As Always, Julia is a novel containing the intimate letters between Chef Julia Child and her friend, cookbook critic Avis DeVoto. The letters cover their friendship over many years, and their efforts together to write and to publish Ms. Child’s world-renowned cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The book starts with a simple reply from Mrs. Child to Avis DeVoto’s husband, Bernard, on his article on American cooking knives. From there, Julia and Avis begin a life long pen pal relationship. The two women intimately discuss everything from cooking to politics to sex. Chock-full of cooking tips and life lessons, As Always, Julia is an emotional and spiritual journey through the struggles and efforts of two women who share the same passion. The aim of this book is to convey how strong the written word and a shared passion can be- strong enough to form a life-long friendship.
Joan Reardon, the editor of As Always, Julia has featured her commentaries in between the different sections of the book. In these commentaries, Ms. Reardon clearly illustrates how beneficial a strong relationship can be when two people passionately wish to accomplish the same goal. She clearly shows how she believes that Julia Child would not have been able to create the cooking masterpiece without the aid of Avis DeVoto. She shows us how valuable the two women are to each other, and how the fruit of friendship forever changed French cuisine.
The quality of the contents of this book varies. On one hand, the book does achieve its purpose of having the reader connect with Avis and Julia. The letters provide insight to their thoughts, and are easily connectable to the reader’s life. Joan Reardon greatly aids the story flow with her sub notes explaining various historical occurrences that the main audience might not otherwise know about. And finally, the best touch of this book is the frequent cooking tips and recipes provided by Julia and Avis. (I personally found Julia’s tip of letting a roast rest before carving to be very useful. The roast retained much more of its natural juice.)
On the other hand, I found the book to be rather dull and repetitive at some points. The average person can only listen to middle aged women discuss the differences between European and American produce so many times before tiring of it. As Always, Julia lacks the gripping quality found in other great books. You really must share Julia and Avis’s passion for cooking if you are to find this novel fascinating.
As Always, Julia is a great documentation of the materializing of a cooking masterpiece. This unique form of a biography in letters gives a great twist to the usual story of an author and a chef. Overall, this book was cute and entertaining. But if you’re not a chef, and you’re looking for something gripping, this isn’t it.
As Always, Julia is a novel containing the intimate letters between Chef Julia Child and her friend, cookbook critic Avis DeVoto. The letters cover their friendship over many years, and their efforts together to write and to publish Ms. Child’s world-renowned cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The book starts with a simple reply from Mrs. Child to Avis DeVoto’s husband, Bernard, on his article on American cooking knives. From there, Julia and Avis begin a life long pen pal relationship. The two women intimately discuss everything from cooking to politics to sex. Chock-full of cooking tips and life lessons, As Always, Julia is an emotional and spiritual journey through the struggles and efforts of two women who share the same passion. The aim of this book is to convey how strong the written word and a shared passion can be- strong enough to form a life-long friendship.
ReplyDeleteJoan Reardon, the editor of As Always, Julia has featured her commentaries in between the different sections of the book. In these commentaries, Ms. Reardon clearly illustrates how beneficial a strong relationship can be when two people passionately wish to accomplish the same goal. She clearly shows how she believes that Julia Child would not have been able to create the cooking masterpiece without the aid of Avis DeVoto. She shows us how valuable the two women are to each other, and how the fruit of friendship forever changed French cuisine.
The quality of the contents of this book varies. On one hand, the book does achieve its purpose of having the reader connect with Avis and Julia. The letters provide insight to their thoughts, and are easily connectable to the reader’s life. Joan Reardon greatly aids the story flow with her sub notes explaining various historical occurrences that the main audience might not otherwise know about. And finally, the best touch of this book is the frequent cooking tips and recipes provided by Julia and Avis. (I personally found Julia’s tip of letting a roast rest before carving to be very useful. The roast retained much more of its natural juice.)
On the other hand, I found the book to be rather dull and repetitive at some points. The average person can only listen to middle aged women discuss the differences between European and American produce so many times before tiring of it. As Always, Julia lacks the gripping quality found in other great books. You really must share Julia and Avis’s passion for cooking if you are to find this novel fascinating.
As Always, Julia is a great documentation of the materializing of a cooking masterpiece. This unique form of a biography in letters gives a great twist to the usual story of an author and a chef. Overall, this book was cute and entertaining. But if you’re not a chef, and you’re looking for something gripping, this isn’t it.