's certainly a worthwhile addition to any Julia Child fan's library.
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Summary: Charming and delightful, just like its author
Comment: What a delightful read! Just made me feel good all over to read the story of how Julia Child's career got started and the years that followed--her books, TV shows, and all that. Her love affair with food, France, and life were a joy to read. It helps if you have some familiarity with French (which, alas, I don't), but it doesn't take away from the lovely writing and the story itself. If Julia and French cooking interest you, you are bound to enjoy this book as much as I did.
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Summary: Delightful and Revealing Memoir. A foodie must read!
Comment: `My Life in France', a memoir by Julia Child, assisted by grand-nephew Alex Prud'homme is, as the title suggests, nowhere near a complete autobiography, yet it is a more than welcome look at a very important part of the life of one of America's most important culinary writers of this or any other time.
My overwhelming impression when reading the book is that it peels away the third and deepest layer of understanding of that which made Julia Child the major influence she became. The topmost layer, known by virtually all literate Americans is the host of the PBS series `The French Chef' and its various sequels. Virtually all foodies and culinary professionals know the second layer. This is the co-author of the great `Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume I', the sole author of the second volume, and the author or co-author of many other books, whose best-known latter day collaborator was master chef and educator, Jacques Pepin. The third layer, which is just barely touched by the biography of Child, `Appetite for Life' by Noel Riley Fitch, completed while Julia was alive, but with no assistance from her, is the story behind why the seminal `Mastering the Art of French Cooking' was such a great work and how Child is almost exclusively responsible for that greatness. Anyone who doubts the stature of the book can read the excerpt of Craig Claiborne's review of the book in `The New York Times' on page 230. It is clear from this statement that the quality of the book was recognized at once, and we can be thankful that the book found its way to the august and respected publisher of major new literature, Alfred Knopf, by way of its new editor, Judith Jones. Thus, the book was given a good look by the likes of Claiborne and other culinary opinion-makers of the day.
What previous biographical material does not make clear is the extent to which Child was responsible for creating an important new standard for recipe writing for the amateur cook, the amount of research Child (and Simone Beck) did on all recipes, even those so basic as mayonnaise and beurre blanc, the extent to which Child crafted the techniques and ingredient lists to American markets, and the extent to which Child steered the selection of recipes to be a truly interesting reflection of the true `cuisine bourgeois', in spite of frequent objections from the original French author, Mme. Beck (Simca).
According to co-author Prud'homme's introduction, the work is based heavily on the letters between Julia and Paul Child to their family members in the US, primarily Paul's twin brother, Charlie and his wife. This is also evident from the text where, here and there, we find frequent references to letters, especially those between Paul and Charlie. Most of the remaining material is purely from Madame Child's recollections.
True to the title of the book, it begins in November 1948, as Julia and Paul arrive in La Harve, France in order that Paul may take up his position running the cultural exhibits for the USIS out of the American embassy in Paris. This means it covers none of Julia's earlier life, up to and including her service in World War II as a clerk in the Far East for the wartime OSS (precursor to the CIA) and her courtship with and marriage to Paul. The lion's share of the book covers these first years in Paris and the following posting to the Consulate in Marseilles as the public affairs officer (PAO). This is the period where Julia discovers the joys of French cooking, finds her calling as a culinary teacher in her dedication to becoming a good cook for her gourmand husband, and establishes her writing collaboration with Frenchwomen Beck and Louisette Bertholle. What may not be well known is the fact that Beck and Bertholle were working on a collection of French recipes for years before hooking up with Child, to whom they went in order to have someone adapt the volume to American tastes. On the face of it, one may think that Child hijacked the project and ideas of her co-authors, especially as the arrangement with Knopf was that all royalties were to be paid to Child, who would then distribute funds to her co-authors. But, this book and the earlier biography make it fairly clear that without Julia Child and her contacts that lead to the connection with Knopf, the book would never have been.
