My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme

                This is a book I tried to read quite awhile ago.  I do not know if it was not what I was in the mood for at the time, or if it was something else that made me stop reading.  No matter what the reason, it was not for lack of interest.  Which is why when I saw this as a book on CD at the library, I knew I had to pick it up.

                My Life in France is about how Julia Child became Julia Child.  She began by moving to France with her husband for his work.  While there she made many lifelong friends and the important decision to enter culinary school.  After her studies and years of enjoying French food, she came up with the idea to write a cookbook.  This project took years of work and revisions as well as battles with publishers.  Ms. Child’s original vision of her cookbook was quite different from the publishing world’s.  In the end everything comes together.  Ms. Child becomes a huge success and a beloved culinary figure.  Sadly, with all the good things, there were some bad.  With her success, one of her dear friendships became very strained and their working relationship needed to be reevaluated.

                While I found Ms. Child’s rise quite interesting, I was most fascinated by the relationship between Ms. Child and her husband, Paul.  No matter what was happening, they stuck by each other’s sides until Paul’s death.  There was not much discussion about his death in the book, but I can only imagine that it affected Ms. Child greatly.

                To be honest, I am not fully sure I heard the whole book.  I believe what I listened to was abridged.  That does not really matter to me.  I am just glad I got to hear the rest of what I started so long ago.  It was fascinating to learn how an “ordinary” person became such an icon.  In my view it came down to two things, hard work and being herself.  This I must always remember.