Product Description

The delicious life of one of the most beloved figures in twentiethcentury American culture-soon to be played by Meryl Streep in a major motion picture

With a swooping voice, an irrepressible sense of humor, and a passion for good food, Julia Child ushered in the nation's culinary renaissance. In Julia Child, award-winning food writer Laura Shapiro tells the story of Child's unlikely career path, from California party girl to coolheaded chief clerk in a World War II spy station to bewildered amateur cook and finally to the Cordon Bleu in Paris, the school that inspired her calling. A food lover who was quintessentially American, right down to her little-known recipe for classic tuna fish casserole, Shapiro's Julia Child personifies her own most famous lesson: that learning how to cook means learning how to live.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42667 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780143116448
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"Shows enormous grace and food savvy...Reading Shapiro reminds us how Julia Child taught us not just how to cook but how to think about food."
--New York Times Book Review

"Laura Shapiro's biography of Julia Child is as bright, smart, funny, charming, and companionable as Julia herself."
-Dorie Greenspan, author of Baking with Julia

"Shapiro's graceful little book should be seen as the definitive analysis of Julia Child's long career."
-Pittsburgh Post- Gazette

About the Author
Laura Shapiro is a journalist and historian whose work has appeared in many publications, including Newsweek, The New York Times, and Gourmet. She is the author of Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century and Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America.

Customer Reviews

A disappointment
Having recently re-read "My Life in France" by Julia herself, I was disappointed that most of the information in this book is taken from Julia's book, with the exception, for example, of the fact that Julia was initially (and in common with American cultural norms of the time) an open homophobe and that she was against the emerging organic food movement, being more in sympathy with mass producers of meats, fruits and vegetables. While it might be important, for the historical record, to present a more rounded picture of Julia than she presents herself (and than we gained from watching her on TV), the effort to "bring her down a peg or two" seems almost contrived.

If you haven't read "My Life in France," buy it instead of this book. If you have, buy one of Julia's cookbooks that you don't already own. Both give more and longer-lasting pleasure.

Dull and dry
This biography of Julia Child reads like it was written for a junior high school term paper. Written entirely in unchanging third-person narrative, the reader sees, "Julia did this. Julia did that. She went here, and there. And then she went over here. To do that."
Sources are not cited in the text.
Lacking any photos except for the cover, this volume is a chore to read.

Dull and pointless
Two big problems. One usually wants a biography to be interesting, to grab your attention, in either a positive or negative (or best, a nuanced) view of the person's life. This book is just dull and pedantic. Julia Child was a fun person who led an interesting life. There's more excitement in the cover picture than the whole rest of the book. (And yes, that is the only photo in the book.)

The second problem is that this volume seems to mostly be a retelling of Julia Child's autobiography with a few controversies (for balance I'd assume) added in. There are quite a few people who could be interviewed to add to it. What did the television folks working with her think of her? Other chefs? People who were inspired to cook by Julia Child's books and shows? They're not here in this book.