My Life in France

Julia Child's memoir (co-written with Alex Prud'homme) shows that she is not MFK Fisher. Then again, who is?

The memoir starts Julia Child's years in post-WWII Paris, where she found her life calling: French cooking. Although the transformation from a non-cook to a gourmet cook was interesting to read, the memoir needed a better editor since it touched upon other topics (Julia's desire to develop herself intellectually - outside of cooking; her years in Norway) that didn't go anywhere. I don't read many memoirs, so perhaps this is just their nature?

The best part of the book was the development of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 2, perhaps because Julia by this time was more self-assured, or simply more mature. In short, although Julia Child was a strong personality, her life simply did not maintain my attention well. Her editor, Judith Jones (she got her break in publishing by discovering Anne Frank) seemed more intersting to me. Too bad there's no biography on her.

I was, however, struck by how some of Julia's comments on politics (Hitler, McCarthy's hunt for communists) resonate even today. For example, living in post-WWII Germany for a few years, Julia was struck by how nice the people were. She wondered, could these be the same people who recently supported Hitler? Her comment made me think of how foreigners must regard the U.S. with the war-mongering Bush as president. As I mentioned before, I don't read many memoirs (or nonfiction, for that matter), but this book inspires me to read more biographies and histories. Who thought a book on a famous cook would do that?