The work is not scholarly, and it is not even a good source for future biographers, but as it is a record taken directly from Mme. Child herself, it shows all the great love of food and life so evident to everyone who has ever seen Julia on TV or read her many books. One can only hope that this volume will not inhibit someone from writing a more definitive biography of `Le Grand Julia'.
After the publication of `Mastering the Art ...', the book largely deals with the Childs' life in the little home, La Pitchoune, in Provence up to June, 1992, when Paul was no longer healthy enough to appreciate the venue and when so many of Child's culinary comrades were slipping off to the `great Blue Yonder' and Provence was rapidly being turned into a copy of life in California.
One more interesting aspect of the narrative later in the book is the description of the great friendship between Child and the second member of the great American culinary troika, James Beard (The third was Craig Claiborne). Beard was often a great source of information for Child, as he had a great memory of tastes from his long career as a culinary writer and consultant.
This is easily identified as a `must read' for all foodies, especially those who have not yet achieved an appreciation of Child's great contribution to American food writing.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Cherie Julia...
Comment: I just finished this jewel. And I'm mourning that there's not more to read. Never having read any of her other material and discovering that Julia and I were in Paris and the south of France at the same time.... I feel as though I've lost "une bonne ami" even though we differ by decades in age.
What I loved most was her attitude which oozed "joie de vivre". Julia was lover of adventure with a marvelously open mind. One cannot but be impressed with the way she seized opportunity and the confidence with which she carried herself in spite of being in a foreign environment.
Maybe that was some of Paul's doing. Short, older and balding, Paul Child was a gentle artist and poet, comfortable in his own skin and a wonderful mentor. Surely others are struck by the emotional and physical support of his wife that we see in Paul. I treasure this book for the intimate view of a unique maturing marriage of two humble yet fascinating people who stayed deeply in love for the duration.
I didn' t know Julia Child's life at all until I read this book. And I was thrilled to read that like my husband and I, the Child's fell in love with the South of France and had to set up a household there.
Next time we go I'm making a pilgrimage to see where these two sweet, joyful people lived and loved... Meanwhile, I'm buying copies of My Life in France for my favorite friends and highly recommending it to anyone who will listen.
Donna Delfino Dugay
Customer Rating:
Summary: what happened to juila???
Comment: am i the only person not to like this book? not the julia i knew, there is a sourness to it, and not very well edited . some pictures have captions, and some do not, some french is translated and some is not. Paul's painting were pretty good, they are refereed to but never seen . julia child had breast cancer in the 70s, it was a very big deal for her ,as it is for all woman, and it is not even mentioned. weston thomas
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Editorial Reviews:
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In her own words, here is the captivating story of Julia Child’s years in France, where she fell in love with French food and found ‘her true calling.’
From the moment the ship docked in Le Havre in the fall of 1948 and Julia watched the well-muscled stevedores unloading the cargo to the first perfectly soigné meal that she and her husband, Paul, savored in Rouen en route to Paris, where he was to work for the USIS, Julia had an awakening that changed her life. Soon this tall, outspoken gal from Pasadena, California, who didn’t speak a word of French and knew nothing about the country, was steeped in the language, chatting with purveyors in the local markets, and enrolled in the Cordon Bleu.
After managing to get her degree despite the machinations of the disagreeable directrice of the school, Julia started teaching cooking classes herself, then teamed up with two fellow gourmettes, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, to help them with a book they were trying to write on French cooking for Americans. Throwing herself heart and soul into making it a unique and thorough teaching book, only to suffer several rounds of painful rejection, is part of the behind-the-scenes drama that Julia reveals with her inimitable gusto and disarming honesty.
Filled with the beautiful black-and-white photographs that Paul loved to take when he was not battling bureaucrats, as well as family snapshots, this memoir is laced with wonderful stories about the French character, particularly in the world of food, and the way of life that Julia embraced so wholeheartedly. Above all, she reveals the kind of spirit and determination, the sheer love of cooking, and the drive to share that with her fellow Americans that made her the extraordinary success she became.
Le voici. Et bon appétit!
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