I 
received this book, written by Julie Powell, as a Christmas present, and was pretty excited to read it. It took me about a week of falling asleep two pages at a time (I read at bedtime) to decide it probably wouldn’t be making my top ten list this year.
It wasn’t the topic. The book is based on Julie Powell’s decision to cook and blog her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year. What a hook!She undertook this endeavor beginning in August of 2002 when blogging was still new, and her blog reflects that (you can visit her original blog here). I did enjoy skimming her blog after reading the book.
But the book.
Julie is not a likeable character (and, I assume, not a likeable person in real life?) Her chapters on cooking reflect her inexperience as a cook and are fun to read. But everything else is an awful lot of whining. She hates her job, her apartment, her husband (at times), has problems with her mother and friends and coworkers. She swears a lot. I don’t have a problem with that. I’m just saying.
She intersperses a few pages here and there with stories about Julia Child’s early life and her decision to become a chef. More of that would have been appreciated. After reading the book, I wanted to know more about Julia Child so I googled her. PBS has a few of her old cooking shows available to watch, and I watched one called Elegant Eggs which was so laughably inferior and unpretentious compared to today’s cooking shows, but I swear I couldn’t stop watching it!
The book ended well, the author wrapped everything up neatly and satisfactorily, and now it’s a movie starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams (which I haven’t seen yet).
Would I suggest you read it? Sure. It was light, fun reading, perfect for the beach or someone interested in cooking or someone who doesn’t have high expectations for their reading material. Do I think Julie Powell should have whined less, written more about Julia and her own cooking experiences? Definitely yes.
Bon Appetit et Bonne Lecture!
3 comments:
Beth, so good to know! I would like to see the movie and I think I'll skip the book! I did hear the kitchen in the movie it beautiful!!
Maybe this would be good for a movie night (hint hint)!!
Beth, I chuckled when I read this post, as I am still trudging my way through this book. I guess I'll keep going (at least a bit longer, anyway!)
Saw the movie and they definitely toned her down to be more likable, but she's never really protrayed as someone you could just be BFFs with. Now I won't waste my time with the book. I'll force myself to continue reading Twilight instead.
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