Some of you might be familiar with this story because of the movie that came out last summer... and maybe some of you have even read the book! I admit that I have both seen the movie and now, obviously, have read the book. I enjoyed the movie but felt myself more interested in the segments that focused on Julia Child rather than Julie Powell. This made me not a little nervous about actually enjoying the book which, as you can imagine, is almost completely focused on Julie Powell and really, only remotely focused on Julia Child.
That said, I enjoyed this book quite a bit. I started off really sort of annoyed with Julie Powell. There was a lot of whining and simpering and what seemed to me, a lot of feeling sorry for herself. It's the story we've all heard before - she's almost 30 and disillusioned with her life, crappy job, and only passable apartment. I know what she means but I've never been fond of the "woe is me" sort of mentality around life. She had, from what I can tell, a not unusual life for someone in their late 20s with a liberal arts degree. In fact, she had a nice husband (or so it seemed), a steady life, and enough flexibility to undertake a ridiculous, expensive endeavour. So, there's that.
But getting to that endeavour... that, clearly, is 100% something I can relate to. I love measurable goals and I love ridiclous chronicling of a quest. I enjoyed reading about the debacles that came with each recipe and in the end, found myself identifying with some of her thought processes. Through her quest, I came to identify more with her as a human being. Typical art vs. the artist issue.
The bottom line here is that I really enjoyed reading this book. I finished it quickly because I thought about it frequently and I sincerely wanted to find out what happened next. It was enjoyable and entertaining, if not earth shattering in terms of actual content or literary worth. It's worth a read.
Click here to read a review of Julie & Julia on the blog Joy Discovered
Click here to read another review on The Kid's Got Moxie
Click here to buy Julie & Julia on Amazon
*Author's note: I have to admit to you that my reading of Julie Powell might very well have been tainted by her most recent book, only now coming out. From what I can tell, her latest book is about the affair she had with some man and its eventual effect on her life, state of mind, and marriage with the aforementioned nice husband. I'm the first to admit that life is complicated and things we don't want to happen, do... but there is a part of me that doesn't want to read Julie Powell's new book and is sad for her husband to have this put out there. That said, I can't pretend I know what is right or okay for them. But, it definitely affected how I viewed Julie's character in Julie & Julia.
I will also note, just so you all know, that there is a blog out there devoted to, essentially, trashing Julie Powell (mostly because of her affair). I'm not going to link to it because it seems pretty petty to me. Turns out, there are infallible people in the world.
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5 months ago
I don't hate Julie Powell but I still want to read that blog! Heh. Can you give me a hint so all this Googling works out better for me? :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link, by the way, and for stopping by. What's your reading project?
I don't know if you use WhosTalkin.com but I use it a lot to find blogs with comments on the books I'm reading - how I found you! It's a good search site and incorporate Twitter and everything too. If you search for "Julie Powell" in Whostalkin.com you'll probably see the blog that harshes on her - if not, let me know. I'll send you a link. =)
ReplyDeleteI'm very goal oriented so my goal for 2010 is to read 52 books - one a week. I read 41 in 2009 so it's a different sort of goal. Last year it was quantity of pages. This year? Maybe I'll expand my horizons a bit, bookwise.