As I’ve mentioned, I was re-reading Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. I finished it.
I really enjoyed this the first time around. In fact, I read it with friends, and then had them over for a dinner in which we each contributed a dish made from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This was in 2009, around the time the movie was coming out (I think we read it before the release date but I can’t be sure… I do know I finished it before seeing the movie).
Julia Child
Reading the book then compared to now is different for a few reasons. First, when I originally read the book, I wasn’t very familiar with Julia Child. I knew who she was, of course, but though she was famous, she was not as popular as she is now (or was back when she had her TV show). Second, I didn’t have the movie to fill in gaps and add flavor to the characters (for better or worse). Third, I was the same age then as Julie was when she started the project back in 2002… it felt very appropriate to be reading it at that time.
Being more familiar with Julia Child brought so much to this story. I got why Julie relied on her; why she was so inspired by her and loved her so much. It makes a lot of difference to know that person behind the mission struggled to find her way as well, but found it – and wow, did she find it. This strong personality who didn’t give up; who had an adventurous spirit and the grounding of good love, and a confidence to match anyone’s. One can imagine how she bolstered Julie’s will to try something new and daring and hard.
Having watched the movie so.many.times. I think I understood the dynamics better this time with the reading. Are these the real people? Of course not, I know that, BUT you can get a sense of the person. Julie Powell is not as quirky-cute as Nora Ephron’s version of her, but as I re-read the book – I can see which pieces of Julie Ms. Ephron pulled. And there is a part of Julie that is cute (though, I imagine she wouldn’t like to be called that), and she is very quirky… and funny, in a way that Ephron didn’t really change, she just fleshed out. Seeing Paul, who is such a little part in Powell’s book, but, of course, a much larger part of Julia’s book My Life in France, made Julia all the more real in the book; it helped to see the person who was encouraging her, who she was coming home to, who she was inspired by.
Julie Powell
At the time of the first reading, when I was the same age as Julie when she started her cooking project, I was starting my blog. I thought it was very fitting and I felt a camradery. I was wrong. I can see that now, five years down the road. What I was doing was starting a new career, as a writer. What Julie was doing was challenging herself to try something that she loved for a finite period of time to jumpstart her life – to get her out of her daily grind. It’s something that I didn’t need back then because I was starting a new career… my life was being shaken up already. Hers was facing stagnation. There is some beauty in sameness, the ability to count on something or someone, but it’s difficult when everything in your life is never-changing. When Julia died, Powell wrote this on her blog: “I have no claim over the woman at all, unless it’s the claim one who has nearly drowned has over the person who pulled her out of the ocean.” In the movie, this line is used when Julie and Eric are having a conversation on the bed after Julie gets the phone call from the reporter in California saying Julia doesn’t approve of the project. Ehpron made the line humorous by making it seem like Julie was over-reacting, but in the book we see that Julie really did feel this way. That she really was drowning in an ocean of monotony – and that can be a dangerous place to be (maybe more-so for some than others).
And so I get this project in a way that I didn’t the first time I read the book, or even when I was beginning it again. I felt confused as to why Julie would put so much time, effort, and dramatic emotion (and possibly her relationship) on the line for it. But I think I now understand that it was important for her to have something to look forward to each day – even if it was a challenge, even if it was frustrating. And the ability to have an accomplishment, a real accomplishment, everyday is a valuable thing; as is the ability to have small victories that bring you to an ultimate goal (finishing the book in the year), and a support system that roots you on (the readers of her blog).
So needless to say, I loved it. I’m sure I’ll read it again someday… and now I’m hungry for more Julia Child and more cooking-centric books!
Filed under: Non-Fiction Tagged: cooking, food, Julia Child, Julie Powell