Backstage With Julia My Years With Julia Child

ChefTalk.com · #1 10-06-2007, 02:53 PM

Review of Backstage With Julia My Years With Julia Child by Nancy Verde Barr

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Mezzaluna · #2 10-06-2007, 09:19 PM

After reading this review, I know this book is a must-have for me. Thanks for posting it!

bluezebra · #3 10-07-2007, 12:59 PM

Mezza I really hope you read it. I had so much fun with her! It was a quick read too.

Mezzaluna · #4 10-07-2007, 02:06 PM

I ordered last night.

bluezebra · #5 10-07-2007, 05:21 PM

Yay! I can't wait to hear how you like it! I also posted about Cheftalk and the review on my blog Mulligan Stew Me and linked over to the main site here as well as to the review! So a little more press for Cheftalk. I also told them they could order directly from Amazon here.

Good times!

Mezzaluna · #6 10-11-2007, 08:50 AM

What a nice review, bluezebra! I received the book yesterday and will make time to read it very soon. I read the biography Appetite for Life some years ago and welcome another chance to read about this remarkable woman. I highly recommend that book to you.

KCZ · #7 10-13-2007, 11:56 AM

Mezzaluna, have you read My Life in France, which is Julia's autobiography? It's much better than Appetite for Life, IMHO. I definitely want to read this new book too.

bluezebra · #8 10-13-2007, 03:45 PM

I really want to read My Life In France. This book is less biography and more of a personal glimpse into...

Hope you like it!

BZ

Mezzaluna · #9 10-13-2007, 03:50 PM

KCZ, no I haven't yet. Appetite for Life was okay- not a tour de force- but it was interesting.

phoebe · #10 10-14-2007, 12:29 PM

I agree; My Life in France is a wonderful book! Even though Julia's grandnephew, Alex Prud'homme, wrote it with her and finished it after her death, he utterly captured her way of speaking. The stories are fascinating and revealing, both in what they do and don't say. She's such a wonderful (and earthy) story-teller, and I loved her invented words like how she arrived at her first class at the Cordon Bleu "snozzling from a cold."

KCZ · #11 10-15-2007, 06:54 PM

If you enjoyed that, you should read "The Apprentice" by Jacques Pepin, which is just as good.

phoebe · #12 10-16-2007, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KCZ

If you enjoyed that, you should read "The Apprentice" by Jacques Pepin, which is just as good.

I have and I agree. It's really interesting to compare the books of these two friends. Both books are episodic and neither writer comes across as particularly introspective. Jacques is a prankster (something you may not pick up on if your only exposure is through television) and Julia is a riot. Both leave out a lot of what many readers might consider to be important personal details (her breast cancer, for example) but those choices reveal a lot about who they are. Jacques tells us more about his friends than his wife and daughter, and Julia holds little back about her difficult relationship with her conservative father.
They're both forward-looking people who would rather move on to the next interesting project than reflect on what's over and done with. It's rather refreshing