A few nights ago, I was eating by myself at a standard American restaurant on Broadway. Whenever I eat alone, I make it a point to bring reading material along to make the waiting go by faster (well, really, whenever I go anywhere I like to bring reading material along).
The waitress asked me what I was reading, and I told her, “It’s a memoir by Julia Child.”
She looked at me blankly. “Who’s that?”
“Oh, you know, Julia Child. She’s famous for bringing French cooking to the U.S.” No recognition. “You know that movie Julie and Julia?” Nope.
It left me wondering if I would have recognized Julia Child’s name before I saw the movie. I hope I would have, but I’m not completely sure. But I’m glad I know it now, because her memoir, My Life in France, written with her grandnephew Alex Prud’homme, is so very charming.
Photo by Kaleb Fulgham
The entire time of the hurricane—the lead-up, the storm itself, and the recovery—I was reading this memoir. The personality of Julia Child fairly oozes from the pages. She gushes away about France, about food, about cooking, and her passion is so obvious from her stories. She recounts so many meals she’s enjoyed in the past, course by course.
Her first meal in France, when she was in her mid-thirties, was what set her on the course to becoming a famous chef. I love this fact so much. Because we never know, do we? We never know when we’re going to have an experience, or meet a person, or learn something new, and have a passion ignited within us. It can happen anywhere and anytime; it’s not something that only happens when we are teenagers or freshly adult, it’s not something that has to be planned carefully, or even something that can be anticipated.
I love this idea, too, because it reminds me that all of life is one big adventure. A new subplot could spin off at any time, or a nice bit of character development could take place, or I could begin my grand romance with pumpkin spice chais. Knowing this makes me feel so lucky to be alive.
By the time I finished reading My Life in France, I’d become very fond of Julia Child. I love her personality, her energy, her courage, and her unwillingness to give up. I love how enthusiastic she was, punctuating the text with Yum! and Hooray! and What fun! I love how her passion for food and cooking helped her through the bad times. I love how she spent a lifetime involved in food and cooking and teaching.
And I love some of her philosophy. When she is leaving her country house in France for the last time, do you know what she remembers saying? “I’ve always felt that when I’m done with something I just walk away from it—fin!” She enjoyed what she had to the fullest while she had it, and then let go when it was over. This isn’t a strong point of my own, but I admire her a lot for thinking it, and more importantly, for living it.
All in all, I can’t imagine a better book for me to be reading in the middle of a hurricane.
What about you? What have you been reading lately?
The Practical Free Spirit 
I must get the Julia book as i love her story and acheivements. Imagine not knowing about her!
I’ve been enjoying an old book (published 1982 or so!) a collection of stories by E B White called One Man’s Meat…it is dated of course…circa 1939 or so…some stuff seems a little politically out of date…but still so well written….another oldie…by Sylvia Plath….collection of poetry, prose, short stories and diary excerpts….Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams ( interesting , off beat, some of it excellent…also The Victoria Reader edited by Michelle Slung…good, old Victorian style tales…some better than others….liked The Wall In The Door by HG Wells…and a new book, A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness…put it aside for awhile….vampires and witches and demons..all brillant folks at Oxford University….I’m reserving judgement but it seems a bit over done….will finish later on. There are more as I read several at a time in great surges of reading and then put them away for awhile.
Wow, I’m impressed by the number and variety of volumes you are reading right now! Usually I can only manage 2 books at a time.
Hope and best wishes to all you know affected by the hurricane.
Thank you!
I had actually heard of Julia Child before that movie, despite zero interest in French cooking. I probably saw her name on a book during my years working at a public library.
Library Trivia: What subject are cookbooks filed under in Dewey? Cookery. Therefore, if you want crock pot recipes you search for crockery cookery.
Lately I’ve been reading books for my two term papers – one on the Hundred Years War and the other on Weimar Germany. I can highly recommend Jackson Spielvogel’s “Hitler and Nazi Germany: A History” (300 pages in a 1/2″ softcover).
For something quick and light to give me a break from the almost nonstop stream of serious nonfiction I’ve read this year, I picked up the 3 volumes of “Brightest Day” (DC crossover comic arc).
I’ve enjoyed many of the books I’ve read this year, but the only ones I’ve read purely for fun (rather than assigned reading, term paper research, or library presentation research) have been two books about people who hiked the AT (“300 Zeroes” and “Skywalker”, with the former being better IMO).
Shameless plug every time this subject comes up on the internet:
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/635686-josh-liller
Crockery Cookery. Heh.
Yup, I remember the days when I read mostly for classes…except during the vacation periods, during which I’d immediately head to the library. 🙂
Interesting. Julia Child does seem like the kind of figure who will be forgotten over time, simply because so much of the public perception comes from her vivid, oversized personality. She was a personage, like, I dunno…Dr. Spock or something. And personages have to fade in order to make room for new ones. But anyway, that’s kind of a sidenote. Maybe I’ll check out this book. It sounds interesting.
Right now I’m reading Agatha Christie’s _The Murder of Roger Ackroyd._ Normally, I don’t care much for plot or suspense-related hooks. When I read a novel, I usually flip to the end in order to see what ends up happening, but in this case I’m actually anxious to know who killed him (and I’m resisting looking up the answer on Wikipedia).
Ooh, Agatha Christie! I grew up on her books so I have a particularly soft spot for them. And that one is one of my favorites.
That’s an interesting thought about Julia Child fading from the public consciousness because her fame came from being a “personality,” so to speak. From reading the memoir, I have the impression that she wouldn’t really mind, would probably just say, “Too bad!” and move right on ahead.
Yeah, I don’t think Julia Child would be too down about that. She didn’t have the kind of tortured life that needs to justify itself by living on through the ages.
[…] Life in France, by Julia Child and Alex Prud’homme I wrote about this book here. This book’s joy comes from the irrepressible personality of Julia Child. I don’t read a lot of […]
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