My Life In France

Author: Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme
ISBN: 1-4000-4346-8
Year Published: 2006
Date Read: 3/22/08
Why I Read This Book: I have an interest in cooking and have enjoyed and used Julia Child's cookbooks
Number of Pages: 302
File Under: Autobiography, France, cooking, Child

Comments: This book came to me from a dear friend who knew of my interest in cooking. After all, she had supped many times at our house and enjoyed hours of entertainment which often accompanied the meal.

I was first introduced to Julia Child through the spoofs of her cooking shows on Saturday Night Live. Even with that introduction, Julia Child seemed interesting. I happened to find some of her shows on Public Television as I travelled about. She was direct, fun, polite, no nonsense, and told a story with every recipe. Her food looked delicious and her descriptions allowed you to smell the meals through the TV screen. She loved teaching, she loved food, and you got the sense she loved life. My Life in France provides us with the background of Ms. Child's life which led to the cookbook which led to the cooking shows on Public Television in Boston which led to the spoofs on SNL.

The book was co-written with the grandson of the twin of her husband, Paul. Paul had died in 1994 after a long marriage to Julia. They had embarked together on a foreign services posting to Paris in 1948 after World War II. The couple enjoyed all that France and Paris had to offer. For Julia the food was a new sensation which she had never experienced. Her home, growing up, had been a meat and potatoes operation with little need or interest for innovation. When she hit France she ate sole meuniere for the first time and was hooked. She wanted to be able to experience this mouth based sensation over and over again.

She tells us about every wonderful sight, sound, and taste experienced by Julia. There are many superlatives used in this book. Everything is wonderful, most delightful, more beautiful than can be imagined, or tremendous. The book was written from Julia's memory and from snippets taken from the hundreds of letters sent by Paul to his twin brother while Julia and Paul were in France together. As of the writing of this book, Julia has lost Paul to the great beyond and she has been away from her home in France for over a decade. I do not begrudge the author for painting a plus positive picture of France. If perchance Julia only had wonderful memories then that is how the story should be told.

The underpaid couple set up a household in Paris in a centuries old building which had survived the War. Paul has been a fancier of good food and wine and has traveled more than Julia. As a result, Paul is always introducing Julia to new chefs, restaurants, and taste sensations. Julia is smitten but then wants nothing more than to learn about this great passion the French have for food. She wants to learn the artistry of the great chefs. She signs up for classes in Paris' Cordon Bleu school.

The experience there is not a very good one for Julia or for any women at that time. She does learn fundamental skills and makes friends. It appears that Julia made friends throughout her life and also managed to keep these friends for decades. She opens her own cooking school, on a small scale, in her apartment with good buddies Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. Simone and Louisette ask Julia to participate with them in writing the ultimate book on French cooking. My Life In France takes you through those many years in Julia's life from when she first landed in France (1948) through the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961) until Julia and her family shut down their home in the French countryside in 1992.

In the process, Julia and Paul receive different assignments in France and have to move from Paris to Marseille to Germany. By the time the couple is assigned to Germany, Julia, Simone and Louisette are well along their way in writing their book. Julia takes an all too scientific approach to defining the recipes. She has the task of converting the ingredients only found in Europe to American equivalents. That task is more than just changing metric measures to quarts and ounces but also involves trying to find American canned equivalents to many of the uniquely French foods found in their markets or on the wharf.

The book often reads like a travelogue but carries us through the entire process of writing (with two other authors) and then publishing a cook book unlike any other previously written. Once the cookbook is published and the trio of authors become a success, there is a demand for another book and Julia gets invited to start a cooking show on Public Television in Boston, which obtains its own success. The book tells us about Julia throughout her successful career. By the time My Life In France was published, Julia had died in 2004. Many personal details appear in the autobiogrpahy, so it appears that Julia poured much of her memories into the book. You can hear her voice when you turn each page.

There are many delightful aspects of this book. Julia met and feasted with almost all of the great chefs in France and in America. They shared their love for food, their recipes, and would cook for each other when they got together. One feast after another in recounted in mouth watering detail. Julia never went to or left a location in France without giving the greatest details of the colors, smells and tastes she experienced in each locale.

Paul was an accomplished photographer. The pictures appear grain by today's standards but they show the well trained eye of the journeyman shutterbug. His pictures are mostly of Julia so you get to see her grow up as a woman. The couple had a practice of sending Valentine cards to all of their friends with a posed photograph showing some aspect of their love. One such picture appears on the front of the book. Others are stuck deep inside. There is a lot of love in this book.

If you are hungry, read this book. If you have never experienced French food, read this book. If you have an interest in post-WWII France read this book. If you want to read an upbeat story about a treasure of a woman read this book.

Born Standing Up - A Comic's Life

Author: Martin, Steve
ISBN: 978-1416553649
Year Published: 2007
Date Read: 28 January 2008
File Under: Autobiography
Why did I read this book? It was a gift from my sister-in-law.
Number of pages: 207, with a large font and widely spaced lines (I guess he did not want two novellas in a row.)
Not recommended.

Comments: Why did Steve Martin write this book? I don't know. Why did I read this book? Steve martin was a hilarious hoot who created great self-deprecating comedy for many years (and my sister-in-law gave the book to me for Christmas). Why did I read this book all the way to the finish? I hoped it would get better. It did not.

I had heard that Shop Girl, also by Martin, was well written and reviewed. That is as close as I got. As my hair color reveals that I would have been young when Steve Martin was popular, the book appeared to be an appropriate gift for a man known for his own gags, now and then. I thought the book would be funny, insightful, entertaining, an escape from reality and filled with quality prose.

Why would you expect well written text from one successful at delivery of one-liners? When we watched Steve Martin, part of the humor was what we perceived was going on in his head. Why, for example, did he think he was a wild and crazy guy? We went along. Why did he wear that arrow thing? We ignored it along with him. When we so exercised our imagination about what was going on in the comedian’s head we filled in the blanks with our own willingness to find humor and to laugh. Steve Martin did not have to say too much. No long monologues – outlandish behavior for no apparent reason and street theater carried us along on riffs of laughter. We wanted to laugh and saw no reason to hold back. But this book. What happened?

Okay, so it is his biography (and who has not wondered whether the tale of one’s life would be interesting to others) and he did not get along with his Dad. He liked his Mom. You never get the impression that anyone in the family has a big heart pumping out tons of love. There were no hugs, group or otherwise, going on in Southern California when Steve was growing up. If you are looking for profound introspection, it ain’t in this book. If you want insight into the human condition, go reread The Good Earth. If you want to find out about Steve Martin, the bio on Wikipedia is likely more interesting and you can see the end of the article without scrolling down too much.

Born Standing Up provides you with information about every job held by Steve Martin, his companions of the female persuasion, and celebrities cresting in popularity at the same time as this comedian. Maybe it was cathartic for Steve Martin to write the book. Maybe the scene of Steve Martin saying goodbye to his father on his death bed was meant to mean more, but the emotion evoked here was as shallow as a one-liner. I do not mean to detract at all from Steve Martin’s genius. It just does not show up on these pages.

Some other comedian has a rave blurb on the back of the book. I suspect he read other reviews, has spent too much time reading Superman, and that he never opened this book. Pedantic, plodding, dull, dry, narrowly focused, mildly entertaining, historical, mercifully short, sleeping pill, tinder. Steve Martin deserves a better biography.